Jun

Wrong diagnosis, now I have 2 huge battery. Selling my 3+ year old battery, keeping the new battery. Special bimmersport 10% discount. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/car-parts-accessories/batteries-chargers/listing/3792577001

Hehehe, I do miss JDMs they are nice and practical. Yes just message me when you are in town.

Yes they are actually very practical, covers the sides etc. and relative cheap ($75) as well. I actually bought a floor mat for another car almost $300 for those 3D washable ones, then I saw this on the side. I do wish the color was light grey like in their photos it could have been a good match. For now I guess it's more practical than the OEM mats or those rubber mats from supercheap.... the color is just bugging me... I did try to put a small amount of bleach on the backside to see if it would change color..... fail the test site did not change color. This was the advertised photo....

PPI: I believe Jon of Auto38 is still working on cars but not full time. I also overheard last weekend he was flying somewhere to do a PPI. I can DM you his number if you want and see if can make an arrangement with him. He has done a lot of work on my car and Pete’s car. Trusted Dealer: Both me and m-tech guy purchased our M5 for Paul Kelly at Christchurch. In my opinion mine had the best condition and low mileage 54k at the time. M-tech car is high miles but he managed to negotiate for PK to do the rod bearings before purchasing. PK arranged our mechanical warranty which was hard as the car is more than 10 years old. From what I know the mechanic that does the M5 there personally owns a M5. Since my purchase I gotten to know another mechanic over there who became a friend. So maybe PK is a good dealer that understands M5, as to trusted always look after yourself. Example Car: Happy for me to show our car. Definitely good to see a few cars before your purchase. I saw a local car here during our hunt, which was bought off a BMW dealer mechanic. Then when I flew to PK I test drove 2 M5, however my wife has already made her mind which car to get prior hand. I just wanted to see back to back that our choice was actually the better car in person. You can also see the factory option in our car, I rarely see one that is optioned all the way like ours: ventilated seats, rear heated, extended leather, alcantara headliner, etc. There is a M5 here in Wellington that is NZ new, you can see the difference between it and a JDM spec like ours. Happy hunting, I think it’s one of the best parts of the ownership. Btw you can also purchase from Japan auctions. My JDM mechanic also imports cars, ex-Skyline racer. He gave me his account before to access the auctions, glad the process is not as easy as buying stuff from Amazon otherwise I would be bankrupt.

@treone is doing this with his 840i ownership, I think is of those "in theory it sounds great but in practice not much"

Some stuff came from Aliexpress arrived today, mostly for another car. But to be honest I am more excited to fit this on the M5. Although being Aliexpress, the color is not like what was in the photo of the website. The floor mat color is much more darker grey, I wish it was light grey (in there photo) which would match the interior better. What do you guys think, does it make the car look better? It actually fits well, so dirt and mud will be better protected. Is there any good way to make it lighter color? I told my wife I would bleach it, she said no the color will not be uniform and mentioned to me that I will throw the mat out because wouldn't be able to accept a mediocre job.

Yes me and my wife was contemplating about it due to her health issues. Having sold my old R34 Skyline and likely to sell her Cayenne in the summer; For now we have decided to keep her M5, but if the right offer comes we are open to the idea of letting it go. My wife is doing better now, in fact last Sunday's meeting up and breakfast with fellow BMWs was her first time to eat out in months. So we are likely to keep the M5 as long as we can. @Mantic you can see my start of journey on the thread below, some info there maybe useful in considering if E60 M5 is a car you would want to own I have a thread regarding our ownership, which I update every now and then. This guy in youtube is a good follow as well, fun fact when I bought our M5 there was 4 M5 at the dealer. I picked ours out of the 4, while a few weeks after he picked the other one which he currently owns. https://www.youtube.com/c/MTechGuy I think the M5 E60 is a great car, but its not for everyone. What I think was the best thing about the ownership is not the car, but rather the people you get to know while owning the car. People here in bimmersport, mechanics that will service your car and general car community.

Page European and Mike Page are not the same. Yes Mike used to own Page European years ago, he sold it, then it got sold again. From what I gather after the 2nd sale things started to get a bit spotty. Mike opened shop again in Paraparaumu because is lives nearby, I guess he can't tell them not use his name anymore as selling it gave the name as well.

a bit off-topic my reply above is the 100,000 post btw would be curious to see BYD Atto3 in the flesh, especially the interior. It's a bit funky for our taste, but I guess maybe it would different on the flesh. The $50k after the rebate is very good value... maybe. You can buy 2 Atto3 and have change for the price of 1 i4

Jon of Auto 38 has closed now, he was our independent mechanic for our M5. Most people here with BMW use him in Wellington. I have used Powerhaus afterwards, I have used them before for our Cayenne and now M5 is looked after by Reuben of Powerhaus. They are very good with several jobs I did with them, a bit on the expensive side and wait times are long. Mike Page is also a very good one if you at Kapiti. I didn't see good reviews of Continental dealer in the service dept, so even with routine jobs for the M5 I didn't use them. Don't expect much for the trade-in value, I gave our Cayenne a try. Was only offered $4k for it, since I have put a lot of parts already for it and no known current issues. We do use it for off-road occasionally which an EV can't do, so I think our Cayenne will do more off-road duties as we try to sell it privately. In my opinion I think sell the car as is, pretty sure the enthusiast who gets it next will figure things out.

