Kees

Saw MMMMM5 (black E60 M5) on Spur Road near Silverdale while I was taking the 130i for a blat this evening.

Obviously I am heavily biased because I: 1) Own the car 2) Have a 540i with 378,000km, Boxster with 230,000km and W8 Passat with 249,000km. But I quite like high mileage cars, and I typically judge a car based on how it drives, looks and its paper trail, rather than the number in the cluster. There are obviously limits to this tactic depending on the car and its value; e.g: A higher mileage, older M car I would not buy solely on how it drives/looks, I would want to see work/checks done to rod-bearings, subframe, SMG pump etc (depending on what car it is). But within this logic, I find a lot of higher mileage cars have had high quality, and regular maintenance done for them to achieve the mileage they have, and are often more mechanically sound than some "low ks" examples. When I bought the 130i, the “rational” thought process was; these are meant to be relatively reliable, this one is roughly half the price of a low ks auto LCI, it drives nicely, but even if something catastrophic were to happen, I could sell the wheels, catalytic converters and scrap the rest to recuperate at least $2K, so there’s not really a tonne of financial risk. I felt it was far outweighed by the performance, refinement, quality, sound and stylish looks the 130i provides. I also think since most 130i examples are from Japan, they are all lower ks, so we aren’t used to seeing ones with 200,000km+ on them, whereas a large amount of E46s/E39s/E60s are north of 200,000km, 250,000km and even 300,000km in some instances. N52 has no direct injection, no high pressure fuel pump, no turbos, and is a 3.0L Straight Six making 265hp - so its not overly stressed. The transmission I believe is a ZF box and is also meant to be quite reliable. I think its more the electrics of an E87 which tend to be problematic - which I feel is more prone to effect cars of any mileage, than strictly higher ks ones. But anyway, that's my 2 cents worth as an owner of 1 month - happy for the floor to be opened to 130i owners as there are quite a few here who can provide far better insights and opinion than I can. Don't hold back, give your honest thoughts!

Evening everyone, A wave of rational judgement and an adult-like level of responsibility has appeared to have washed over me in the last few days, and I have decided to put my 2008 BMW 130i up for sale to Bimmersport members. I would like to see the car go to an enthusiast who can either daily it, or do something cool with it! Bought it on a whim just over a month ago because I've never owned a straight six BMW (somehow), and the 130i has been a car on my ultimate daily driver bucket list since I was about 12. I've done 1000ks in it, so I feel I can tick it off my list now as I already have two other daily drivers, and too many weekend toys (as some of you will know), so I genuinely have no use for this car. So anyway, enough waffle, here are the details you want to know: 2008 BMW 130i Automatic 250,700 km Le Mans Blue WOF until 28/07/2023 Rego until 21/10/2023 Rare(ish?) Style 216 Wheels (they do genuinely get frequent compliments) 2 Keys AC blows nice and cold Heated Seats work a treat Transmission Serviced Was also told by previous owner that water pump & coils have been done prior to him, can't find any paper-work but given the ks and the fact the car runs really nicely, I am inclined to believe him. Tyres are fine - front has lots of tread, rears have a bit less but should still easily pass WOF. Car drives great, no funny vibrations, engine pulls well and sounds good - found a set of poly bushes in the boot so I think it may have been enthusiast owned in the past. Here I will insert the cliche "you wouldn't be able to tell its done this many ks unless you looked at the odometer" No warning lights, however the car is due an oil change. Bonnet gas struts are also tired - can throw in a free stick. Cosmetically the car presents well, but also has its fair share of scars consistent with the mileage (if you look past the front bumper). There is NO clear coat peel and the paint is generally quite nice. There's a few carpark dents here and there, scrape on the corner of the rear bumper and the typical rock chips but the dark Le Mans blue hides most of it well. Now to talk about the ugly elephant in the room - the front bumper - its pretty rooted. Paint is coming off and the splitter is cracked. The going rate for an E87 M Sport bumper seems to be around the $300-$400 mark, so you would just need to wait for a Le Mans blue one to come up and then the car would be relatively tidy all things considered. You could also just hit it with some colour matched paint as a temporary fix to cover the glaring areas of paint damage. There's also a dent in the bonnet just below the badge - luckily its quite symmetrical so is less prone to triggering OCD. Given the higher than average ks, need of an oil change and the fact the front bumper looks rougher than the NZ economy at the moment, I am pricing it at $4,000. Budget abut $500 for a new bumper and a DIY oil change and its a pretty nice car - especially being LCI and in the best 130i colour... with the best wheels, in my non biased opinion... obviously

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m5/listing/4036900292 Silver E39 M5 up for sale. One owner for the last 17 years...

