Kees

I agree. Even if it wasn't LHD there's still a decent basket of other cool cars for around 20K. Although the market has definitely changed, it wasn't that long ago that a "proper" M Roadster was sub 20K.... - 17.5K in 2018 - 25K in 2019 (pretty sure it went for around 20K in the end)

Yes it is a 987.1 S so bore scoring is definitely a concern of mine. Will definitely look out for it - I saw a 987.1 Cayman S 2 weeks ago up for sale with bore scoring, and there's currently a 997.1 911 with bore scoring for sale at a dealer in Wellington - seems to be more of an issue than the famed IMS? 987.2 would be great. Quite a rare beast along with the 997.2s thanks to the old GFC. Cheeky pic of my Boxster next to my Mum's 997.2 which makes my 987 look rather mediocre 😂 P.S: Ignore the horrid yellow'd headlights on my 987 - that photo was taken the day I got the car.

I've seen that car cruising around Albany a few times - looks great!

Thought I would write a little piece about my latest toy. I've been wanting a Porsche for many, many years. However, even before I got my learner license back in the day I would watch the prices of basically anything Porsche climb. First it was older 911s, then nice 928 S4s and 944 S2s and then it was just everything else. Currently there is a 20K 924.... umm wtf. Anyway, over the last year I came to the realisation that the best way for me to get a decent first taste of the Porsche life was going to be through a manual Boxster. I narrowly missed a bargain (for the time) 987 Manual at the start of the year when the market was still quite hot, but since then prices have come back a little bit. Although that said, I am rather grateful I sold my D3 Audi S8 when I did, as I saw a really tidy looking NZ New example similar to mine go for 9.7K recently... I got double that for mine in March this year. Anyway I digress. I was torn between 986 and 987 Boxster. 986 has the bonus of the detachable hardtop, but the regular 2.5s are apparently a bit gutless, and the S variants or 986.2 2.7s are hard to find at a half sensible price in manual. Plus, the interior is a bit uninspiring and while I actually don't mind the fried egg headlights on a 996, I'm not completely sold on them on a Boxster, especially pre-facelift. Then a month of two ago a high ks 987 rolled across my screen. I'm sure a few of you will recognise it. Seller had it listed as an auction, and had some excellent photos of it in the rain with the interior absolutely filthy. Furthermore, it had faded headlights, stickers on the doors and plasti-dipped wheels which generally just made it look a bit tired, BUT had a NEW Soft Top (which cost $8K apparently). Unsurprisingly no one bid on it, and I was the highest bidder some $8K below what he wanted for the car. Car was re-listed two more times and while the final bid increased from the first auction, it was not hitting reserve. As I was the highest bidder every time I eventually negotiated with the seller to a price I thought was fair. I then made the trip to pick it up. Of course I generally do not have normal car buying experiences. Whether its my Subaru Legacy E-Tune blowing up on the way home, the clutch packing up in my Manual W8 on the test drive, or getting a flat tyre in my newly acquired Boxster at 10pm on a Sunday night in rural Hamilton, there's generally something. So yes, flat tyre.... 10pm at night.... rural Hamilton. Obviously the car does not have a spare and is missing its stud key, excellent! The letter box at the driveway I pulled into was 1126 from memory - just to put into perspective how I had absolutely no idea where I was. Only reason I was on that road in the first place was because the motorway had been closed 😕 Went to two nearby houses to ask if they had an air compressor I could borrow (as the car's one is rubbish and slow) just to try get the car somewhere safer such as a petrol station, but of course: young, Aucklander, driving a Porsche - Do you think I got any help? First house I went to I was ridiculed for not buying a ute, and then ridiculed for buying a girl's car. Second house I went to I was asked if I go to spastics school for being younger with a Porsche. Anyway, luckily the lady at the AA centre had done a good job upselling me to be a premium member with extended towing allowance so I waited with the car for a couple hours and got the tow truck to flat bed the car to a tyre shop on the North Shore in Auckland. Great 19 hour day that was. The next day I set about sorting the tyre. Of course the Pirelli DragonSport it had on it was apparently out of stock nationwide, so naturally I put on a new set of Bridgestone RE003s for $1.3K. Would have preferred Michelin PS4s but the RE003s were ready to go at the shop it was at so its whatever. So finally I got the car home and set about its deep clean. I don't think the interior had been cleaned since the previous owner bought it. It was super dusty and full of rubbish and food crums. Luckily not the hardest to clean, just a little time consuming. Then I set about removing the hideous aftermarket "Porsche" script from the bootlid (to be replaced by a Boxster badge when I find one), and also stripped off the stickers and the plastidip on the wheels. Headlights had a tidy up at Renew Car and already the car looks alot tidier. So anyway, how does it drive? The previous owner upgraded the rotors and put performance pads on it so when you get on the brakes hard it stops like nothing I have ever driven - its SUPER impressive. I think it may have a different intake on it - sounds incredible, like a baby GT3. Has that intoxicating Porsche flat 6 howl when you rev it out. Gearbox is lovely, clutch weighting is nice, steering is awesome - probably the best car I've driven. (I actually think it sounds better than my Mum's 997.2 C2S) The previous owner asked me when I was paying for it - "Is this your first Porsche?", "Yes" I replied. "Well you're screwed then, all you will want to drive from now on will be these". And so far he's been right. I've driven it everyday. Drove my W8 on the weekend and hated how light the clutch was and how high up the car felt. But of course, after excitedly telling everyone I got my first Porsche, someone from my extended family has offered me their manual 987 Cayman S for essentially trade in value so this 987 will probably go up for sale within the month (as passing that deal up is insanity) because there isn't much point having two and under 25 insurance is already an unpleasant experience with the 540i, Manual W8 and the Boxster. P.S: The car has a silly Hikeit throttle controller in it which I hate - a Boxster is obviously not a diesel Mitsubishi Triton, and surprisingly Porsche know a thing or two about making a nice, reactive throttle. Who would have guessed? Anyway, if anyone wants the Hikeit, if you know what you are doing and can remove it from the car you can just have it. Anyway, here's a couple photos of how it's looking now.

