Pulaski

2/32" ..... I am not sure why it isn't expressed as 1/16".

lansbury

Oregon only has an emissions test, but only in the Portland and Medford areas. Rest of the State has nothing.

Pulaski

Every motor vehicle registered in NC gets an annual mechanical test, starting 12 months after it was registered, but only some counties get an emissions test, around the big cities.

Bizarrely cars older than about 1996 (IIRC) are exempt from the emissions test, so old clunkers can go around belching clouds of smoke without breaking any law .... and new cars, which have exhaust that may be cleaner than the air they draw in, have to have an emissions test.

mrken30

That is half the recommended safe tread depth, no wonder your tires last longer. I put safety before cost for myself and my family, but everyone is entitled to their own level of safety.

Remaining Tread Depth

Pulaski

Er, that's hardly objective data. Tyre manufacturers have a vested interest in selling more tyres!

Same for the data you cited the other day, on tyre age. It used to be said that tyres were good for ten years, now mysteriously that has dropped to six years!

Mercury39

Being a little pedantic, the European delivery is possible with a BMW car, but they don’t have the same for motorbikes. A beemer is a BMW motorbike, and a bimmer is a BMW car. I know how people like to make sure things are correct on here

With the bimmers the purchase price of the car is less, you do have to pay your flights there yourself. People I know who have done it did it for the experience and loved it, but didn’t save any money, unless of course you were doing a holiday in Europe anyway.

Pulaski

That's news to me/ I don't agree.

LouisB

I gave up my highly modified Toyota supra to come to the US.

Now I don’t even have a car 🤔

I have not worked out what to replace that with yet, if we moved out of the city a bit.

But it appears in or near a city everything is more expensive, except fuel...

S Folinsky

Quite often, good cars can be obtained under manufacturer "certification" programs of cars coming off-lease. These are low milage, have been maintained. There is a premium to be paid compared to other used cars, but it will be "like new."

Also, there has been a huge shift in consumer preferences from sedans towards "crossover" SUV. As a result, sedans have depreciated more. (We purchased a certified 2013 Toyota RAV4 earlier this year with the VW diesel class action settlement).

BMW's tend to take a large depreciation hit. That said, I've been driving a 2004 525i since new. When it needs parts, I cry but it has actually been fairly reliable. I just wish it had features like bluetooth, back up camera, and blind spot monitor like the Toyota.

Also, "premium" gasoline in the US is the octane as "regular" in Europe. So the fuel for many European cars is more expensive than US/Japanese. (Most Japanese branded cars are manufactured in the US these days.)

ottotheboar

Agreed I just call them BMWs but bike or car they have both been called Beemers by most people.

Nutek

Never heard of this ever (having ridden / driven both for many years).

Mercury39

I must have been running into a rare collection of folks as I was corrected multiple times over the years by BMW owners and provided with the evidence in the names of multiple forums and other sites that all use bimmer and not beamer
www.bimmerforums.com
www.bimmerfest.com
www.bimmerpost.com
www.bimmeramerica.com who also have a section on bimmer vs beamer and to bring it back to the relevance of this forum, had something to do with BSAs being called Beezers.

I felt duty bound to share this nugget after being so corrected myself, but I'm beginning to feel like I will stop ;-)

Nutek

Don't do that. This is exactly the sort of important issues we should argue about. Lines have to be drawn... sides taken... grudges formed...

Pulaski

So far as I can tell all your supporting sources are US-based, which explains why (i) I haven't heard the bimmer-beemer thing, and (ii) I don't give a crap. This site is British Expats so I'm sticking with Beemer.

Next you'll be telling us that a "Merc" is a Mercury!

BenK91

Who the hell says bimmer?!


What is wrong with people