Kees

Spotted a blue E39 M5 on Oteha Valley Road on the North Shore today. Awesome looking car!

Spotted this lovely e38 in Rosedale today.

http://arrowtoys.co.nz/view/302/bmw-m5-e34 Cool car. I remember seeing this for sale in ~2017. What's interesting is when I ran the VIN in a decoder it came back as Diamant-Schwarz so I wonder if it was resprayed Mauritius Blau.

Saw an Imola Red E39 M5 with the plate AWSUM5 in Paihia yesterday morning at about 9:15AM. My jaw dropped when I saw it, beautiful car! No doubt the owner is on Bimmersport.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/porsche/911/listing/3375836402?bof=CgQlSkt4 There's an almost identical one for sale for $238K, also in Guards Red... but with a few less rust holes.

@balancerider That thing is NZ New and still on original plates!! What a spot! According to carjam its only had two owners!

Was it this one? Took a few photos of it at Caffeine and Gasoline in July. Had a distinctive un-painted carbon bootlid and the BBS wheels

NZ New e38 740i on M-pars spotted today

Possibly the most OCD triggering thing ever… WHY IS THE BADGE NOT IN THE MIDDLE GRRRRRR

Spotted some very nice blue BMWs today…

If you look at Michael Grant Motors on street view you can see a few cars that seem to consistently be on the yard over the years. It's absolutely bizarre. Most of the other cars on the yard seem to be somewhat reasonably priced (as far as cheap car yards go) so its strange the same logic never applied to the BMWs. I'm not an accountant but could the overpriced BMWs that have sat for years that are supposedly worth 15K be a smoke screen for some creative tax returns or something? Just the space they have taken up from the many years they have been for sale would far exceed their actual value, especially when coupled with the amount of maintenance they would need from 12+ years of sitting in the sun. Probably just worth scrap value at this point. This E39 Touring looks to be an example: 2009: 2015: 2021:

It's not that we are psychopathic, we are just better than all the peasants who couldn't afford their own Ultimate Driving Machine... Let's just ignore the fact a bunch of us probably won't be able to buy a house because we sink so much money into our former ultimate driving machines... not psychopathic at all 😅

Saw this E28 today at the Northcross lights.

Excellent spot! Will add it to the list.

My wealthy older neighbour has german plates on his X5M and TTRS and he's never been pulled up about it. That said, seeing as I'm young and get the "random license checks" rather frequently they might try get me for it. Although I like the look of the plates so I sort of want to get them and then if they ever hassle me about it I'll just try talk my way out of it.

Yeah fair enough with going for the THE325 combination, spending $999+ is a bit ridiculous when all the good plate combos are gone in general given the vast quantity of personalised plates that have been issued over the years. Oh right I should probably order some frame holders too when I get my euro plate. Not sure if it would bolt straight onto the E34, although seeing as its NZ New it has the wider license plate surround at the front so it might just go straight on which would be good. I might just "lose" my original government issue plates in the garage because it would be a shame to surrender them. They are so old that when I drive the car at night, according to my mates, the rear plate is incredibly challenging to see and read, which has its bonuses lol.

@E28E30 Thanks for the info, I think I'll end up going for euro plates in the style of the one on your car just with the original "SO9785" combination. The other reason I can't get rid of the plate combination is that my car has a sister car with the plate "SO9857". Both are 540s and have a difference in VIN of 70 units so would have been close to side by side on the production line. Pretty insane coincidence. The owner has his combination on euro plates which looks good. The personalised euro plate on your car looks really nice btw! Much better than the MBP520 government issue plate! I have the combination "DOENUT" but it isn't on any car because I keep getting cars with original plates so would never put it on. I'm slightly obsessive about original plates, whenever someone has a car on original plates, especially one thats like 20+ years old and then they change it I cringe so hard. Unless a car I want wasn't offered new in NZ, I'll always try find one with original plates!

Definitely wouldn't want to lose the original combination. One of the reasons I bought the car was its original 1994 combination as I'm quite OCD about original plates for some reason. Both my cars have original plates lol. If you get a euro plate do you have to surrender the old plates even though its the same combination?

Thanks! Yeah the throwing stars make a huge difference. Car drives so much better than when it had the sofa wheels as you can get far more modern tyres on it. The 15 inch BBS look alright they are just way too small for such a big car imo.

Yup they are on the list, I was thinking euro plates would look quite good plus the front one can help cover some rock chips which is a bonus

Thanks! 😁

Since I got my car exactly a year ago, I thought I would give it a decent wash and then attempt to go take some half decent pictures of it with my DSLR. Here are some of the photos I got with the freshly cleaned car:

I've had my E34 540i exactly one year. Thought I would put a few photos up showing the before and after on the car and how it's changed over the last 365 days. At some point I might make a proper thread for the car detailing everything I've done, I'm the iPad generation so Forums were a bit of foreign territory for me so I've got a messy collection of discussions instead of one big one. Anyway here is the before and after from the day I picked it up (17/11/20) to today (17/11/21), Before: After: Before: After:

Personally I think its a very unique car for $38K that is well worth the money. I don't think you would ever, ever find a manual V12 for less than that, unless its the carcass of a burnt out 550M or something lol. Even if you just consider the parts value of the CSi engine, manual box, suspension, ACS body kit and wheels, its a good deal. Would personally take it over a manual e36 M3 any day of the week given how epic it looks, and I bet it would turn many more heads at a car show. Its only down side in my eyes is that it is LHD which would probably be a bit annoying, but like at the end of the day a manual V12 is generally a winning combination. You could probably get a ratty SMG E46 M3 for a little more but once again...., manual V12! Just my 2 cents worth though.

Just spotted this on marketplace. 6 Speed manual 2011 BMW 535i. UK Import that came into NZ in late 2012. Interesting car but $37.5K seems very steep, especially since its almost F10 M5 money.