kwhelan

to be fair you could say that about just about any car in those ranges tho nowdays, Honda seem to be the only ones going their own way slightly by adding on sharp angles and its not surprising when you see the koreans have pinched the same designers who worked on the euros

weirder that its in english?

not sure in your area but decent locksmiths can often do them,

I'd own either of those Porsches, still dam good vehicles and despite having more seats get reasonably good reviews don't see your point at all

agree about the m fun cars though, they won't suddenly become unlikeable, its just progress I guess

28 minutes ago, Eagle said:

 Porsche is the only German marque i can think of that seems to have held up for the most part.

agree Porsche make sports cars and have thrown in a few suvs and things lately to try and keep up market share but you always know its still a drivers car first

jag/aston is probably similar

I don't think you can really say BMW are any different than VAG or merc ,they are mostly about mass producing large numbers of many product lines, they have their niche that helps create a bit of brand difference, (Audi was 4 wd and 5 cyl, bmw was rear wheel drive etc)  but their bread and butter is , saloons, stationwagons and they all include some very hot go faster models that try to cater for the sports driver

It was true in the early days their bread and butter cars e30 etc made great sports vehicles with little changing required but the way the whole industry has improved its knowledge sharing, designer poaching  and engineering its relatively easier for new say korean brands  to achieve those levels now and I guess on a road the theoretical limits of handling/ride and comfort and performance are easily met

bit the same as any cheap smartphone will actually do 90% of what a dearer brand does now

you could argue american muscle cars are getting better and going back oldskool may be the only option for diehard tyre spinners

10 minutes ago, NZ BMW said:

Hehe, I can show you the invoice from Auckland BMW for mine if you want. That’s the price for factory blades. 

That being said, I’ve got two years out of them and they are now in need of replacement so they do last. 

so your saying they are using magic moondust rubber that last 2 whole years, wow seems to be well worth the cost then, you got ripped

theres no logic to it,you just have to suck it up if you want to run a bmw, along with water pumps and various other parts. It certainly hard to justify to any sane person like your wife when your car just keeps soaking up money compared to her bulletproof japper which in the 116 category is no worse in any way than the bmw

bmw owners are masochists

a pulley and coolant tank on a car that's done 60k in 7yrs is pathetic unless your looking through BMW rose tinted glasses. We all know and expect those things to fail through unfortunate experience but its hardly fair to expect a new bmw owner to realize that and just call it maintenance because to nearly any other brand its not expected. Its a small town runabout and should be judged against its competition for expected maintenance. its hardly an M3

I share your distrust and treat a lot of dealers with caution ,sometimes you have no choice especially regarding warranty but I 've caught them out too many times for them to just be all believed as straight up honest.

My nissan warrant for example was passed ok, but needed new rear pads supposedly, odd I thought so never did anything about it and 3 years later still sailing thru warrants at the same nissan dealer

I used to work at a holden dealer in the parts dept myself so I know full well how often wiper blades and things were changed on customers cars.

or some true fan whos it was their pride and joy and who had it all done at dealerships and just burned money, rare but they do exist

Eeeyore

I just bought one off aliexpress, local locksmith programmed it for me for probably a quarter of that

what grade of steel wool

1 hour ago, Allanw said:

My niece is getting her full license in a couple of months, and has a VW New Beetle, early 2000's.

Her's is a 1.8 Turbo manual... but there are 2.slow ones too. They're a bit of fun, somewhat safe, but not really sporty.

Don't go VW turbo, absolute pain in the A** always stupid air vacuum leaks and CEL lights for something. Even a low ks one put me off Audi's for life that bloody motor

10 hours ago, KwS said:

Harris is good, but neither Rory or Matt worked well with him. He's better on his own. Matt was painful to watch imo, dry humor, weak personality.

I want GT to be all just cheap car challenges lol. Loved those segments on TG.

funny different for everyone, I thought Matt was excellent after the first season nerves and  especially in the last season, his dry humour worked well with Chris and Rory, which for an american was quite unusual. I thought he had the potential to be better than clarkson less ranty and just the dry humour. His absolute joy in doing the stuff showed through better than clarksons as well.

His pieces about some combine harvester /tank or whatever were brilliant

the bit where he and harris were testing those battery moto-x bikes and the all terrain thing when they were hunting bigfoot was great and showed the potential those two had. Sorry to see he bailed.

Season 3 just started, nice montage of what's ahead. man they get some great scenic shots of locations camera work is outstanding as usual.

first episode is a set in detroit and about american muscle cars, 1000hp with a 2.9 qtr supercharger and is complete madness as usual. very sad about detroit tho. From the richest city in USA to the poorest.

worth it just to watch the McLaren senna a car I have never heard of break all lap records by seconds, 

our local school fair always runs a random donated motor till destruction as a kids betting fundraiser every year, they go full revs for a bloody long time before bang

craggy is great good choice, you can see the Te Mata peak as you go past, the restaurant is under it, if you have time blast out to ocean beach for a nosey,

the road from opotiki thru to Gisborne is great, not the coast but the direct route following the river. A real drivers road scenic but great bends and flows, really satisfying

Sit tight until we can start selling water at the same price as oil, it will happen then countries will be knocking begging 

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/motoring/video/porsche-cayenne-breaks-airplane-towing-record/vi-BBAE11Z

at least the rear doors didn't pop open like happened to uncles Vauxhall victor

before worrying about EV increases needing a bigger power grid they have to explain what happens when they shut down Taranaki oil.

Before the gas runs out, we will need to replace 1200mw of gas fired electricity generation. That's equivalent to Benmore and Manapouri combined. A few idiot windmills and solar panels aren't going to do it, so where is the power coming from Minister?

https://www.suzuki.co.nz/100-hour-sale

2 hours ago, SteveArmy90 said:

I don't know what I'd get next. I'm trying not to research cars and get the I-wants because I could still end up saddled with this one. NOT a 135i ?

bit harsh, as long as you get the checks done and those injectors replaced you end up with a great car, owning BMWs is an expensive hobby that is hard to justify mostly  to those uninitiated ,alfas are worse

wow that's all kinds of wrong and not something I'd ever considered before,

3 things really , lucky  you took insurance, lucky the insurance wasn't fussy about the historic codes, bloody worthless pre-inspection should be named and shamed so no-one on here gets in the same state