Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I don't actually have a lezyne pump - use a decathlon one ;). My old man wants a pump for Xmas and don't want to get a cheap shit one that won't last for him to use

In bangernomics news the Rat Bimmer won't be seeing a fresh MOT. Turbo gone. And a number of other grumbles means this will be scrapped soon.

Had if for four years and done around 33,000 miles in it in that time (nearly 10,000 this year). It has been brilliant. Wouldnt hesitate to pick up another E46 Touring. Though will leave it a couple of months before deciding what motor is needed next. The little Fiat is handling all the local missions at the moment.

Goodbye old friend.

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RIP - I had a E46 touring, was a 323i with a lovely smooth straight six, nice place to be. think just a few bushes in the suspension needed to be replaced and the battery in 3-4 years.

What are the grumbles?

What has failed on the turbo? Am cheap banger fishing

My car’s not worth a lot but it’s basically sat in my garage gathering dust. I’m about to spend a chunk of money getting it back on the road. If I spend £1k sorting it, I might get £2k if I ever sell it. Bloody cars

That's a shame. Loved my 325i I had a few years ago. Got written off by a hit and run outside my flat while i was on holiday.

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Totally forgot about this. Mine's a 2015.

Took it to the dealer, kept it for two days and they (well the person on the service desk) said there wasn't an issue, they filled up the adblue tank and it's fine. £175 please. I was in a rush so didn't have time to ask more questions but it's been fine since. I'd filled up 10l of adblue before the fault came on so not sure I believe their adblue cause. The local garage I took it to first reckoned it was a phantom error so I think Citroen just reset the emissions error (which can only be done with Citroen Diagbox and only certain diag tools) and filled up more adblue.

Anyway car is great. Can fit 2 road bikes in it (wheels on) with 2 rear seats still in. Also it has the height inside so you can get changed inside it easily. And the tailgate boot means you can stand out of the rain after a ride. You can also fit a T4 bike rack to it: https://timbarry.co.uk/fiamma-berlingo-bike-rack/

Plus it's so french you get a free pass to drive right up to the paris roubaix course!

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The diagbox is quite cheap from AliExpress.

nice whip!

I did 5 people, a dog, and two road bikes with front wheels off, all at the same time, in mine yesterday. smiles the whole way.
name a better car = impossible

Honda jazz.

The jazz is peak motoring, according to this very forum.

Picked this up last week. 2011, N55 engine, just under 50k miles. Very pleased so far!

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Shame it doesn't have the optional indicators
etc etc

Looks fantastic! Japanese import?

Heater didn't kick on Saturday during my 2hr drive in -4deg. That was fun.
Coolant levels seem fine, everything electronically seems perfect.
Annoyingly there's no engine temp gauge on the dash, but the car drove great.
Likely a thermostat fault?

Turned out to be the heater flap motor/actuator, which is apparently a very common fault. £200 for official ford part and fitting. Totally buying a cheaper aftermarket motor and doing it myself next time it breaks (hopefully not in the depths of winter next time)
https://youtu.be/uuENktnNelc?si=2WJiaGL2ZPCEG90Z

RIP!

Fell in love with this yesterday. 🤤

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Yes, I used an importer to buy a dealer car and it was pretty seamless, took a while though. Superb condition. I had a look at a few in the UK and nothing even close to this condition/spec nevermind price.

Very nice, I'd do similar if I had the funds. The lack of rusty bolts would make my life much simpler. Usually quite a good spec on them too?

Niiiiiiiice. I thought I did well to get my 330 @ 42k miles but that was a few years back now. Any fun options on it?

Very nice! Interested to hear your comparison to your Seat.

Nice!!

Nice! Using the importer did they give you a list to choose from? Any quirks with the car?

@Woodster - imports into Japan are usually specced to the max, something to do with the marginal tax treatment of options on new cars or something like that so yeah it's great spec!

@6pt - more of an aftermarket part, previous owner put some nice Koni shock absorbers on it so despite thin sidewalls the ride is actually pretty comfy.

@NurseHolliday - ride is nicer, the aforementioned Konis might have a lot to do with that as I'd read that the ride of these on 19s wasn't great. Despite being older it's just a much nicer place to be. Far more of a cruiser than the Seat which always felt like it was egging you on to lose your license. EA888 vs N55 is such a change. On paper both engines deliver similar power and torque but they obviously go about it so differently, N55 feels waaaay less highly strung and just has a lazy ease about it. Sounds way better, obviously.

@skinny - Thanks!

I used TorqueGT who are JDM specialists but they actually import a fair number of European cars too. I was toying with the idea of a Legacy but decided on the 335i, they're not common and I'd been keeping an eye on BeForeward more out of curiosity. I sent TorqueGT a link to a listing I'd found, dealer happened to be near one of their offices so someone from the local team checked it out, said it was a good one and I rolled with it. Normally if you're after something specific then they would go through auctions/dealers and let you know what's available.

Quirks... Rearview mirror is a right chonk because it has an integrated Electronic Toll Card reader thing, speedo is in km/h so had a little heads- up display fitted to the right of steering wheel, the radio only catches Radio 2 because of the frequency range and the sat-nav thinks I'm in the Sea of Japan 🫠

awesome - congrats

very interesting to hear about the ease of japanese imports. how do you even go about finding the listing? what is their version of autotrader? is there any warranty if its a lemon or do you just wing it?

what is their version of autotrader?

https://new.carvector.com/

and

https://carfromjapan.com/