Twistee

About an hour ago heard the unmistakable sound of a diesel ute doing a burn out at the top of the street. Shot out and jumped in the 4x4, headed up the drive, had to wait for the stupid slow ass gates to open, by which time they had lunched the rubber and thrown the tread all over the road and I could hear the sound of a steel rim being driven at high speed off into the distance. Got the the aftermath just too late to see which direction they had shot off to, but I went for a quick drive and could clearly see where they had done the same thing at at least two other intersections. And before anyone asks why didn't I call the cops, because the last time I did nothing happened and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. Yesterday a poor local family had their dog run over by someone doing skids, the local Police response to everything is call us while it's happening next time, the local cops are 15 minutes away at this time of night. Pukekohe, Patumahoe, Tuakau and Waiuku have more black rubber lines than road marking. According to the stats from LTSA / AT rural south Auckland has some of the highest accident rates and fatalities, they keep on dropping the speed limits, installing safety cameras and there are more mobile "safety" cameras out here than patrol cars. I think I need to buy some milk, pour it all over the road by the burn out scene and see if that attracts the cops like last week.............

The build tag lists it as an M535iA, and from what I have read about this gen the M535i was just a bodykit and interior upgrade model, auto was an option. The current owner has certainly addressed all the common problem child areas during his ownership. Someone will get a well sorted car, unfortunately thanks to the current world we live in the circle of potential owners of these classics is shrinking. While these are no E28 M5, the price gulf between them is huge and I think the look of the shark nose era of cars is amazing regardless of model. And I only recently learnt that there were a few companies of the era that did a touring conversion using various items from Merc and BMW parts bin. Looks a little out of whack from some angles, but it's a touring ......

Is it wrong that I have a dad wagon, an old Terrano farm hack 4x4, a low mileage STI RA, a POS Lancer in a shipping container and yet I still want another car for when all of those are broken and wife is out in her SUV? One of my uncles worked for BMW in South Africa and had one of these when I was very young, nostalgia is a terrible thing when it comes to cars. Anyway this one has been sitting for a while on TM, in the past 6 months there have been a white and a red M535i that have gone for much stronger money than what this one is asking, wonder why this one is not moving - advertised price is $22k, but the seller has commented they will take $18. Unfortunately I have flatlined the next few months of my finances thanks to the house renovation so it wont be grabbing this one, although I have a pile of Noiseline 13mm GIB that I bought before the prices went through the roof and supply stopped that haven't been used - I could sell that at the scalpers mark up rate and probably come close to the asking price Link to the TM auction: https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/535/listing/3463793790?bof=aKD140dE

And all it took was the nation crying over some spilt milk

Dropped my daughter at school and then just about got side swiped by some builder in a black double cab rolling on 21's. He had clearly just gotten his morning coffee, was running late to his current job to screw every dime out of some poor sod, no indicating, just started to pull out then lumped on his brakes..... I went around the idiot, looked back at him as he pulled out behind me coffee in hand while trying to find his seat belt ..... still not indicating. What a winner. If you are the type of tradie that is late is everything in life, maybe just maybe get your ass out of bed earlier. Well done for strongly reinforcing the stereotypical double cab ute dripping with chrome mentality. FFS.

I got hooked into watching Ogmios - this just cracked me up And keeping it on topic for this thread - blah blah don't dance on street, or if you are going to be these guys! I got trapped in googling WTF it was all about, these guys pray hard and play hard!!

It does feel like a race between BMW and Audi to see who can get the largest grill (towing a vehicle behind it) into production. And regarding Bangle who I think everyone just assumed (myself included) was the designer of the E60/E61 series - this story and the accompanying audio interview completely changes that one. https://www.bmwblog.com/2020/09/26/chris-bangle-reveals-the-truth-of-the-e60-5-series-design/ I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but I can't see the exterior of that ever being looked at as a classic by future generations.

If Darth Vader and a Chipmunk had a head on this is the love child, a face that only a mother could love. Be warned, once you have seen the ugly you cannot un-see the ugly, and everyone bagged Chris Bangle........

Hydraulic press channel FTW. Love the failure mode, if you can call it that.

