Kees

Something I will definitely do if it happens again. That is very true, didn’t consider that. Curiously though, the Peugeot is not registered in my name. I’m guessing they don’t have the information which tells them which drivers are associated with the vehicle under its insurance policy? If they do have that info the ID check would make sense, otherwise it’s still a bit weird I was pulled over.

On the topic of the police, I just got pulled over randomly and out of the blue about 20 minutes ago. Was not speeding so was curious as to why they had stopped me. Two officers got out, one went to the passenger side of my car, the other to the driver's side. I got asked for my license (as per usual), and I gave it to them. It was then photographed and handed back to me. (didn't seem to have been put through any system check etc) Was expecting the obligatory "any alcohol tonight", but the driver's side officer simply said "drive safe" and then they both quickly walked back to their car before I could even ask why I had been stopped. Ummm wtf..... Surely if it was a "random" check (which my 540i seems to get me occasionally) they would have to run my license through their system, check for alcohol etc. Even more puzzling is I was in my Peugeot 207 GTI which just generally blends in. Not even sure if its a legal stop because even for a license check they would at least run it through the system to check for demerits, disqualifications etc. And usually these random checks use checking for alcohol as the reason for the stop. And then to have a police officer either side of my Peugeot hatchback.... its not like its some dodgey blacked out slammed Commodore. Just seemed a bit suss... Anyone else had this happen?

Yeah I think thats how much it cost to list the S6. My S8 was around $200 to list though!

When I was selling my S6 I had people arrange to collect the car multiple times. One of them even offered to pay a deposit and I stupidly trusted he was being genuine and told him we could just sort it the next day all in one go when he came to get the car. Sent him my address and he said he would text me when he was leaving the following day. Never got a text. Never showed up. Then I had people offering less than half of my already fair asking price, with one guy adamant his 2K offer was doing me a favour. Could have taken the near new intake manifold off (which looking at the receipts was 4.7K for the part), and there would be more than 2K just in that part alone. Listed the car on trademe and it sold for my asking price within 24 hours. Trademe still came with its own special set of time-wasters but way less severe than Facebook Marketplace. Only other place that might be worth a shot is a BMW Facebook group like "Strictly BMW New Zealand".

I know your pain!

Haha thats the quintessential Prius move. Where I live the Prius Ubers patrol the streets prowling at a solid 30km/h in a 50km/h zone, making spastic stops and turns with no indicators. But if you hold up a Prius for more than 0.01 seconds at the lights they will beep at you. Priuses do my head in.

*Toyota Prius enters the chat*

Yeah I completely understand that, I’m an admin of a couple BMW pages and occasionally a call is made that is not well received by both parties involved. Seeing as Bimmersport is almost as old as I am, I grew up going on forums like Bimmersport waiting for the day when I could a) drive and b) have a car enthusiast enough to post on a forum. By the time I got my 540 I was grateful Bimmersport still existed, being one of the few forums left with an active enthusiast presence. Personally I really enjoy posting on Bimmersport as it’s one of the few places left where proper car enthusiasts reside, with places like Facebook groups now being largely saturated by people who wouldn’t even be able to tell you the difference between e90 and e91. I wasn’t trying to bag Bimmersport and it’s leadership as I am rather fond of this platform, I just thought it best to rip the band aid off and explain why Mike isn’t here (which was basically done in Mike’s words from what he told me, apart from the third person tense lol) anymore as it seems quite a few people were curious as to his sudden departure and it would close off any speculation confusion etc.

@SRacin @KwS @Twistee Seeing as Mike and I both have E34 540s, we would often talk so I know the reason for Mike's departure from Bimmersport, and he does not plan to return, so it is most likely the end of this thread for good. Thought I would outline what happened just to clear any theories, confusion, speculation etc as to his departure from the forum. This is how Mike explained what happened to me: Mike found his once thought of friend Martin aka "breakmywindow" for ~10 years was stealth deleting Mike's personal opinion posts he didn't like on the forum, after this realisation Mike decided it was time to finally stop posting on bimmersport after being tired of the "soft" direction he felt it was going. He called Martin out on his pretty abuse of admin privileges to which Martin responded with personal insults and then proceeded to tell Mike to "go f**k himself". Martin then blocked Mike on Facebook before he could even reply. So that's Mike's reasoning for leaving Bimmersport.

