To answer the various replies I got:

Gas here is about $1.10/l ($1NZ=$0.50US); I can't remember becaues I
haven't driven anything but diesels for so long, since my Caravelle's trans
died late 1998. Diesel is a little over half that; my 86 Corolla CE80 1.8
diesel and CT160 Corona 2.0 get 550+km a tank around town, over 34mpg, all
of it driven hard on very steep streets (Kiwis claim that Dunedin has the
world's steepest street, which just happens to terminate right below my
house. It's not really the steepest, but is really impressive
nevertheless).

Girls are all pretty, also all have curly blond hair that makes great
sweaters and carpets.

US-market BMWs certainly had soggy suspensions, at least in the 1980s. I
remember an Australian magazine, "Modern Motor", which tested a 528 against
the local GM product, the Holden Kingswood. They found that the Holden
easily outhandled the BMW. The latter would turn nasty when driven hard,
and tended to spin out; it was so bad it was called dangerous. The other
Australian magazines slammed MM for daring to say that a lowly GM-H product
could outhandle a Bavarian. They had to eat humle pie when it was
discovered that BMW Australia was importing BMWs with US-spec suspension...

The Rabbit, a rebadged Golf I, is noted outside USA for having soggy
suspension, and being generally not great.

Andrew