Eagle

Indeed, i dont feel wanting more power wise. If the engine was in lighter body and even manual it would destroy many much newer performance cars.

Performance engine or not i love my V12 purely because its the only N\A V12 that does well in most categories (excluding exotics for obvious reasons) Huge potential for power increases as AMG\Zonda showed us, you just gotta have the skills and\or money.

E34 535i and save the coin for fuel I look at it in terms of computing power. The 90's is where computers started to develop rapidly, compare 90's home PC with a modern one. Cars followed with manufacturers like BMW implementing the latest gizmos and gimmicks and the technology allowed. Imo late 90's tech (E39 & E46 era) had a good balance when it came to performance vs complexity. Problem is the focus is becoming more and more about how many electronic "features" can be put in a car and marketed while reducing quality where it matters (or used to), longevity? longsmetivty

Buying one is the cheapest part hence price.

Nice. Reminded me of this one on trademe http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mercedesbenz/auction-1335628584.htm Pelican are quite good at sourcing old parts

Every new BMW V8 that comes out makes me appreciate the M60 engine even more.

I would have probably bought them already but shipping would cost too much i think

Those the ones on trademe with tyres?

Having some trouble finding suitable replacement wheels for my E34. They are going on the car to sell so not too concerned about style, condition etc. Anything ET20, 72.5mm or 74mm bore is fine with legal tyres, except 17x8 or 17x7.5 which i would take as bare alloys. A set 15" stock basket weaves with tyres would be ideal. Don't really want to spend over $300 but may go higher depending on whats offered Can collect from Waikato or Auckland region

Uniden R1 (no gps) and R3 (gps) are getting good pre-release reviews and are coming end of month. Probably get the R1 myself which appear hard to beat for $299usd .

I agree about W140, yet to be in a better quality car, being the top spec V12 obviously helps and it did cost a lot more than the 5.0L V8 model. W140 interior has a gentlemens club vibe to it, perfect for the car considering the different target market. The E34 interior being spartan and driver orientated is what i love about them, clean and simple down to business drivers car, the sports seats fit me like a glove. I have huge faith in E34's, still my goto for the whole package. E38\E39 has too much inferior quality plastic to ever feel true quality but does make up for it in other areas. My old E32 750iL was the best built BMW ive seen, similar to the W126 in having that old 80's sturdiness\quality. BMW and Mercedes all look the same to me these days. At least back in their day they the brands had their own merits and styling.

Depends what his asking price is. Needs a flasher interior imo, those cloth seats too poverty. Engine wise it's pretty underpowered too, being a manual you'd want at least the 2.8\3.0 In saying that do the above and throw on an mtech kit and you'd have a winner.

"Interior is fairly tidy" yeah apart from the front seat bottoms which are probably some of the worst looking ive ever seen. They ruin a good otherwise good looking car.

The 3 E46's ive owned only had 1 rear fog so id say its normal for them. You'd probably get cluster warnings if you had 2 and only one was functioning anyway.

Sweet was wondering when you'd have this done. Should be on par to 100 with mine now.

Got a letter awhile ago from LTSA saying they had received a sold\disposal notice for my S600. Rang them up and they said it was in the system but hadn't progressed or something and not to worry about it. Not sure if it was their negligence or someone tried doing the above.

As i stated i had no info on the E46 you were comparing it to. I agree on the face of it the E46 is the better buy but if id have to look at both to confirm. Quite a number of M52\M54 engines ive driven have had been lacking in power due to bad vanos seals. May not be obvious to the average person but once you've driven a sorted one it's quite obvious.

While i haven't see this particular 3k E46 you gotta admit it could just as easy be a money pit, potentially much more. While the E46 318i M43 is very slow it's far cheaper to maintain and less problematic than any 6 cylinder models if we're talking budget wise. For me it comes down to why is the car being bought and what it's going to be used for.

You buy an E30 because it's an E30, while i like the E46 they are nothing like the E30 experience. A good E30 goes up in value, easier to work on and diagnose, parts are cheaper\less of them\more robust.

What are they roughly worth these days? They are in tidy condition with caps, curbing removed and bolts and lips polished

That's what i was thinking too, id class it as middle aged. All 8 E34's ive owned have been in the 260.000km - 520,000km range with my current 540i about to tick over 300,000 mark Im sure the E34 540i would be the best BMW V8 to go the distance with the least expense.

What if i said id prefer a std face lifted model if i had to choose, would that be extra uncool?. To be fair though ive never been a big fan of A\C styling myself. Alpina B7 is the best looking E65 ive seen.

Was meaning in NZ, no doubt we aren't the worst drivers around. Everyone knows what a BMW grill looks like, take badges off a Toyota and i bet the average person wouldn't be to ID many of them.

BMW's etc being far easier to ID for the average person compared with the average jappa makes it easy to point fingers. Driver wise Auckland has the worst drivers i've encountered for many obvious reasons.

The drivers seat looks like it may cost you a bit to sort. I think the biggest expense on the E39 is suspension, most around the 200k mark are still on original tired shocks etc.