Oakwood leather hydrating creme has worked well for me in the past. Used it in my E34 as well as on some old cracking leather couches and it worked well. You can get it from the supermarket. Had tried a bunch of different leather products but the Oakwood creme worked the best for hydrating the leather.

Spotted this E46 M3 going for a little swim in a news report of all the Auckland flooding

I agree, would make for a phenomenal long distance tourer. Excellent machine for Auckland to Mt. Ruapehu ski trip. Super comfy and smooth, and probably wouldn't be horrific on fuel over a longer trip with all the torque.

Pretty cool business model! Wouldn't mind bombing around in a V12 E32 on company fuel! Bet some of his clients thought he had an illicit side hustle thanks to his fleet of E32s 🤣

Yeah when you consider inflation they certainly haven't appreciated at all if you sold yours for 3.5K 14 years ago. Bit of a shame in my opinion, I think their time will come soon though. As E28s, E30s, E24s, etc continue to sky rocket, naturally, the prices of once less desired models like e32s/e34s will begin to rise up. Surely a classy V12 7 Series with the classic twin headlights is a 10K car in the next few years... Seems criminal if that doesn't happen.

After almost 3 months, 2 windscreens, a windscreen moulding, a flooded workshop, another failed WOF, and a pair of new shocks, my 540i finally has a fresh WOF. My streak of never passing a WOF first try with this car continues 🤣 Took her out for a little drive to celebrate.

Just saw this pop up for sale. Seems like a pretty good deal for $5.2K. Doesn't look like the tidiest example but seems to have good bones. Probably is one of, if not the cheapest running V12 car for sale in NZ, and the engine is encased by a gorgeous E32! Prices on E32s is only going up anyway, as are all classic BMWs. Heap of car for the money, and a nice spec too, with silver paint and black leather.

Honestly, same! 😂 When its parked up my brain keeps thinking its a boring old VW until I go take it for a drive, hear the exhaust and roll through the gears!

Just had a look, they are the BH15 tyres. Surprisingly, the reviews show they aren't absolutely terrible. Apparently Black Lion branded tyres are largely sold in the Middle East. Still decent enough tread so I guess I'll just wait until they are completely worn and then get something else. They don't make much/any noise unlike the "Westlake" tyres that were on my Subaru when I first got it which were so awful. Coolant flush and fresh oil are definitely top of the priority list. Will hopefully have that done next week after my E34 gets a couple new shocks as at the moment the Passat is in the storage garage away from my house that the 540i usually lives in. After that, wheel clean up and headlight polish and I think the car will be looking quite tidy all things considered.