7 cars and only 6 owners?

It's a nice car, I probably understand a bit. Here is my opinion about it (just opinion, yours will vary). - if you are still enjoying the car even just used once a week/month. AND you don't need the money. AND not expecting it to appreciate. Just keep on enjoying it. - if you are not enjoying it. AND need the money OR can use the money for something you would enjoy more. Sell it to the price you want it. - cars are generally bad investments, but some get lucky My background on the my opinion above. We bought a R34 GTT Skyline long time ago (almost 2 decades ago), I really liked it a lot. I tried to sell it several times (3 times), my wife knew that I enjoyed it a lot so she discouraged me to sell it on those times. Fast forward about 2022, we are not using the car too much... have definitely enjoyed the car through the years and my wife is not doing well health wise. We decided to sell it, luckily the value has appreciated 2x our purchase price. Actually a dealer bought it sight unseen, just photos and seemed they have sold in quickly for a better price (that is ok, we wanted a hassle free transaction as we didn't have time on our hands to do private sale). So for our M5 we are less attached to it, I tried to sell it (1 time already). My wife said to just keep it and enjoy it, so I guess we will follow the same route as the Skyline. Enjoy it while I can, then when we can't or need the money we will sell it.

Has anybody used it for Japanese cars? Is there a difference with Japanese cars aside from the navigation? Our M5 is a Japanese import. I would prefer for someone who has coded a Japanese based bmw, and pay them. As it's a one time code anyway, but I couldn't get anyone locally in Wellington to do it.

Saw this 850ci this morning. I am only aware of @treone 840i as the 8-series on Wellington.

We had a quick look at the i4 e40. Here is our quick take on it: - it's probably one of the best/better EV in the market as a drivers car. However compared to our M5, it's very much softer even on sports mode. I am not sure if the i4 had adaptive suspension, I think all M spec version should be fitted with one. It did feel stiffer on sports mode. - acceleration from standstill is really good even if its just e40, in fact for me 300-400 hp is what I prefer for a street car. More than that is not fun in the public road, so the 340hp e40 variant is on the sweet spot. However I can say beyond 80km/h the M5 V10 is very much competitive or better - it's interior is great, the screen is great (not as fluid as a Tesla though). The seats (it didn't have the most expensive optioned seat) are actually better than a normal car but its actually not as nice as the old leather seats of the M5 both feel and support (however I got my M5 seats dialed to me already, so maybe if I spend more time on i4 it could be just as good) - the individual dravit grey paint is so much better over brooklyn grey (there was a M440i beside it on with this color), this is probably the best color for a i4, M4, M3 or 4 series. The big kidney livable with this color. - hans zimmer sound on the i4 for me actually makes it better, unlike other EVs which has no sound or very cheesy sound. But I guess it's no substitute for ICE sound, especially from a V10 NA - the driving assistance is good, or I like it as it seems to be less intrusive. btw the AEB got tested, a ute cut us off and slowed down aggressively. Not sure why, because we on an EV or BMW... or both. I think i4 e40 is a great choice if you want a drivers car EV, the e40 is also very efficient close to a Tesla Model 3. However it's very costly, at almost $120k for the example we tested. For $120k, you can get a M5 ($40k) and Tesla Model Y ($80k - $9 subsidy) plus some change. If you had $120k, which would you pick? P.S. Thank you to G. Yang of Continental cars BMW, he is great to chat with.

Just some updates. M5 developed a small leak on the diff, I had a look and diagnosed the leak is from the pinion seal. Bought some parts from FCP Euro, they where actually very cheap. Decided for the upgraded Corteco seal as its advertised to be better and fixes the design flaw of the original BMW seal. Since Auto 38 has closed, we decided to use Powerhaus as Mike Page is too far away. We have used Powerhaus for our Cayenne before, they are very good although long wait times and they are on the expensive side. However their work is always top-notch and always give you the honest diagnosis. We also asked them to replace the SMG hydraulic, gear oil, diff oil and brake fluid. Diff oil was replaced with Liqui Moly, however even though this advertised to be in spec with the LSD diff. Some LSD BMW diff may need more friction modifiers, TSB: SIB330102 which required the fluid that had more FM. Our car seems to have this binding issue, so we decided to add some RedLine Friction Modifiers, which worked really well. Pretty much all fluids are now replaced, all consumables on the car are almost new.

