15 years of BMWs

[TerryHarman]

TerryHarman said:

Had a few over the years 10 bmw,s altogether
E30 323i
E30 325i mtech 2
E30 325i mtech 2
E36 320i
E30 325i cabriolet
E46 328i
E91 320 d
E46 330i msport
E46 318i
E46 325i msport current car

Edited by TerryHarman on Saturday 18th April 23:31

Edited by TerryHarman on Saturday 18th April 23:35

Edited by TerryHarman on Saturday 18th April 23:36

[Jon-Baker M5]

My dad has had BMW's since 1983/4 when he bought an Apple Green E28 520i....front of that was taken off by a train but that's a story for another day.

My BMW journey started in 2004 and continues today:

2004 - 2010 E34 M5 6Sp - Daytona Violet
2008 - 2012 E34 M5 5Sp - Calypso Red (stripped out as a trackcar - shared ownership with a friend)
2009 - 2010 E36 M3 5Sp - Daytona Violet (ebay buy - worst BMW I've owned)
2010 - 2012 E46 M3 - Silverstone II
2012 - 2014 E90 M3 - Sapphire Black
2017 - ???? F80 M3CP - Silverstone II - Best All round BMW I've had

Considered jumping into an M5CP about 6 months ago but realised I wasn't ready to sell the F80. Given the styling direction of late I am not sure for how much longer I will stay loyal to the brand....

[Felix79]

TerryHarman said:

Edited by TerryHarman on Saturday 18th April 23:31

Edited by TerryHarman on Saturday 18th April 23:35

Edited by TerryHarman on Saturday 18th April 23:36

To this day I think the E30 is one of the coolest BMW designs that BMW have ever done. I love some of the E30's you went for, always nice to see someone else own multiple E30's!

Back in 2011 I sold my '85 E30 Alpina C2 2.5 coupe, with 230,000 miles on the clock. Two days ago, a buddy from an E30 forum, who now has a business specalising on rare BMW's such as Alpina cars. He's like the Alpina geru and he showed me a pic of my Alpina still on the road after all this time. The young lad I sold it to, fixed the bodywork but changed the colour to Alpina blue and put the face lift Alpina decals on it. To me it looks a bit wrong, but I was shocked it was still running.

[Mr Tidy]

Well I would have changed the thread title if I could as I'm now into 17 years of BMWs.

I still have the same two but have done far fewer miles than I expected for obvious reasons sadly.

My 330i has had new rear shock absorbers, an oil service and a new oil filter housing gasket - but it seems to have a leak from the cam-cover gasket now that will need attention.

But my Z4M Coupe almost deserves a Readers Car thread!

Anyway after getting the spacers off, raising the ride height as far as it would go and sorting a leaking headlight washer to keep fluid in the reservoir so the screen-washers worked it was time for a slightly overdue Inspection 2 service carried out by a BMW Indy in April 2020 who opened his doors after 15 years at Sytner a few months before I bought my car.

So valve clearances checked when cold, and 5 shims required (so it was time)!






Fresh transmission fluid due looking at what came out!







New oil in the diff after this got drained.






And the cam-chain tensioner was sticking and leaking.




Anyway that resulted in a 4 figure bill, but I kept fretting over the "crank-rod bearing shells" - or big end shells to anyone non BMW!

And as it was going to be a keeper for peace of mind I got them replaced in August 2020. Looking back I should got them done in April - could have saved the cost of an oil filter and some Castrol 10W60!

Anyway at 78K miles the old shells looked like this - nearly another £1K..






But given how they looked I was glad I had them done. And as mine had 7 previous keepers it seemed likely one or more would have ragged it before it was properly up to temperature, especially as the first was probably someone at BMW UK where the 1,000 mile running-in service was done.

10W60 oil is like treacle at ambient temperature!

Then some aesthetics! Nearly half the Z4s I've seen have some sort of CSL Replica wheels so I bought a set of OE 224s, and got them refurbed with new tyres.

And splashed out silly money on a pair of "Aero" sill covers that are NLA from BMW.






So after all the messing with ride heights, different wheels, etc. I got a 4 wheel alignment to E46 M3 CSL settings in November and it
drives so much better! Way less understeer and more playful at the rear.

But that involved both track-rod ends being replaced as the originals were seized solid!

Apologies to anyone who has dozed off.

Edited by Mr Tidy on Sunday 16th January 01:26

[Mark-E34-535]

I've always liked the look of the Z4 Coupe. I nearly bought one that had been converted to the M Coupe quad pipes a few months back but went with this instead...

[cerb4.5lee]

cerb4.5lee said:

Although I've abandoned ship now my first foray into Bmw's was back in 2006.

E90 330d 2006...can't find a pic.