Was pleasantly surprised by the interest in my last post on my recently acquired manual W8 Passat. Thought I might make a small thread detailing things I do to it while I have it for anyone interested. Not sure how long I will end up keeping it. A friend of mine has named the car Franklin as she thinks it looks like it would be called Franklin. I dismissed it at first but then I went through the owner's manual and found the car's original purchasing receipt from Giltrap Volkswagen. To my shock, the first owner's surname was Franklin! So the name Franklin it is! My 540i failed WOF again today because of a leaky shock absorber so I spent today giving the Passat its first clean so that I could get a better understanding of what condition its in. I started off with a decent wash as the front of the car was caked in bugs from my drive up from Wellington over the weekend when I picked the car up. There was heaps of tar and other road grime on the car which indicates it probably hasn't been washed in quite a while. This notion became a bit more obvious later on. I probably spent a solid 2 hours just doing general cleaning of the wheels which had a bunch of baked on brake dust (some of which I'm still yet to get off). It's a bit of a shame but the wheels are quite significantly curbed so I'm not sure what I'll do about that. Probably will have them all refurbished at some point because they are probably worth a decent bit of money as they are factory 2-piece BBS. In the mean time I might just get some curb protectors to stick over the curbing because its quite an eye sore. Drying the car was not a pleasant experience. The paint is crying out for a polish and wax or ceramic coating as it feels really rough and was hard to dry as its not overly hydrophobic. I then discovered that there is trim over some roof gutters where one might mount a roof rack or something like that, and of course they were filled with grime. This is what really started to show me the car hadn't had a decent wash. I then cleaned the gutters around the windscreen which were also filled with grit. My attention then turned to the door jams. After giving the sills a wipe down, I cleaned all the hinges and then lubricated them all to displace any moisture and stop them from squeaking. Attention then went to the boot. I cleaned around the hinges and blasted out debris that was blocking the water channels past the rear lights and around the rear window. I then moved to the door cards. Wiped them down with some Turtle Wax leather cleaner. Surprisingly, the W8 has some really nice materials in it, reminds me alot of my S8, its just all the materials are shaped in a way that is very early 2000s so it does look dated. Door cards cleaned up really nice. Anyway, after cleaning the door cards, dash and centre console, I gave the car a quick vacuum. Following this I polished out some stubborn sun-screen marks with some Meguiar's ultimate compound. Over the weekend I would like to hopefully wax the car and wet-vac the carpets. The car has a strong cigarette smell which is particularly pungent when its been parked overnight with the windows up. I also need to source a couple centre caps for the wheels, find some boot gas struts, and then try sort the boot lock actuator which isn't working so the boot has to be opened with the key. Also want some new tyres because wtf are "Black Lions" lol. Passat isn't really a car to tear up a backroad so some Pirelli Dragon Sports like I have on my 540i will be just fine I reckon. Want to have the headlights polished ASAP too!! Want to have it serviced soon as the coolant is grotty and I have no idea what weight oil is in it. Apparently keeping clean oil in the W8s is extremely important.

For a BMW what about a 1.9 Z3? Although thats something that would need to be garage parked. My money is with something Japanese. I think an Accord Euro would be nice and is also quite safe. Higher k 4 cylinder (because fuel economy) ones can be had for 3.5K. Some are nicely spec'd with leather seats, sunroof, alloys etc. Probably the most "Euro" Japanese car you will find in that price range. Otherwise I second the standard; Axela, Fit, Corolla/Balde, Vitz, Demio, Swift etc. Very boring especially if automatic but they won't let you down. I actually saw a 2012 Swift with 60,000km on Facebook Marketplace today, pretty cheap at $3.8K, seller is apparently going overseas. Could be a good buy as its modern and low ks? Although it is borderline too cheap.

Yeah looks so much better than my old moulding which had ugly holes in the rubbery-plastic material that runs between the metal part of the moulding and the car itself. All the stickers are peeling off which triggers my OCD a bit. Luckily the car is due a WOF as the windscreen crack was what it failed on a couple months ago. Hoping to have a fresh WOF tomorrow with a nicely applied sticker!! Fingers crossed they don't find anything else because I would like to have a legal car again.

Oh interesting, I didn't even see it! Must have been snapped up pretty quick.

Was the 535is you're thinking of red and was for sale in Wellington? The paint was very faded and from memory I think it had style 5s on it. It was listed for 6 or 7K and I remember thinking someone was going to get a deal so long as the car had good bones. I think I took a screenshot of it I just can't quite remember where. Would love a 535is, baby M5 in my opinion. A friend of mine has a silver NZ New one with a very period correct blue leather interior, with blue sports seats! It's a gorgeous car.

This afternoon my new windscreen finally went in. Car had been without a windscreen for 2 months as the moulding was coming from Germany. The Smith and Smith tech said it was the hardest car he’s ever worked on. Everyone clapped when I left so seems like it was a team effort to get the new moulding on properly lol. Appears that a decent job has been done which I’m happy about. First stop with the new windscreen was the petrol station of course 🤣

Thanks! She looks decently tidy in photos but up close its definitely an original car but hasn't done too bad for almost 400,000km, has tidied up pretty nice though. Yeah I was pretty lucky to score those wheels, I may be just a tad bias but I think they are the best looking wheels on e34s. Wow I don't think I could last that long without being able to drive my car, the two months my car was off the road was a struggle enough! Did you get a big haul of parts?