That connector is wiring porn, great work.

Just wrench on them hard, as a Subaru owner I've followed this process many times and never had any problems with broken turbo studs..... I'm always impressed with your dedication to keeping these cars on the road.

I spent a long time convincing myself that the 550 was solid with only minor issues, I really love the touring. Guessing the 535D version wouldn't cut it for you? I came really close to buying a one owner nz new one, they seem to be very underrated and undervalued.

I cringe everytime I look at that pic, I'm sure it's fine and the bottom end just needed the last of the engine degreaser rinsed off before it headed in for a WOF. Remind me, exhausts just love thermal shock right?

Welcome, lovely car. Pics, anywhere that you have had a little drive to get to aka an adventure.

Flexi, bellows or the factory cat? BMW does seem to love 1 piece exhaust systems, do think it is a production/performance efficiency thing? I thought the rear end on the M5 would have a flange, but it also appears to be one piece to the headers.

@KeesWell said.

@Kees Having been an admin for years on another car forum I learnt that you can't please everyone all the time and everyone has an opinion. Like others I ended up on here as I was looking for a great local community before I committed to buying the dad wagon, I can see merit in both sides of this story. I would hasten to add that we shouldn't point fingers here, Mike while obviously very experienced had quite staunch views that would on occasion be released like a 2x4 to the head. One of the things that gave me the confidence to move into BMW ownership was the supportive environment offered by Bimmersport members, we don't have to agree on everything but there is a basic level of respect we have for others that shouldn't result in admin being put into a position like this and a long time member leaving. Guaranteed that no one has won out of this, the community has lost a valuable resource and like everything that becomes political people start to question the leadership - don't forget that the majority of car forums / clubs are run by people volunteering their time and resources - it can be a thankless job.

Agreed, he was clearly very dedicated and talented. This thread was always great to watch.

So anyway, back to my original rant take away points - rubber and tire carcases littering local streets = bad. And remember ...... I think we have better things to do than rage at each other, smiling through gnashed teeth is way healthier

You know that things are well broken when "boy racers" have gone from harmless park ups, to the midnight drag train, to blocking off roads in industrial estates and now to attacking milk tankers. FFS, I think a fair amount of us went through at least some of this, but "back in the day" we had some respect for the law as there appeared to be repercussions for our actions. Getting over reading the news of idiots who are clearly untouchable destroying roads and private property, with everyday people getting to the point where they take the law into their own hands and then get prosecuted. Strange how the police have no capacity to be everywhere to bring a end to this burnout culture, but have all the resources to prosecute individuals that try to protect their property, family etc from this sort of behaviour. I'm not anti cops, just sick of driving from home to my daughters school and just seeing new black rubber everyday. Nothing is sacred, the intersection outside the local cemetery looks like the burn out box at Meremere. I spoke with the local cops who basically said that this is the biggest issue they currently face in rural south Auckland.

Possibly because Audi is making a fair amount of noise in that space, and Merc is not far behind. I think Audi announced an Avant version recently which would be the killer option, but the pricing is still sky high compared to the ICE models RS4/6.

I like the wire idea, thanks. I think while I'm out and about grabbing that I'll look into either the red or blue chrome chequer plate mats as a fall back option, that contrast with the black interior - BMW really missed the mark on not including something like that as a factory option

The driver's side floor mat keeps catching on the seat when it moves. This has caused the back edge of the mat to curl up making the snagging issue even worse. I have two memory positions for the seat, one for driving and the second for getting in/out. The seat moves a fair amount between the two positions so everytime it crosses the back edge of the floor mat it grabs hold. My options are get another floor mat that actually fits, super glue the current floor mat down forever more, install a fixed bucket seat or simply walk everywhere with a horn speaker strapped to my back making V10 noises. Any ideas on solving this, I'm not a huge fan of the Velcro style pads that hold the mat down. Pretty sure these are M5 style mats from the car yard, and about 10mm longer than required for the correct fitment. All the other mats are perfect.

The whole thing is just click bait unfortunately, "it's rare, so let's change the colour, seats and steering". I'll still watch this unfold.