Kees

Honestly I can't fault this logic.... you're dead right haha

The second, NZ New, manual W8 sedan arrived today.... and what a day of ups and downs! Before I begin, let us all remember that the vehicle was written off by the insurer, with the damage being "Engine Damage". This morning I received a text from my transporter saying the car got driven out of the salvage lot on its own by the staff, and then easily pulled itself onto the transporter - strange I thought, given the "Engine Damage" it supposedly had. I also got some photos of the car, looked fairly dirty with muddy arches, and a bit of silt and gravel on the REMUS mufflers (I'm stoked about those). My initial thoughts were that the car was wrongly labelled, and was in fact a flood damaged car. When it arrived, the transporter told me how surprised he was when the gates opened and the car drove out under its own steam, instead of being hauled along by a forklift. He said usually when Manheim say that a car has engine damage, it really does! The car also had no water line on it, and didn't smell of damp. Very, very strange. Why would the car have been written off and deregistered by an insurer if it isn't water damaged, hydrolocked, and seemingly still runs?! I started it, there was a definite misfire, and it instantly started complaining about coolant. Head-gasket was my first thought to explain both of those. I told this theory to my mate who had skipped his engineering class join me for the delivery. He had done a ton of research prior to the delivery on possible issues that could render a W8 with "Engine Damage". He thought head gasket would be unlikely as there is almost no talk of them failing in the forums - and instead thought coolant could just be low, and misfire could be something basic like plugs and coils, or it could be the cam variators and the famous plastic mesh screens that dislodge. So anyway, I top up the reservoir and we take the car for a drive (lucky where I'm keeping the car genuinely has a 1km private road), holds temperature and goes without issue, although its still not the happiest at idle. Decided next best option would be to let it cool down, give it a bit of a clean and then investigate further. Gave the car a bit of a clean - was absolutely filthy and covered in cob webs. Figured out pretty quickly from the gravel rash + FMG insurance card, and live stock purchasing list that the previous owner of 12 years must have owned a farm. This explained the dirt in the wheel wells - so it must not be flood damaged? The car is also leaking oil and transmission fluid pretty well, so we jacked it up to look underneath. One thing I noted was that the front bumper had fresh fasteners in it - also strange. Checked the Air Filter and it was basically disintegrating - maybe the car was just running poorly as a result of old plugs or dodgey coils that were due for replacement? It was really starting to annoy me - why was this an insurance write-off and why was it deregistered? Well tonight I managed to find out what happened: The story may not be 100% correct, but this is how I remember it. A mechanic was driving the car and backed it over a big curb. This squashed the front bumper so the car was booked in to a panel beater to have the bumper put back on and repaired (remember the fasteners I saw...). Well on the way to the panel beater, the car overheated as the radiator pipes had also been squashed and damaged. The car was then taken to another mechanic for assessment where the pipes were repaired, but the car still overheated. Car was diagnosed to have a blown head-gasket and a subsequent insurance claim was made. I will test the head-gasket again myself just to be sure - I'm not sure if it was a "suspect diagnosis" or a formal one, but I am 99.9% sure it is indeed blown based on the miss on idle. It does also turn out that the car may have been the one mentioned on a forum I found, as "Big Jimmy" was from New Zealand, and the timeline matches the modifications done to the car: https://www.passatworld.com/threads/w8-performance-boost.235355/ So yes, I could confirm that apparently $10K was spent in the mid 2000s on the Remus exhaust + some kind of chip tune to bring power closer to 300hp... The fact that it's had the work done tugs on my heart strings to save it... So now the question remains - should it be resurrected or parted out? On a personal note, it really does bug me to part out such a rare car, that could be relatively easily fixed.... BUT, financially it doesn't make much sense, and this is why: So first of all, by the time the car had made it to me, it already owes me $1.6K. Assuming head-gasket is toast - an engine swap will be the cheapest option. This will require an auto W8 as a donor - a half decent one can be had for probably $2.5K. Essentially that is the cost of the engine, not really much value left from an auto W8, could recover a little bit with selling cats + wheels and a few other bits, but its a hassle having another B5 Passat thats in bits lying around... 🤣 Then budget at least $1K in new parts like new engine mounts and various gaskets. Transmission leak would need to be sorted, as well as some oil leaks that the replacement engine no doubt has. OPTIONAL EXTRA: Clutch is ok but quite spongy, logically you would probably do a clutch too at this point while the engine is out... The passenger door also refuses to open, which is just straight annoying to sort as you can't get the door card off without opening the door... So some mutilation of the door card or the door itself would probably need to happen to fix that. Then the car needs to go through compliance, it got WOF in October 2022 and drives decently enough so I don't think it would need a ton of things, but they are so strict that I'm guessing things like brakes will be flagged. And then with it all done you're left with a W8 that cosmetically is not the greatest. Cosmetically: The car is PEPPERED with stone chips, not only on the front but the sides too - having been living in rural areas its clearly been exposed to many gravel & dirt roads. Paint otherwise is nice - no clear coat peel and it does sparkle. The interior is ok but the thigh support is collapsed on the driver's Recaro seat. Wood trim is all cracked and the centre stack bit is peeling off. Leather door cards are doing the typical VAG thing where the leather un-sticks itself from the card and makes an air pocket. The car looks relatively tidy in photos - and I suppose its not horrendous, it's just compared to the silver car it just seems so much more used. I also think I'll pinch the exhaust for my silver car - it's funny, the Remus mufflers look TERRIBLE in photos, but in real life they look great and have grown on me heaps (I am ashamed to admit). So then I am left with the ultimate question: how much would the car be worth when its all done? Given the cosmetics and with a standard exhaust, I think the most I would pay is $7K... and I'm a lunatic. Normal people would probably have interest at $5k? This becomes a problem as at an absolute minimum I see the car costing $6K to resurrect (+ many, many hours), realistically probably $8K+ depending on how many hick-ups occur along the way, and how deep the rabbit hole goes when the engine is out - and ultimately I probably wouldn't keep the car long term anyway. So then on the thought of parting it out - I can take the exhaust, fuel tank module, and save all the unique manual bits like seats, shifter etc for myself just in case, and sell off the box, (its relatively common, definitely no 420G lol), wheels and a few other bits, and still have a bunch of spare bits for my silver car. But it REALLY, REALLY does pain me to part out such a rare and unique car, which is clearly saveable. So anyway, that was a long dump of thoughts, what do you all think? As you can probably tell, my heart says to save it, my head says to part it out....

