brillomaster

look out for an old silver beemer, that'll be me! drop by and say hello

I'm going to Donington this Saturday, as is Nick (nissanman312) but hoping to go somewhere else in November!

oh I got a bargain lol but similar mileages are still fetching good money on autotrader, plus i'm hoping blue with cream leather is a sought after combination. but hey, you gotta speculate to accumulate, right?! plus I'm in no rush to sell really, so I'll run two weeks with a higher price and see if there are any nibbles, then drop it down to a more realistic £7900.

thats a good shout. Debenhams have put up their xmas decorations already, even my wife who is obsessed with xmas thinks its far too early. Christmas decorations go up at the earliest the 1st of december.

no that's what I mean, if I had an S2000, a Mini JCW and a 335i, I can't see a scenario where i'd ever take the Mini over one of the other two. apart from possibly ease of parking, but then an S2000 isn't exactly big!

ehh? when would you ever take a Mini over an s2k or a 335i?

an electronic sensor is just something else to break, i'd rather have a (well designed) dipstick. when the electronic level sensor breaks on my bmw and thinks its full when it isn't, the first i'll know about it is when the pistons come through bonnet. ideally you'd have both, but that's additional expense for manufacturers on something that isn't particularly critical (unlike say, a backup mechanical connection on a normally steer-by-wire car) its just a case of once bitten twice shy, until you have an issue with oil its not something a lot of people think about, and therefore when they do check the dipstick, they don't know what full looks like. personally I found if you have the right level of oil in a zed, the dipstick gives a pretty clear indication of that level. I got stung before (thankfully not a zed though) and paid the price. now I take a lot more care of checking oil levels, at least until I know what the amount of oil consumption is. EDIT just remembered my wife's old 2002 Peugeot 206 had an electronic oil level sensor and a conventional dipstick, so well done Peugeot!

it can be a major issue... going from a car that doesn't use any oil between services to one that burns a litre every 1000 miles. I know people all say 'check your oil regularly' but if its always full, you'll stop checking it. and then suddenly 4,000 miles into a new car you'll find yourself short of oil. hopefully you've caught it in time now, but i'd be checking every week til you know what the consumption is. and done worry about the dipstick, after a month of weekly checks you'll be an expert in it!

how long a drive have you got? assuming you park in the same place every day, you'd very easily notice if you're dropping oil that fast. best thing to do is check the oil when cold - now that you have a reading on the dipstick you trust, add oil until its full and then drive it. check it again when its stone cold in about a week, and see what the level is. you might have an oil burner, in which case it might be something like a litre every 1000 miles, but check it after a week and see.

seeing as you're doing a dwyb day at I presume santa pod, the tyre guys there may have a set of wheels you can borrow if its your first time, and you're not sure how likely you are to continue. get in contact with the guy and he'll be able to tell you, if its £10 for the loan of some rims for the day, then i'd just go for that.

yeah i'd agree, a lot of the cars bandied about have been quite different - I mean, a caterham is pretty much the polar opposite of an M5, for example. what are your requirements for a car, really? 2 or 4 seats? hardtop/softtop? practicality? economy? servicing costs? driving involvement? best of all worlds are all pretty much up here already, 350z, SLK, Z4, etc. if practicality and comfort aren't a concern then go lightweight, conversely if economy and servicing costs aren't a concern, go heavyweight

this thread is bantastic, it really is.

+1 on that, it say that was in pretty good condition!

Careful...most of the owners on here have modified their cars, and would strongly disagree that they've been ragged to hell and back!

nah not an ex members car... no way they'd have got away with a standard aerial for so long!

I know, I know... but this does then open the door for a better track/weekend car at some point in the future, which will have no such restrictions on economy or practicality. I'm really tempted by an S2000, maybe next year when the track car is due its MOT lol. I mean come on, perfect two car garage right? BMW 330d saloon for commuting/touring, and S2000 for weekend/trackdays?

Really?? But you've that lovely E92, why would you want a the E90 330d? Don't get me wrong it's a great car but, aren't you a level up on engine and model Brillo? Or, are you referring to that rather nice porker or Chrysler above my post? correct, my E92 looks better from all angles, and has a stonking engine. However, my wife recently sold her car as she commutes by train, so we're down to a single car household (besides the track car, but that doesn't count) and my 335i has done over 16,000 miles this year, which is getting expensive when the absolute best it'll manage is 30mpg on super unleaded. Plus (and I hate myself for saying this) 360bhp is, to be honest, too much power. Chances to fully exploit it are severely limited, both by traction and speed limits - most of the time I change up at 4000rpm anyways, and ~12,000 of those 16,000 miles will be on a motorway, cruise control set to 75mph. So swap for a 330d and I can still have all the low down torque I enjoy, but it'll do 50+mpg. and yeah, its a shame the E90 is so fugly compared to the gorgeous e92, but rear doors would be quite beneficial, and from the inside they both look much the same. And i'll keep my bling wheels to go on it, so it wont be all bad and the £1200 a year saving pays for a lot of trackdays (or holidays if my wife reads this)

lol, I think you've moved slightly beyond the realm of possibility there... I seriously considered an V10 engined M6 as my next car, but head ruled over heart and I realised that running an M6 as a daily doing 12,000 miles a year at an optimistic 20mpg was a ridiculous idea. At best its a second car, though more likely a third car doing max 5000 miles a year, preferably during a European roadtrip.

funny, that's exactly what I want to swap my 335i for! trade?

could be worse... could be an Audi TT convertible!

prices are going up for E46 M3s now, but the insides are pretty dated. e93 335i convertible with a remap, rear subframe inserts, coilovers and a decent alignment will see you right, and it'll still be cheaper than an e46 M3.

not bad at all for £35! one thing that confuses me, how do you pronounce valeting? cos obviously its val-ay rather than val-et, but both val-ay-ing and val-et-ing sound wrong...

*ahem* 335i convertible... fugly I also remember a few years back Top Gear (I know, I know) declared the Lexus the worst car ever. whereas when they compared an SLK to a boxster the SLK actually came out pretty good. but still, the merc is a girls car. regardless of engine. buy it if you want to cruise around with the roof down, and have people admire you. buy a zed if you actually want to drive the thing. how about a BMW Z4? or maybe a 335i convertible? the latter will keep up with an E46 M3 no problems, and isn't far off an E90 M3. If you can stretch to an e90 M3 though i'd get a drive, theres a few at my work and when they give it beans leaving the car park it does sound like thor gargling chainsaws.

recently put a bit of redex in an old track car, figured it has been ages since it had been serviced and for the sake of a fiver, why not try some redex in the fuel tank as well. to be honest cant say I noticed any difference, but then I wasn't expecting miracles for £5. I think giving it a decent thrashing on track was the best tune up, I suspect in the 40,000 miles it had done before I had the car it had never seen north of 3000rpm.

Given that the front half of his car hit the rear half of your car i'd say it was pretty clear cut where the fault lies, but wouldn't be surprised if it was given a 50/50 claim given its a roundabout and merging lanes both have to be aware of other cars around them. Hope you managed to get it sorted with minimal fuss! Good luck is all I can say