Daily drives

Love the Golf and love (more maybe) that you call it a Stormtrooper. George Lucas would be so proud. May the force be with you.
Who are you calling scruffy looking? Aren’t you a little short for a Stormtrooper? These are not the droids you’re looking for etc etc
 
My daily - though to be fair my E86 is as much of a daily - is a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer 2.0 Sport estate. Exhaust has just developed a small hole just as I decided to sell it. Would be an alright purchase for someone, though I fear "decent van alternative for a painter and decorator on a budget" might be more accurate than "decent car". No fighting in the queue to make me offers (located Guildford).
 
Fred Smith said:
My daily - though to be fair my E86 is as much of a daily - is a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer 2.0 Sport estate. Exhaust has just developed a small hole just as I decided to sell it. Would be an alright purchase for someone, though I fear "decent van alternative for a painter and decorator on a budget" might be more accurate than "decent car". No fighting in the queue to make me offers (located Guildford).
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Did you buy the 3L Subaru in the end, or decide it was too much of a risk?
 
Moved from a Range Rover Sport P400e to my new daily. I5 M60. Stratospheric acceleration like only an Ev could. I won’t miss £3k insurance on the RR!!

Wife has a new Touareg R too which is a nice bit of kit. Not a beemer though.

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Remains my favourite “daily”. It does use a little petrol though :o
 
BMWZ4MC said:
Did you buy the 3L Subaru in the end, or decide it was too much of a risk?
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No - I did look and drive it and it felt pretty damn good. I was umming and aaaghing and planning on going back Sunday morning to take a second look and quite possibly buy, but in the meantime I got a call saying "a Polish bloke who looked a week or so back has just turned up - he's said he'll be here tomorrow morning with the cash and car transporter - it's going to Poland". Part of me is a bit gutted, (it looked good and felt great), but a part of me is relieved that I have been prevented from making a potential mistake and buying an expensive headache.
 
I feel your frustration, I’ve lost two cars in similar circumstances:
One was an sub-70k mile Z3M Coupe for less than £8k. I thought I could find better for the money - I was wrong and it sold to a dealer in the meantime. Soon after that, even the ropey ones were commanding £20k.
The other was a sub-10k kilometre 2018 V6 Exige during the early days of COVID that was being sold by a builder who thought he was about to lose his business. I dallied long enough for Queensland to close its border with NSW and it had sold by the time the border opened again. That car would be worth 50% more than the 2020 asking price now.

You should definitely think of it as a big hassle averted rather than a missed opportunity. It’s much healthier that way!
 
How is everyone finding parts availability for cars made circa 2000 to 2008? Not least 3 series Beemers?

After ten years of using them my local indie garage finally fobbed me off with regards my 18 year old Mitsubishi... they didn't want to do a bodge job and sent me elsewhere (fair enough - that's a good reason to use them, I like my garage don't like bodging things!!) and they told me parts are getting harder to get and they gave me the distinct impression they don't really want to deal with an old PoS like that Lancer any more.)

I'm now wondering the extent I might find similar on a 3 series and the extent to which there is a real risk of parts becoming hard to come by in the next 3 or 4 years.
 
Depends on the car / model. I can find most things for my 1993 Golf.

3 series would be fine as well
 
2004 clio 182 - Parts are becoming expensive, or not sold as new anymore, so harder to get
2006 Z4M - Most stuff is still about, ECP even carry parts for next day delivery
1973 2002 - Engine parts are available (M10 used in a lot of cars), but try getting some trim :roll: Everything is 4 times the price it should be!
 
Thanks guys.

Cannot believe the experience I have had on my Mitsubishi. Went to a tiny indie I have never used before on Tuesday and asked them if they could weld the hole I found in the exhaust... the guy took a quick look, said "it needs a new flex pipe, I can supply and fit it for £90, I'll order the part right now, see you 8am on Thursday. Don't worry about giving me your details, if you don't turn up I've got plenty of other work to do." Got there this morning at 8am and the job was finished before 9am.
 
Fred Smith said:
Thanks guys.

Cannot believe the experience I have had on my Mitsubishi. Went to a tiny indie I have never used before on Tuesday and asked them if they could weld the hole I found in the exhaust... the guy took a quick look, said "it needs a new flex pipe, I can supply and fit it for £90, I'll order the part right now, see you 8am on Thursday. Don't worry about giving me your details, if you don't turn up I've got plenty of other work to do." Got there this morning at 8am and the job was finished before 9am.
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Result :thumbsup:
 
samZ4M said:
2004 clio 182 - Parts are becoming expensive, or not sold as new anymore, so harder to get
2006 Z4M - Most stuff is still about, ECP even carry parts for next day delivery
1973 2002 - Engine parts are available (M10 used in a lot of cars), but try getting some trim :roll: Everything is 4 times the price it should be!
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Try getting an Oem exhaust or more importantly a Bonnet. :( Look after those beauties. :wink:
 
Fred Smith said:
How is everyone finding parts availability for cars made circa 2000 to 2008? Not least 3 series Beemers?

After ten years of using them my local indie garage finally fobbed me off with regards my 18 year old Mitsubishi... they didn't want to do a bodge job and sent me elsewhere (fair enough - that's a good reason to use them, I like my garage don't like bodging things!!) and they told me parts are getting harder to get and they gave me the distinct impression they don't really want to deal with an old PoS like that Lancer any more.)

I'm now wondering the extent I might find similar on a 3 series and the extent to which there is a real risk of parts becoming hard to come by in the next 3 or 4 years.
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I've had my 2005 330i for over 5 years and never had a problem with parts not being available. That may be because BMW built so many of them.

I'm not so confident about my 2004 Z4 because quite a few parts are specific to the M and not many of those were made, but I've been OK so far. :)
 
Mr Tidy said:
I've had my 2005 330i for over 5 years and never had a problem with parts not being available. That may be because BMW built so many of them.

I'm not so confident about my 2004 Z4 because quite a few parts are specific to the M and not many of those were made, but I've been OK so far. :)
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It's not an issue I have really thought about before, and by far the oldest car I ever owned until now was a 1980 Capri in about 2000, and parts were easy as anything back then as I recall (there was even a Capri specialist garage not far from where I lived back then).

Give it 5 years and the Venn diagram between "cars I want to buy" and "cars new enough that spares are available" will be two big circles with a dirty great gap between them!
 
The search continues... I know this is a VERY stupid question, but I just wish to be 110% sure... what engine is this?
 

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RMB said:
N52K?
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Thanks... I was 99.99% sure it was an N52, but the seller had me a bit confused... he's selling another BMW with the same engine, and his listing for that one claims it's an N53.

And when you do a spec check it gives the HP. kw etc and there are N52s and N53s with identical numbers, so you can't check that way.
 
Re engine type: My Z4 E89 23i has a small sticker on the block, at the front behind the air intake, which is easily visible, which starts ‘N52…’ if that helps?
 
It could actually be an N53, knowing all the car details would help. Is it an E9X 330i? What year etc etc.
Edit. My grandad had a 2009 E91 330i and that was a 272bhp N53.
 
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