HAHA I wish! Just a manual 987 Boxster for now, insurance is already painful enough as I'm a bit under 25 🤣

Spotted this tasty M3 in New Market the other night when I was out for a drive in my most newly acquired toy.

Here’s something you certainly don’t see everyday, especially on a grey Thursday morning! First Lagonda I’ve ever seen in person.

Gave my 540i a much needed wash for the first time in a few months. Have barely used it since it debited my wallet $2.4K in early September. Will write about that incident at some point haha Threw on a coat of Turtle Wax Black Ceramic Wax for some extra gloss. The paint correction I did 18 months ago still looks pretty good, might give the bonnet a light buff at some point if I get bored during summer.

Have been meaning to do an update on my 540i and my W8 for a while now so thought I would start with Franklin. Finally got round to ordering Europlates - ended up being a bit of a hassle when the courier signed for me while I was out and then put the plates in a roof cavity near our front door, so I thought some parcel pirate had nabbed them and only found them yesterday. Anyway, put them on today, happy with how they look. Went for the classic Navy euro plate as I feel its almost an un-official rule that a pre 05' VW has the Navy euro plate. Other than that, car has clicked over to 248,000km (bought it with 242,9XX from memory) so have actually done a fair bit of driving in it considering it gets driven about twice a month. So far this W8 is one of my favourite cars to drive, the way the power is delivered is so unique. Gave the interior a proper detail last weekend too, conditioned all the leather etc. Have also managed to VIN decode the spec. Some interesting items: - Reflex Silver - Sports Package - Nappa Leather Recaro Sports Seats - Winter Package Otherwise its all just regular Passat options I believe. Also apparently 792 W8 Manuals were built total with majority LHD. Other than that, still trying to find out more specific information. SIDE NOTE: Small appreciation post for Bimmersport - the VASK NZ forum is simply ancient in comparison, can't even post photos! Passat's winter package ski bag coming in handy for some bits I bought for my 540i... any guesses what it is?

Interesting he's dropped the price. Was up for 12.8K originally. I asked the guy to view twice (when it was up for 12.8K) and I just get left on seen so clearly he's not particularly interested in selling.

E46 M3 Vert and 992 squaring off at the lights today

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/3774378882 Here it is again with a 55K ONO price....

