Help - safety information/accident statistics on the BMW 540i E34

["Laurence Chiu" <lchiu7@xxxxxxxxx>]

Help! I have this question on a couple of BMW lists since I am desperate (as
you can see why later) - advance apologies to those who are seeing this on two
different lists

I think this is going to be one of the stranger requests to this list but I
hope somebody can help out.

The situation:

I purchased a E34 1994 540i recently in Hong Kong. It is RHD.   It had really
low km (40,000km) for its age (but typical in HK where people can't drive that
far!), fully loaded with sun roof, mag wheels, leather, CD changer etc. etc.
and was in impeccable condition, And the price was really right - about
US$9500. The car was Hong Kong new and I checked the dealer to ensure that it
wasn't a parallel import etc. and also had a AA(A) check to ensure that the km
were consistent. All checked out.  All well and good.

Well the idea of the purchase was to ship the car back to New Zealand (where I
am from)  where I would only have to pay shipping costs (UA$1700) and local
taxes at 12.5%. After all that the car would have been significantly cheaper
than buying it locally.  Given this would be my first BMW I grabbed the
opportunity.

But the best laid plans...

Unknown to me (living in HK I didn't keep up with NZ news) the NZ government
recently brought in a law designed to restrict the import of second hand cars
- - not by applying high tariffs but making them pass a frontal collision impact
standard. The following PDF file explains the ruling

http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/publications/info167-annex-rev2.pdf

but basically it seems they are following Japanese and US standards.

BMW NZ have told the Govt that my car does not meet those standards.  This is
in fact a list of BMW's that does meet it:

http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/vehicle_safety/frontal-impact-compliance-bmw-imagery.
pdf

In one conversation I had with BMW NZ they said my car was a victim of a
technicality - the RHD version was never crash tested since at that time, no
country in RHD had such a crash test requirement. So while the LHD driver
version might have been crash tested say for the US market, nobody can say
with assurance that the RHD version would perform similarly. I think they are
just not willing to put their necks on the line.


Now there is an exemption process but my request was declined saying I did not
provide sufficient information to assure the Govt that by allowing the car to
be exempted this would not significantly increase the risk to safety - exact
words

"The Director may only grant exemptions in accordance with the requirements of
s.166 Land Transport Act 1998. Of primary importance is the requirement that,
before granting any exemption, the Director must be satisfied in the
circumstances of each case that the risk to safety will not be significantly
increased by the granting of the exemption"

The safety applies primarily to the occupant of the car - less so to the
people on the street

I have asked BMW Germany for help but after asking me for the car's VIN and
long wait, they said they were not able to help. BMW New Zealand were also not
willing to help. I suspect it's because the law was brought in at the pressure
of the new car dealers who hated seeing cheaper overseas imports come in and
eat into their new or used car business. For BMW it could be, the 540i I
bought, had they imported it themselves they could have sold it for much more
than I paid.

Now before I think about having the car disassembled for spare parts (!) -
there are many BMW 540i on the road in NZ already,  or having it shipped back
to HK, I wonder if the readers on this list can help me out.  There is still
one more appeal process - to the courts.  What I think I need is more data
relating to why I should be granted an exemption, My feeling is the data could
be of the form

General safety design information on car model - this could include
1. The provision of air bags (I can't recall if my car has both driver and
passenger air bags) - I think it did
2. General information on the bumper system that is designed to resist impact
3. Any other generally available specification information
4. Whether or not the LHD version of this car was certified for say the US
car market and if so, what structural differences between the LHD and RHD
version there are apart from the placement of the steering wheel
5. Any web site with accident statistics of the E34

I know it's a big ask but as loyal and proud BMW owners, I am sure you would
not want to see such a nice car, disassembled for spare parts!

Thanks for any help

Larry

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