I used to build/assemble drones when they where not fashionable and buying fully assembled was still inferior. However after CAA rule changes and DJI really making great products, I just repurposed my drone camera (which are actually just action cameras) to the cars. Most of the action cams can be programmed to start recording when you they get power, then power down after. I think most action cam are pretty good, my really old Xiaomi action cam is still working. Actually bought a replacement battery for it recently as I noticed old battery has a slight bulge already. Xiaomi, Mobius and SJCAM (real ones, lots of fake ones listed) are pretty good cameras most of them are at par with Go-Pro or better. I think the dedicated dashcam are sleeker in design and some have the both front and reverse cam, however you can use your action cam for other things. I have also put them on the Skyline's bumper when we did our South Island trip years ago. You may also want to use not 4k, so you can have more footage on the sd card. I only use 1080p, so I can get like 8 hour footage and select from there. I only used dashcam once for an accident (it wasn't even us), a footage of an accident. Most of the time I just hyperlapse it post-process or take cuts for from it and add them to our trip video. Low-light performance is probably a better quality to look for. All those local cameras are manufactured and designed in China. Some of the Chinese products are the best you can buy, case in point DJI.

Nice POV of a stock E60 M5, especially how brutal the shifts are. I think this video is the best one I have seen on conveying how it drives, I haven't experienced the high speed runs though. You can only realistically use 1-3rd gear in NZ on high rpms. Still a fun car though, especially the fact that it can be a practical cruiser for trips.

Yes you can. Buy a cheap BMW, any condition will do AND Buy another newer BMW as the reliable car I think most of ownership experience here is expensive AND reliable enough.

Thanks for the kind words @SmithyInWelly in this weird times we are in. I guess that "health is wealth" cliche isn't something you think about until it becomes real. Yes timing the market is not possible. I actually looked at selling our R34 three times over the decade, but my wife keeps in discouraging it. As we really enjoy the car still, how lucky for us when we needed to sell it there are still buyers for it 2-3x more than our purchase price. We where also lucky enough even with a dealers price cut who purchased the R34 sight unseen and very quick transaction. Either they already had a buyer already, or they knew they can sell the R34 much higher than current market prices. The cars are not as precious to us now, they are still very enjoyable still. Had it been a year ago we would not let go of them for anything other than silly money. Having a few nights sleep on it made me decide not to list on trademe. I feel there is too much energy and time in entertaining trademe buyers. I would leave this post for anyone to read in the future, or like you if you encounter someone who gets the V10 bug they can look at digging out this post. Maybe we get to sell in 1 month, 1 year or 1 decade.... who knows. Thanks love the community around the cars, I think that is what is best about the ownership of these cars.

As some of you know, we purchased a E60 M5 a few years ago. Bimmersport has been with us throughout the journey of finding/hunting for a M5: And been posting about the ownership journey every now and then: This year me and my wife have decided to let go of our cars, due to changing circumstances. Sadly sold our R34 which we owned for 16 years a few weeks back. We are as well contemplating on selling my wife's M5. I have seen on trademe E60 M5 being sold from mid $30ks to $40ks. We have a natural bias on our car, also having spent a lot on it (see thread above). Just a quick glance of the current listing in trademe, none of them has a similar combination of low-milage (64k kms), replaced all major E60 issues/consumables and option/trim level. We are lucky enough that we don't need the funds urgently, however if we find the right buyer and price we have made up our mind to let go of it. Thinking of listing on trademe, but I guess the price we are after is more than the current listings. I am already spent a good deal of time prepping and selling our R34. I don't have time and energy to sell another car. Or should I just list on trademe and see how it goes?

Looking at this a bit, seems I can probably repair this myself. Seen a few bad stories/review about replacements, etc. I would imagine the workmanship isn't going to be that great when it's replaced. Repair kits are just like $35, I am pretty ok with these kind of things. Question is if I repaired it myself and it doesn't really workout, can I still claim under insurance? The complicated issue is the dark spot, likely the film in between.

Driving near Martinborough yesterday, so nice cars (Corvettes, TVR, minis, RX7, etc.) on the opposite traffic. One of cars probably picked up a stone, so as we passed by one another a stone hit our windshield (no this is not the M5, another car). Anyway I have a $500 excess on windshield, it seems new policy doesn't have free windshield excess. Just reduced excess, our standard excess is $1,000. Put here a photo, I think this needs a repair definitely. I know these days the repairs are really slow, due to supply chain issues. Looking for the following advice: - Best replacement shop in Wellington? I know Smith and Smith but that is based from the commercials I have seen through the years. I would want a place that knows how to properly replace it, weather strips, etc. - I don't think it can be repaired anymore, dark spot is like a film in between the glass. Externally there isn't a lot of damage when you feel the hands, damage is in between the glass. Likely the glass is 2 or more layers. - I would want it temporarily repaired I think, so it doesn't go bigger as we wait. I believe the wait times now are in the months Any other comments/advice that would be useful, I will call the insurance claim tomorrow.