HAHAHAHA thats gold 😂 Yeah it's one of those things where I think the car was just so unknown that even eagle eyed VAG enthusiasts may have scrolled right past it - especially since an automatic W8 is both underwhelming and pretty much valueless. Definitely a limited market - that car really only has value to an insane person such as myself haha The manual W8s have the same transmission (01E) as the B6 generation Audi S4 with the 4.2L V8, so I suspect the manual box is probably the most valuable bit of the car, but most people don't realise its the same gearbox. In fact, many people can't even conceptualise that a W8 is almost in essence a V8. You are dead right on the international market front - people on the W8 Facebook group go nuts over the manual bits, even the Recaro seats are a hot commodity. Just a bit limiting being in NZ shipping to overseas, but I'm confident I could quite easily make my money back. The split piece factory BBS are worth a little bit too. If the car is pretty gone, I'll keep majority of the bits, and will maybe even embark on swapping a silver wagon to manual so I can have the sedan and matching wagon just for that extra nerd clout hahaha.

That is to be decided for once I see it in person. So it turns out its 1 of 4 (everyone thought there were 3 but alas...), so if I resurrect it, I'll have 50% of the manual W8s in the country... and if I don't well that just makes my silver car more rare - and I get all the parts I could ever dream of. I bought the Carjam report - has been a single owner car since 2010, and it looks relatively tidy. It got WOF in October 2022, and then for some reason got deregistered as a result of the engine damage? Very strange. Will contact a crash certifier to triple check it isn't somehow logged as flood damaged, as it's just a bit weird it got written off for engine damage by an insurer? Maybe the motor is hydrolocked? Nevertheless, at $951 I am pretty happy, just need to figure out how to get it from Hamilton to Auckland - transporter suggestions?

You should feel sorry….. I’ve just bought the dam thing 🤣 *Deep sigh*

Kiwi Car Life’s video of my W8 (for anyone interested).

Oh dear, just as I try reduce the fleet of cars, another one wants to be adopted....

SOLD UPDATE: I just SOLD the car. Buyer is a fellow BMW enthusiast and lover of high mileage cars. Had a very tasty M-Sport F01 730D which I got to drive, very glad the car has gone to him. His previous BMWs include an E38 750iL, F10 M-Sport 535i Touring (which unfortunately got flooded) and 318iS Manual. He said the wheels + Le Mans Blue drew him to the car, and he found it by filtering by BMWs, -> highest mileage on Trademe when he was bored.

Haha there she is! Currently has 1.2 million views on Tik Tok, and about 200,000 on Instagram (if anyone cares). My only gripe about that car is it protested to being reviewed by him by fogging up its driver's side headlight after I washed it, and then the moisture promptly went away after filming concluded. That will forever annoy me haha.

Haha yeah that's my boss who does those videos - doesn't compare to the "good old Aussie muscle"... apparently It's probably now one of the most viral 130i's in the world! Was quite funny to watch him rant about the cupholder, unfortunately he couldn't experience the best bit of the 130i - the driving experience - because he's lost his license!

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.