Twistee

Having experienced something similar years ago, I had a good laugh at your story. Well played

I bought my wife a Google Pixel as I have run them for years and really like the image /video quality, every f*king picture she takes looks like some 80's soft focus soap opera as the lenses are just caked in who knows what. Pretty sure if I'd bought her a potato it would have the same outcome (no offence potatoes, you are delicious ) . I know, first world problems......

Here's to another 100,000km's of vaguely trouble free motoring

Spoiler alert, E60 FTW.

2025 M5 Touring in green driving through Highland Park. First time I have seen one in person, so Darth Vader, so massive. No doubt spectacular, but I'll stick with my old knuckle dragger.

It's home and I have not had a moment to look at the colour closely, but the parting comment from the owner of Eurotech was live with it for a few weeks and if you find anything let me know. I have to go back as the kidney grills and guard vents are a coming from overseas. When I get some time and it's not bucketing down it'll get a wash and put in the garage, led lights will highlight any issues. I'm very happy with the Eurotech service, dealing directly with the owner and having him fight insurance on your behalf to get the best result is one of the many reasons I would recommend them to anyone. Sorry dew covered pics from this morning is all I have right now, The rear bumper is now crack free, at some point in its life someone backed it into a pole just hard enough to spider crack the paint and crack some clips. After a month without it I can honestly say that a hard 3rd gear pull on the way home via "Mexico" is still as scary as the first time I drove it hard Final note, the Turtlewax headlight repair that looked great when I dropped it off has failed - on to the next product.

As some of you may recall I bought a slightly more practical daily, a VW Polo GTI. The car unfortunately is on MK4 Golf GTI BBS rims that are not my cup of tea, to fix this I have found a set of factory rims in Upper Hutt. How do I get the rims to Auckland without making this a massive drama, the rims are $200 which fits the cheap and cheerful requirement but I feel that the shipping and collection etc could blow that well out of the water. Does anyone have any actual experience here? Anyone planning a little drive to Auckland anytime soon? I'm almost willing to pay more for the convenience of not losing what remains of my hair trying to make this happen. PS. It's rims only (no rubber) and they are already boxed.

Tomorrow I make the collection trip to Eurotech. 5 weeks, which may seem like ages but I was in no rush and Easter/Anzac was in there as well. Here are some of the progress images that they sent through a few weeks back. Insurance paid for a bunch of extras including genuine guard vents and kidney grills, I paid to have the rear bumper refurbished. Having driven the M5 nearly daily for almost 4 years to not having it for 5 weeks I wonder what that first angry stab is going to feel like.

For anyone who knows their car audio, that is probably worth buying for the extras alone. F1's and those v12 amps are still pretty serious kit. The fact that the custom paneling and enclosures have not failed after two decades is impressive in itself. Those head units in period were an arm and a leg.

E60 M5 near Glenbrook today, I was quite a few cars back in the Polo and couldn't tell if it was space grey or silverstone II. Either way it looked very tidy from where I was stuck.

@EagleThanks for reminding me, I went and did the basic pull the dipstick check idle speed vacuum test and nothing changed. Do you know if there is meant to be an o-ring seal on the dip stick tube where it attaches to the steel pipe coming out of the block? I checked the oil level when I was in Wellington and the orange plastic pipe came straight out with the dipstick. It was obviously newly installed judging by the condition of it. My guess is the PCV valve was not actually changed, or may have been changed years ago. I had forgotten what a pain the VAG parts breakdown can be when so many cars share the same short block with different packaging.

Agree, the interiors don't hold up like jap cars - I can't think of a single 2006 era BMW that isn't a basket case either though and for the money it was worth every cent, plus I have a decent when it sh*ts itself fund because it cost next to nothing. With RE003's it can put "some" of the power down before just lighting up in first and second, so your Swift may still be in with a chance. The bucket seats are fantastic, they are better than the MK6 Golf GTI that my wife used to have. I have two broken vertebra and was half expecting to be in agony by the time I'd spent 8 hours behind the wheel, I've really taken to it and look for any excuse to go for a quick fang. This was a bit of a semi barn find car, the previous owner had it for almost a decade, did minimal miles, but had it maintained. Once the weather clears up I'll rip the seats out and wet and dry vac the interior. Other than the headliner sagging the rest of the interior is just dirty.

Was told PCV had been done, I had planned on doing it anyway.

Having given up on finding a reasonably priced EV / Hybrid that wasn't completely thrashed I changed tack and found this : A phone call on Saturday, a one way ticket to Wellington on Sunday and 8 hours later it was home. Please ignore the headlight fluid, I topped that up after finding the rubber boot lying in the engine bay. For the $4k I spent on this I'm very happy, other than needing a service and fixing some of the vacuum lines that have perished it's in great shape for a 19 year old car. Being a 2 door, it just feels stupidly small and with the remap that a previous owner had done it's plenty fast enough - according to my OBDlink it's turned up from 8psi to 25psi of peak boost. Best of all it's a manual, so I get to row through the gears.

Can anyone recommend an electroplater that does Gold Zinc Passivate? I have a pile of nuts, bolts, pipes etc that I would like to have re-plated.