balancerider

Welcome @jharry - the price gap between your E91 and an F31 320d will pay for a lot of maintenance / fuel (would guess you'll get 6-7ish for your current car). The N52 in your car is a sound engine - esp once electric water pump has been replaced. You could replace the suspension on yours for $1500ish and will drive like a new one. OTOH the F3x generation is probably a bit safer and the 320d will be very good on fuel (maybe 5.5-6L/100k combined running). The f3x Gran Turismo model looks gash (IMO) so I'd definitely keep your E91 if that were the alternative, the Gran Coupe on the other hand looks OK but possibly out of budget.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/320d/listing/3117655158 This would be my choice in that budget range. Check the oil service history - long life service (2 yr interval) kills the timing chain on these. Slightly higher and you'll be into cheap F31 320d's - same engine in a slightly bigger car (the E91 will be the same size as your Caldina) with a better (ZF 8 speed) gearbox than the 6 speed auto in the E91 http://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/320d/listing/3108322109

I think it was $250ish with both balls and a storage bag.

Hi John - if you have the BMW OEM detachable bar you can buy the updated towing hook that allows you to swap between 1 7/8" and 50mm balls and has a flat surface for bike rack mount. I got mine through Fabian in parts dept at Coombes Johnston in Hamilton.

@euroriffic Dakar is such a good colour on the e36

@E30 325i Rag-Top I wonder if we might see backtracking when the magnitude of mining all of those rare earths starts to become clear. it's apparent that 'whitegoods' cars are a clear case where EV is better than ICE but I suspect / hope that multiple power sources depending on the application will be the plan going forward... 'JAG' is the Green who comes to mind when I think virulently anti-car (not just ICE powered ones).

On this topic, I can't understand the govt's lack of enthusiasm for converting road to rail freight - especially log trucks. 'Low hanging fruit' right there.

I thought reasonably hard about it at that price.

Manual 328i (slightly abandoned looking)

@leichtbau or golf yellow

Interlagos over beige manual E90 M3 🥰

WTF is there a towbar on it?

Montreal blue is such a good colour (when it's clean and the sun is shining). Can't wait for the manual swap on this...

@E30 325i Rag-Top it's likely to sell fairly cheap due to unfashionable fuel type and it has an N47 rather than the M47 in it. colour is ok IMO. it's had a wheel alignment at some point (according to windscreen stickers anyway) so better than 90% of cars on NZ roads!

would be a super update to your 325i...same colour even! (drinking from the devil's pump though...)

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3100060754 Seems like it could be a reasonable project for someone? Doesn't look like it's been totally neglected

Spec is better than I had anticipated, sports seats and steering wheel definitely a win. Those 16 in wheels aren't great! The PDC also has a different set up on the m-sport rear bumper than the SE one so you'll probably be drilling holes in one or forgoing it...

@BozzaFC’s 328Ci in Northland this evening

e46 touring still looks great - even if the SE NZ New ones are a bit 'poverty pack'. Can see it's been looked after, still on Pirellis at 18 years old

Those carpark blocks are out to get you @Sammo

ex-Singapore though 😏

Fair point - probably not fair to compare a diesel wagon to a 90's supercar 🙃

I would imagine the performance isn't facemelting - 220kw seems light for a 5L V12. 'All terrain tyres' sound interesting...

Great colour for one of these - missing the nice sports seats with extendable leg bolsters though.. Sreten from M539 Restorations makes these look straightforward to look after 😂

Bimmercode and BT adapter works well on f series models. Maybe not so much on earlier cars