Vass

Not exactly a pic but..

Stumbled out of Pick-A-Part on Saturday to find this beauty parked next to me. Looked absolutely immaculate, UK-import 330d, sitting on clean Schnitzer's. Absolutely beautiful package, props to the owner, looked really well taken care of.

Damn, that does look mighty fine. Black will probably take away a bit of the bulky look but pretty mean as it is as too. Good buy! Keen to know how easy these engines are to maintain.

I don't believe NZ or Aussie got the xi variant. Nor did Japan I don't think? Have never seen one around these parts anyway.

Sorry to hijack the topic a bit, @BM WORLD would you know off the top of your head which other model seats would be straight plug and play for E46's? I know the E53 X5's have exactly the same connector and rails, wondering if there's any other ones that are compatible without much modification? These look to be 6-series seats?

The "opinion write up" made me want to punch a hole through the screen. Love the post-truth, alternative fact world we find ourselves living in. f**king hell.

And they keep on coming. Looks a beaut at first glance this one. https://www.trademe.co.nz/3548571727

Deary me, look at this thing! That's some effort that's gone in. The sound of it as well. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/z3/listing/3543928083?bof=ZIRQvZue

Might be mistaken, but I believe it either had limited functionality or was completely incompatible with e46's.

To take a bigger pircure view, this is the natural and sadly predictable progression of the optimal economic strategy in late stage capitalism. Everything is moving towards a subscription model instead of just selling products, whether overtly or inadvertently. Apple and such were notoriously blatant and shameless with implementing it at first, but now all industries seem to be moving in that direction, wherever they can. If you're not pushing planned obsolescence into the design of your products, it hurts your business in the long run. All sorts of stupid sh*t that does not need to be a subscription service, now is. To stick to BMW-related examples, even something like the Carly app. I was looking into it for my E46 to have some powerful coding features without having to resort to specialist software on a laptop and such, but you can't just buy it and be done with it, instead it's a yearly subscription. Why? There's nothing you're going to develop any further when it comes to working with my 20 year old car, so how is a subscription fee justified on something that isn't going to be improved upon from its current form? Can't remember the finer details of it anymore but I often recall the example of some Swedish military equipment company that produced some sort of armoured people mover. The product was good, the sales went really well, they took all the profits and reinvested them into R&D and improved the product even further. When they rolled out 2.0, they could not get any repeat customers because the original product was so good, so reliable that it didn't break and did not need replacing, so the company ended up going bankrupt. Out economic system just does not reward building things to last anymore. I'd actually argue that it never has, it's just gotten to a point of very high market saturation in most consumer products that it's become blatantly obvious. You can't even blame the companies themselves, these are the incentives baked into the core of the economy. It literally incentivises the inefficient use of resources. Economic efficiency prioritised over technological efficiency when it should be the opposite. It's utterly perverse and quite frankly disgusting. And then were ever-increasingly bombarded with the notion of 'sustainability' at every step, when quite frankly, any kind of notion of sustainability within the framework of an economy fully dependent on cyclical consumption is nothing more than a marketing slogan or an empty platitude. Being sustainable means consuming less, and we can't have that in an economic system hopelessly addicted to infinite growth. How that is supposed to be compatible with life on a finite planet I'll never know. The only way I see myself coping with it all mentally is to just care less and less. Sorry if that's a bit doom and gloom, I've kept myself up at night a few too many times mulling over this topic lately. To get back to cars, this sh*t is the reason I'm rebuilding my E46 almost from the ground up, and I honestly don't see myself ever buying a car much newer than that. At least not an ICE vehicle anyway.

It's just such weird decision-making on many levels. I mean if you own that sort of car nowadays, surely it's not the only car you own, or a daily driver. Why would you decide to roll your pride and joy out of the garage on a day like that!?

My brain explodes in awe every time I check the progress on this thread. Seriously, seriously impressive stuff. Nuclear physics level sh*t.

Someone testing out the buoyancy of their M3 vert during the recent Auckland floods 😅

Anything touring is 🖤🖤🖤

I wasn't the biggest fan of the old style 68's but whoever thought this would be an upgrade must have been dropped as a child. Those blacked out indicators as well... Was such a clean and original car. All downhill from here 😢

My mate spotted my old coupe up in the North Island. I rather wish he hadn't... What the actual f**k are those wheels!?

Nah, somehow stumbled upon the same set of wheels but in literally brand new condition 😄 Difference with these is marginal but thought since I'm getting all new rubber anyway, might as well let these go and someone might get some actual use out of the front tyres.

BMW Style 193 wheels. Staggered set, 8" front, 8.5" rear, 5x120. Will fit E90 & E46 ideally, cannot comment on others. Front tyres are near new 225/40R18, rears are unusable with wires poking out. Great condition overall, just a couple of minor scuffs as per photos and next to no kerbing. Have just gotten a thorough wash so are looking very presentable. Bought recently to go onto my E46 but stumbled onto a different set that I liked.

Ordered a new set of rubber all round in the end. Went with Dunlop Sp Sport Maxx 050+ off Hyper Drive, 225/40R18 front, 255/35R18 rears. I wanted the same tyres all round and these were one of the few options they had both the fronts and rears in the right sizes. Reviews seemed decent enough so will see how they go. In preparation, spent a good 6 hours on Saturday scrubbing the living daylight out of the wheels. Cleaned up really well with just a few minor black spots that I didn't want to go too hard on in fears of scratching up the top coat. With my wrists and back absolutely killing me, sat down for a minute scrolling through FB and... stumbled upon these. Typical. Haven't seen a set of these pop up locally forever and suddenly there's two sets in one week. When it rains it pours... Went to check them out and was blown away. Apparently had come off a new car having done all of 800km and have been sitting in boxes ever since. And they certainly looked it. A couple of tiny marks but absolutely no kerbing. The original set I bought looked really good as is so the difference is very marginal, but the difference is there. And since I'm getting all new rubber anyway, thought I'd pass the other set on and someone might get use out of the newish fronts instead of them going to waste. So if anyone's after a clean set of Style 193's... Funnily enough, just like the first set, bought these off a guy that got them to go onto his 130i only to discover the fronts stick out too much 😄 They look so good that I'm now looking to get them ceramic coated before going onto the car. Anyone have any product recommendations in that regard, and if it's even worth going the DIY route on? Might also just wait until I switch to the 330 brakes with new ceramic pads as the current ones produce more dust than a bloody steam train.

Speaking of which... project anyone? https://www.turners.co.nz/Damaged-Vehicles/Damaged-Cars-for-Sale/bmw/m5/21987750

Might have been the other one, I believe I stumbled upon it on a Turners damaged car auction whilst looking for a 330i donor, but might be mistaken.

I remember there was a crashed M6 not long ago that I think BMWorld snapped up and soon after were selling the engine alone for like $15k. That considered, this is unreal value.

Damn. That's a well sharp price. Amazing how poorly these hold value compared to E46 & E30's. Seems a good buy.

I always thought the CSL's had neither AC nor radio..?

sh*t. That makes me think twice now. Although not really keen to shell out $600 on just springs alone. Would you look at aftermarket springs instead of OEM?