I agree with this. My Boxster has been the most fun car to own, but the least fun car to sell. SO MANY low ballers, test drivers & general time wasters. People making "genuine" low ball offers in the trademe questions, asking other random questions when they clearly have no intention to buy the car etc. Worst market I've seen in AGES.

Sold for ~$29K incl. buyer's premium in late November. Now $45K.... https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m5/listing/4033622610

Glad you got it, special car for sure. Was worried it would go into the depths of South Auckland for skids, never to be seen again!

Saw you driving in Albany the other day driving past Palmers Garden Centre. Good buy, I had it on my watchlist, was tempted but I have way too many cars already...

Some more wet cars... Aston Martin DB9: BMW X5M: Mercedes C63:

She’s a stunner with those M Pars!

Important job today, along with a 540iT.

These were up for sale prior to the floods too for $15K! Feel for the owner - no one will touch those. Probably just set for scrap. Good it’s been disclosed they were flooded.

Bit of a bugger about these two: Manual E46 M3 https://www.turners.co.nz/Damaged-Vehicles/Damaged-Cars-for-Sale/bmw/m3/23397363 Alpina B5 https://www.turners.co.nz/Damaged-Vehicles/Damaged-Cars-for-Sale/bmw/alpina/23392332

Local YouTuber who has some nice, short & sharp car reviews is: KiwiCarLife I've actually met him, he's reviewed my Boxster and W8 Passat (which I think might be posted relatively soon) and I had a drive of his Accord Euro R which was interesting. He's just bought a juicy looking E38 740i which is sitting on some lovely M Pars, I think he will make a video on it relatively soon.

And its had some decent and recent work done too. I think thats a good buy. Wonder how much they paid for it a few months ago, probably more than 45 and they've spent a fair bit, particularly with clutch and flywheel replacement.

I was thinking that, eventually I would like to. M Tech 2 wheel would be my choice. However, I would need to "un-airbag" convert my car which I will probably do at some point, because I'm not sure I trust my 30 year old dual airbags haha Probably would do more harm than good if they went off.

I would say the seats are a fair bit cheaper than E30 seats, but unsure on the diff. The sports seats I paid $400 for from someone in the E34 community. Was very happy with that price, have seen some black electroc ones in similar condition go for $800, but I was specifically looking for manual ones. The diff I got from Pick-A-Part for a whopping $130 😂 Diffs suitable for 540s generally range between $800 and $1500 depending on how aggressive the ratio is.

Yeah its a bit of a story actually. I passed WOF first try which I was rather happy about as it was the first time the car wasn't going to cost me any money getting a WOF. Literally on the way home from the WOF place my ABS light came on and my radio switched off for around 5 seconds. I thought a fuse or something must not be happy so I checked everything, made sure all the fuses were pressed in properly and then took the car to work that night. Car performed flawlessly. After work I decided I'd take the car for a motorway loop to see if it would play-up because if it did, I'd book it in with my mechanic. Anyway, I started on the shore and went out West. When I got to Avondale I could smell an eggy smell, similar to Rotorua. My stuck-up North Shore self initially thought that was just how Avondale smelt. 😂 However, by the Greenhithe bridge I realised it was definitely my car. I pulled over and smelt literally everything. I thought maybe some of my mates had hidden some food in it as a prank, and with the doors and windows open the smell quickly dissipated. Started driving again and the smell came back even worse, I pulled over again on Constellation Drive because I knew there was something properly wrong with the car. It was at that moment it clicked in my brain - battery in my E34 is under the back seats. As soon as that crossed my mind it all made sense in my brain. I'd been wondering why my plug in FM transmitter had become really interferency! I touch my rear seat cushion and its really warm. F***, my car isn't spec'd with heated rear seats... Pull the seat cushion off with my fire extinguisher ready (not that it would really help an electrical fire), and my battery is hissing and fizzing, with acid coming out the top. At that point, given it was also a Tuesday morning at roughly 1AM, I called the fire department because I didn't really feel like touching battery acid trying to disconnect my battery. It's funny actually - one of the fire men I'm sure a few forum members will know. I think his name was Jerry, and his BMW collection at the time was an: - E46 M3 CSL - 635 CSI - X4M Competition - M235i And he said he owned many, many other BMWs prior to those, which was neat. He also knew my mechanic well as my mechanic had race prepped one of his previous track cars. So to conclude: It's very lucky the battery is under the back seat otherwise I wouldn't have smelt my battery turning inside out, and it could have ended in my E34 becoming a very hot E34 which would have been quite bad.

