A History of Vehicles – ’89 BMW 325i

Finally, my fourth E30 but now my first 325i. Up until this point my E30s had been of the high-torque but low-revving “e” or “eta” version. Another late-night Craigslist session brought me upon this car. It was posted locally, had a ton of miles, and a couple choice modifications.

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Those mods being a set of Bavarian Autosport lowering springs on Bilstein Sport shocks, and a Momo Monte Carlo steering wheel in suede. There were also a few other not so choice bits such as a noisy roof rack with no keys, a driver’s side seat sporting some uneven gangta lean, a coolant temp gauge with an incessant twitch, and a stereo that required a periodic punch to the faceplate to make it work.

Ah, used cars.

Overall it was nice. The shock and spring combo caused a bit of bounce over surface imperfections, but still made cornering an enjoyable exercise. The odo was somewhere well north of 200k miles but the engine bay was spotless, and the clean metal underneath the valve cover led me to believe the motor may have been rebuilt at some point. The song above 6k rpm was a wonderful thing, and with all 4 windows down and the sunroof open you couldn’t have asked for a better cruiser.

Ah, there’s that damn word again. Cruiser.

I have a burning love for classic BMW sedans, and will likely go through a few more before my ownership silliness comes to an end. There are many things you can do to these cars to make them quite competitive, or at the very least more fun to drive than they already are. But some part of me finally got tired of it. Tired of chasing that coolant smell, tired of trailing arms and struts, tired of bushed subframes and ball joints in weird places.

Tired of BMWs.

Title comes in the mail.
Car goes up for sale.
Car gets driven to work.
Car gets rear ended in the rain by a non-local teenager driving a rental car with no insurance.

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Tired of happenstance.

In hindsight it wasn’t much of an ordeal. Eventually my insurance paid me out without declaring the car a total loss. Despite the considerable response I got from my Craigslist post, the car ended up going to a good friend. It went to a family member of his and has been their daily ever since.

It’s almost kind of sad, really. Ever since my father owned one of these while I was in middle school it has been one of my favorite cars. And yet I’ve failed to find one that I could get along with. Whether bad luck, impatience, or just a wandering eye, I cannot seem to find an E30 that I want to hold on to.

Knowing me, this likely will not be my last, but passing one on the street has become akin to passing an ex-friend whom I hold nothing against, but do not feel the desire to talk to. As if the truncated experiences with E30s I’ve owned so far were complete enough to show it just isn’t the car to settle on. It may just be the call for more variety. It could be time for a 2002ti, or an E36 M3, or another breed of sport sedan entirely.

But what?

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