vonripsnorter

Ive been given first option to buy.& the old dude wont sell it to any one, he wants to be sure it will be looked after (his late wife's car, so there is all that going on) The colour is Alpine white (one of the best colours on an E30 in my opinion) with Pacific (read, blue) cloth Manual sunroof Jack never used, tools never used, etc etc Priceing of classics is a very hard thing, I also have a 1967 VW Beetle which sits in my garage, I do around 600km per year in it & it is mint, Won first prize in its class at the VW nationals when ever it atends. Now some would say that is a $5000 car, but to that I would say, go find me one better & I'll give you $10,000.00 at the drop of a hat & it would be ME getting the great deal. Is it the same with a mint old BMW?? I wish I had taken some pictures but just think of how a good one looked 20 years ago & you get the picture.

Even keeping in mind that this car is as mint as they get “seriously’â€& it hasn’t been done up, all the paint is original & its had seat covers from new & if you look under them, every thing is like new!! The old guy who owns is so so fussy & it shows Its one of those cars that you don’t see very often I had the same thing with a VW Golf GTI I had, people were saying $4000 max, Sold it for twice that! Funny thing was, when people were saying the Golf was only around $3000 to $4000 max, I came back to them & told them that if they could find one as good for that price that I would give them $6000 for it!! No one took the offer up

Ok, I know this has most likely been talked about in depth before But being "REAL" here What would a real mint, original E30 318i Auto be worth, & I would put money on this one being one of the BEST in the country!! It’s a one owner, done 90,000km, Full service history, still looks & smells new inside, paint is mint, underside is mint & I'm talking, not far of concourse here!! It’s that good, yes it’s only a 318 but it’s the condition that makes this one very special. If you brought a $2000.00 one & spent $4000.00 doing it up, you would not come close Your opinions please

This is more of an issue with the Mercs as I'm sure you are aware Em's, & the advantage of a Singapore import is that they have the same specs as a car that would be an NZ new example (ie the spring settings, the jappas have softer springs , drive an NZ new car of the same year & model as a jappa & they can feel like diffrent cars altogether) the problem you get with 99% of the cars imported from Japan is the lack of servicing so even some low km cars can cause greef, Japan also suffers from the Humid conditions depending on what part of japan the car came from.

Sorry to disagree here, but if you do it every year , you would have to be getting it for under $2.50 per L , not to be cheaper than the genuine coolent , but just to match it!! sounds like a bad case of false economy, every four years as the people who made your car say, sounds good to me I alway feel, you should service a car properly , do it once & do it right & it will serve you well. Trust me, I see it every day, cars that people have tried to skimp or be 'cheap' when it comes to looking after their car are always the ones that "PAY" for it later. I always find it a laugh too, when people take their car to some garage because they 'only' charge $40 or $50 per hour they get a bill for three hours work, when a BMW dealership would do the same job in one but some how, they still go back to the cheap garage because they are cheaper!!!! go figure

There is most definatly a genuine Coolent & this should be changed every 4 years as coolent tends to lose its ability to protect your engine from rusting from the inside & also helps condition the coolent hoses etc, there is also a vast diffrence in the quality of various products out there & since the Genuine BMW coolent is only $14.81 plus gst for 1.5 L , I would ask the question "why would you NOT do as the Germans say & put the real mc coy into your car"??

Just go buy a new one from your local BMW dealer!!, they are part of the plastic trim that covers your wiper linkages & come with the rubber bit you mention which is bonded to it. there is a left & right hand side, they are about $46 per side plus gst

Wow, We would never even think of changeing the plate frames or stickers on a customers car with out their permisson I think it is well worth a phone call to the dealership if they do this to you Paul

It is a nice car, Not too many E30's around looking that tidy EM's, dont forget to attend to those fuel lines mentioned to your parents & the cam belt!! What a fantastic first car!! dont give it stick, remember its 18 years old, just drive & injoy I'm happy for you , you must be stoked!!!!

The Germans arnt too good at winning wars though!!!( I must admit , they made some cool aircraft trying ) :thumb: immmmmmmmm................in saying that, the BMW engines in the ME262 were a bit scary........Time before overhaul was 6 hours !!! & during that time, they were some what unreliable & prone to flame outs, it must have been such a joy to fly ( time before overhaul 6 hours, unreliable & prone to flame outs!!........sounds like some cars I know of too!! & I'm not talking about mine)

It depends on the car too, as to which colour looks good I think E39 in oxford green , is "real" nice BUT E60 in the same colour is just wrong