Since I'm on holiday, I finally have a bit of time to do an update on my E34 540i. To be honest, in 2022, I didn't do much to the car. It took 3 months for it to get a new windscreen so sat around until April. By that point I was occupied with my W8. It passed it's WOF first try in September! - the first time it had done that, and then almost caught fire that night when the alternator regulator failed and charged the battery at 19V. As you can imagine, the battery didn't fare well. So with an alternator rebuild plus a new battery (alternator got so hot it melted itself so had to be rewound), my wallet was quite a bit lighter so didn't drive it a tone, especially as I soon bought the Porsche. However, just before New Years, some parts I wanted came my way so the motivation to get some things done has returned. I went for a routine trip to Pick-A-Part to get a stock exhaust off an NZ New 540i they had just got in. Out of habit I spun the rear wheels to check if it had an LSD... to my surprise, it did! So that was coming home with me! (2.93 Ratio) I also scored some 95' spec leather door cards, and a few other bits and bobs I needed. A pair of manual grey sports seats came up - just what I wanted as seat twist is just painful, AND I got some E34 skirts - off an M5 even! Need to have them colour matched, although its quite cool that they are still the two tone M5 colour. Gave the E34 Sports Seats a decent tidy up: So anyway, I've started dealing with my interior. Wet Vac'd the carpets and installed the new seats. Carpet was pretty grotty but have it looking relatively good. Found a couple 5 cent coins - 1 from the early 80s! Will have the driver's sports seat re-upholstered at some point. Didn't plug anything in because I don't trust the seat heaters on the 30 year old seats, and to my understanding E34s don't have seat occupancy sensors... I then noticed that the electric mirrors wouldn't work, so I realised I had to pull the memory module off my original electric drivers seat and now they work just fine. I also got to the bottom of my weird climate control issues - a connector retainer clip meant one of the module connectors wasn't in properly which caused AC to not work, rear defrost to not work, and the driver to get no air blown at them. Very annoying issues. Also have swapped a couple door cards but still lots to do. Next on the list is: - Exhaust - LSD installed - Need to find M-Tech front springs (if anyone has some PLEASE sell me them!!!) - Side skirts painted and installed - Blower Motor Change - Change Head-Unit to OEM BMW one. - Put some more Ks on it! Hope to have all these done this year. In terms of driving the car, in the last ~6 months its done a trip to Taupo and I also organised an E34 meet in January this year, so it has had a few long runs. E34 day was a great day out, a few forum members attended. I even had the pleasure of driving @Simca's 535iS and @e46v12's BEASTLY E34 "546" Touring.

Yeah I think it should be quite an attractive car once the front bumper is sorted. The wheels are nice to distinguish it from basically every other 1 series you see, must be quite a rare set? I saw they came on a limited edition 130 sold in the UK.

To be fair I've been fanging it heaps. Once a car is warmed up its fair game in my head to take it high in the rev range frequently lol. I'll reset it and drive responsibly and see how it goes.

Ok so its been a week with my 130i. Gave it a much needed clean a few days ago prior to going on holiday and will be doing a paint correction once I get back. This is what I've noticed about the car so far: 1) I'm guessing its probably one of the thirstiest stock hatches you can buy... because I have minimal self control once its warmed up, I'm averaging between 13-15L/100km LOL. 2) The sound system is awesome! 3) The car is very well balanced, handles great. Steering has a nice weight to it, aside from the fuel economy I understand why so many of you daily these! 4) Seats are very comfortable, and the lumbar is great - can have it tight for spirited driving and relaxed on the motorway. 5) I think its been enthusiast owned - found some Poly suspension bushings in the boot. The wheels have grown on me a decent bit, and I think the Le Mans blue looks awesome. Just need to find a front bumper, its a pretty tidy car aside from that bumper! Still undecided on what to do with it - will probably end up selling it in a couple months as I can tick the 130i box so if anyone could be interested in a cheap 130i, let me know!

I had a dream last night that someone on Bimmersport was selling me their supercharged Z3M Coupe for $11,000. Was rather bitter after I woke up and realised that certainly isn't happening. 🤣

Hahaha it’s an absolute mess. My E34 and W8 are stashed in a shed at a family member’s life style property, Boxster is squeezed in my parents garage, my Peugeot and the 130i are currently living on the road but will hopefully migrate into the driveway soon 🤣

Bought this tonight, will post some better pics tomorrow. Was always curious about 130s so thought might as well buy this one seeing as it seemed to be a pretty decent deal (cheap), hopefully it’s not too unreliable. Not sure what I’ll do with it yet, might drive for a bit and fix the major cosmetic things (front bumper is rooted) and then hopefully sell on for a little profit, which I’ll use to tidy a few things on my E34. Was also thinking of using it as a track/novice competition type car but wondering if that’s a rabbit hole I should avoid going down haha Has Style 216 wheels which are neat. Otherwise just regular 130i things. LCI, M Sport, Le Mans blue, Auto, etc