Just spotted this rather nice looking machine

2.0L Passat TDI Wagon or Audi A4/A6 AVANT 3.0 TDI? Don't think they have a ton of issues. My friend's father has a diesel Passat with 200,000+km, it's had no issues and he loves the fuel economy. I wonder if the savings of a super economical diesel euro will offset the more expensive maintenance of a Euro compared to a petrol Japanese equivalent. Examples: NZ New 2015 Passat TDI Wagon (80,000km) https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/volkswagen/passat/listing/3765391258 NZ New 2012 Audi A6 Avant TDI (120,000km) https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/audi/a6/listing/3768398160 --EDIT-- Another one I've just thought of, and I think they look rather swanky is a newer Mazda 6 diesel wagon. Example: NZ New 2018 Mazda 6 Wagon Diesel (60,000km) https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/mazda/6/listing/3729051182 I think they look really smart. Haven't looked into long term reliability, from memory older CX5s suffered from turbo issues, not sure if that was in diesel or petrol engines though but would be worth looking into.

I'd be interested in taking my 207 GTI there before it closes for good.

I've had my MacBook Air since early 2014 and it still seems to chug along well, admittedly it was a higher end one with an i7 and 256SSD which is what has helped it last I suspect. Usually is only used for Zoom calls, Word & PowerPoints, a little bit of photoshop and then just general media consumption like YouTube. Has all the ports I want (USB, SD Card Slot, & Headphone Jack) and also mag safe which has saved it a few times so have been putting off upgrading especially since the new ones in an effort to be thinner lack a bunch of ports. Also boots up faster than my friend's ~4 year old Surface Pro(something). Been very impressed with it.

Wow thats a really cool pair! 996 Turbo S must be a wicked car.

Will do, my father is really wanting to import a 997.2 Turbo 6MT from the UK for my mother but is waiting for one that isn't black/white/silver (ideally guards red but beggars can't be choosers as a manual 997.2 Turbo is extremely rare lol) so if he finds one, that C2S will definitely be going up for sale and in need of a new home!

I believe the PDC option on NZ New cars are one of the things that makes a 540 an "SE" which stands for Special Equipment. Mine is an SE so has parking sensors along with the auto dip side mirror and auto dim rear view mirror as well as a few other options. I have a registry with a bunch of the 540s in NZ (have about 90 cars on there at the moment), and "SE" trim is relatively rare but not super uncommon. The parking sensors are great and still work really well.

The mode selector by the gear selector puts the car in a different driving mode. S is Sport and changes how reactive the gearbox is which results in better throttle response. If the car isn't in Sport it will barely ever kick down hard and accelerate as it will just generally use its torque to accelerate in whatever gear its already in. NZ New cars just have an A for Auto which is the regular mode and then S for Sport. Seeing as yours is a Hong Kong import it may also have an E for Economy or an image of a snow-flake for snow mode (although most likely not since your car does not have an LSD which is a pretty rare option). "PDC" just stands for "Park Distance Control" which is BMW's way of saying parking sensors.

Yes that green car was for sale dollar reserve a while ago. Sold for 4.4K (which I did think was a bit of a deal, but probably an indicator of what the market thinks its worth) and the person who bought it immediately relisted it trying to make a quick buck to no apparent avail so far. I watch E34 540s sales quite frequently, there was a red NZ New 2 owner example with 160,000km for 10K which sold in 48 hours. Other than that the sales are rather slow. Even an NZ New 118,000km E34 540i with a factory almost "iS" spec (aside from the most important bit... the manual) with all the M-tech goodies including an LSD, sports seats, shadow trim etc sat on the market for ages recently. Pretty sure it didn't pull much over 10K which really surprised me as that car was a bit of a unicorn. All it needed was the 420G and it's an un-official iS.... Maintenance is a very big thing, mine has done very high ks but was serviced religiously every 6 months from 2003-2019. Today mine actually clicked over to 376,000km! M60 B40 is a great engine if maintained properly. I honestly don't understand why 540 values are so poor, they are awesome cars. They have the classic BMW look but pack some pretty decent performance, great build quality and are relatively reliable if looked after. FAR superior to an LS400 of the same age imo. All NZ New cars up until 1996 (so basically all of them aside from a handful) are factory cat delete which is a nice bonus imo.

Yup was a HellBM car, pretty sure the low ks was because it was damaged and just sat around until Ray got it and then he repaired it and got it on the road. I think this is the same car:

The Webbs website details past auction results. This is the one for the M5: https://auctions.webbs.co.nz/m/lot-details/index/catalog/463/lot/111354/1987-BMW-M5?url=%2Fm%2Fview-auctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F463

@m325i found your thread! Your car?

Spotted this tasty looking E46 M3 this morning. Pretty sure it’s a forum member’s car, had distinctive amber tail lights as opposed to the oem clears. Car looked really good! Couldn’t find their thread to tag them though.