You have missed the point slightly - Europe use the AKI index for petrol. Which does lead into MON sorta. Anyway AKI is anti-knock index.. so roughly 91 AKI = 95 RON on our pumps. the europeans still talk of RON as you will see in all the vehicle lit, the problem is our fuel quality here in NZwe may have the same RON , so when a German car company says that the min octain rating is say 91 , they are talking about a better quality fuel which they have Our 91 is not the same & has a lower MON (as mentioned) hence that is why a european car tuned to run on 91 ( in europe) can have bad pinking probs here in NZ I know for a fact that our fuel has been tested by several european car companys in the past as they were experiencing problems here in NZ that they didnt get in Europe & it was because of the MON I remember Porsche listing "all" the contrys in the world with "poor quality" fuel & listed all 2 of them, yeap only 2 & good old NZ was one of them ( though I'm sure they must have excluded parts of easten Eurrope ) so i dont think I missed the point really as even though your hand book may say "min octane 91" that will not apply to our 91 which is jungle juice I also remember VW a few years back now changed all the hand books to read min 96 for NZ only where 91 was fine & dandy for the rest of the world ( oh except for that 'other place" :thumb: you mentioned AKI, which is correct then 91 in europe has a higher AKI than the 91 here!!, hence , all of the above

If the sticker is missing, take the last 7 digets of the chassis number to any BMW dealership & ask then to check it in the "ASAP portal"this will give you all the production options for your car & will include trim & colour codes

I do Know of a couple at least, dont confuse the likes of an M3 & a 3 series with M Tech kit as they are chauk & cheeseI see you have a MK1 Golf GTi ( fantastic wee cars ) its the same as comparing a genuine Golf Gti, to a Golf L with a 1100 cc engine but it just happens to have the same recro style seats & str wheel in it I would suggest you have a look on the net as you will be able to fined every thing you need on the genuine "m" cars these are a serious bit of kit !!! :thumb:

& dont forget to factor in the fact that you will go further on the higher octane fuel , with all things being equal ( ie driving style )

I would not run that jungle juice called 91 in anything 96 or even 98 is what we recommended to our customers the 91 we have here is of a lower quaility than the 91 in Europe so not all 91 ron fuel is equal !!! why is this...........well there is what is knowen at RON ( research octane rating ) & the unpublicized MON ( motor octane rating) the oil companys will always refer to RON (you will see this on the pumps) but the important one is the MON , and this will always be lower & the MON of the NZ fuel is lower again than the MON of the european stuff even though the RON is the same!! phew!! got that?? this can cause damage to an engine & you dont always hear it as pinking as someone mentioned!!, sometimes your engine can "pink" & you wont hear it at all & this is called..you gessed it."silent pinking" you will also see that in the handbooks that come with the car, they talk of the "MIN" octane rating, not the recommended ( the mores the better ) other probs you can have with jungle juice is poor fuel economy & sluggish running Yeap its cheaper to buy, but you use more of it !!, the oil companys love people to use it as its cheaper to make & tend to give worse economy so your back for more, more often!!!

the noise may also be a worn CV, not common but not unherd of ether on the E30 you can get them rebuilt, as genuine are only available as a complete unit at a very complete price, if you know what I mean!!

I'm sure theres truth to most of this printthread.php.html

Yeah, I'd love a 1953 cadillac coupe de villethe original low rider !!! & I hope Merc turn the corner soon, it would be a shame to see them slip slide away oh & I think you would love the the car our lawyer we use drives as his 'every day' car hes a real car nut & his every day ride is a 1940's Packard , hows that for cool :thumb:

so true, the Koreans are just as you say & the Japs are looking over thier shoulders at themas for the yanks, I think they lost it in the 70's & have never really made any huge ground since Most ( but not all ) of the Kraut cars are still up there back in the 30's / 40's / 50's / 60's / 70's & 80's it was Merc at the top , they made some fantastic cars then came the 90's & to date & they lost the plot a little back in the 30's & 40's Audi ( Horsch ) made grand cars BMW made shite then in the 50's Audi made junk along with BMW , Audi went bust & Merc brought them then came the 60's & Merc sold Audi to VW who started on a regime to turn them around ( & them selfs) at about the same time BMW did the same & thru the 70's 80's 90's & to date the likes of Audi , BMW , VW have all made huge ground & make fine cars with the odd exception every now & then . Porsche are Porsche , always great Opel ( well we wont even go there )

No, its still a Mazda motor, but made under licence, a licence that Mazda dont ownAlmost all the car makers do this sort of thing, just like the new Mini,s thats no BMW made motor in there !!, infact, whos motor is it??? I know, so lets see how clever we all are

You want to go back don't you, Mercedes boy not realy, but you never know

Mercedes have sold the rights to Ssangyong to build a copy of one of their old motors for use in Ssangyong vehicles onlyso for every motor Ssangyong makes , it pays royaltys to Merc!! The same goes for Mazda, bet none of you guys knew, that for every Rotory Mazda make, they pay royaltys to.........................wait for it................Volkswagen!! thats right, Mazda make them under licence thats owned by VW

yeah, but no mouldings, grill, or fitting kit so its still cheaper to go genuine unless you are going to throw those in too ??

WHAT!!!!......................... your still alive m325i.............................but????how can this be???