E53 X5 4.8iS 2004.


E61 520d 2009.


E85 Z4MR 2006.


E92 M3 2009.


E90 330i 2006.


F13 640d 2012.

I'm back in a BMW again now(2018 F82 M4), and predictably it's blue!

[Court_S]

Court_S said:

I’ve been a BMW fan I guess since I was little. At primary school, a friends mum and a very early, burgundy E36 saloon and I remember sitting in the front and it felt like nothing I’d ever been in. It was so low, and you felt snug with the high transmission tunnel. Compared to the rubbish cars my parents had (Astra, Daihatsu Sportrack, Suzuki Samurai) it was amazing and left a real impression.

This was further enhanced when an uncle gave me a driving lesson in an E36 323 cab that he had as a company car for a while. I also got to drive his E38 735 which at the time I thought was amazing.

I didn’t buy my first BMW until 2008; a 2001 E46 325ti. This is what it looked like, not my car because all my photo bucket pictures have gone, but close enough.



Looking back with hindsight I shouldn’t have bought it but was blinded by my hatred for a MINI One that I’d bought. There were loads of obstacles trying to stop me buying it but I plowed on regardless and it ended up being a bit st. It ate suspension components at a rate of notts (wishbones, bushes, snapped rear springs) and the cooling system was awful (water pump, thermostat, expansion tank, bowed rad). It was a car that always needed something fixing.

I still loved the damn thing and did some stuff to improved it; body coloured trim, painted the interior trim silver, angel eyes and DIY wheel refurb. Think I got shot in 2010 after I’d had enough of fixing it. It was on 110k when it went and looking at the MOT history, it died at 148k because it hasn’t been MOT’d since 2016.

After the E46 I jumped into the company car scheme for a while, but that was pretty crap. I could have had a Corsa or a Fiesta Zetec S. I chose the latter.

It wasn’t long before I had a hankering for a nice car again, so once we decided to start a family, I used that as an excuse to get shot of my other half’s Corsa which I despised. An E90 330i was chosen as the new family wagon.



I bloody loved this car. It was super reliable over the three and a bit years we had it with only consumables and an issue with the VANOS actuators. I added a lip spoiler and had the wheels refurbed in a lovely finish (black with silver over the front face). I added a few M Performance parts (hand brake grip, gear selector, steering wheel trim and carbon are intake). The intake was ridiculously expensive despite a discount via friend who works for Sytner but it did sound lovely. I wanted the exhaust but the mid pipes changed sizes over the years and as my car was a bit older, I’d have to change the mid pipe too making it too expensive. This eventually went because my other half got sick of the fuel bill. Bit of a mistake.

It was no BMW for a while until I decided to opt out of the company car scheme last year due to the ever increasing cost of BIK. My vRS whilst a fab car was costing me a huge amount of cash each month for a car that I didn’t really want so I took advantage of the run out deals on the F20 1 series and ordered an M140i shadow edition.



I love this thing. It’s quick, sounds pretty good, comfy and doesn’t cost the earth to run. I’ve made a few cosmetic tweaks which I think have improved it. It’ll be a tough car to replace. An M2 is the obvious choice but I’m not sure if there is enough of a difference to make it worthwhile. I’d love an F80 M3 Comp if funds allow, but we’ll see.

After the E90, I bought my other half, an F56 MINI which I never really gelled with. It saved her money on fuel etc but the depreciation was savage so that went last year. Given her usage, we bought her mums E87 116 really cheap. It’s slow, uses too much fuel for said performance but with a new leather interior, a double din screen and a few other bits it’s actually a pretty good little car. Especially for a few grand. Funny thing is neither of us miss her MINI.



Before my E46 I also had an R53 Cooper, Cooper S and the dreaded One. The Cooper was an amazing spec and very cheap due to having a massive deposit but my head was turned by the Cooper S which I initially walked away from due to be too expensive but the dealership came back to me with more sensible figures and I accidentally bought it. I then changed careers and was going to be doing a lot more miles and taking a pay cut to retrain, hence the One being a bit more sensible. It was actually a good car but I hated it after the S.

OP; nice work on the Z4M. Looking forward to hearing more about it.

Edited by Court_S on Tuesday 7th January 11:14

Both the M140i and 116 have been moved on but replaced N52 powered cars.

My other half’s 116 was replaced with a little 125i cab.



And due to not really using my car much, my M140i was swapped for an old 130 LE which I love if I’m honest.

[Gtamaddog]

Bit of a boring one from me. Eight years of ownership next weekend and just the one BMW - runs on the devil's fuel, but has the 'correct' number of cylinders. Pictures aren't super recent.





I could get a newer and more interesting BMW, but by this point I think I'll struggle to part with it. It has some issues, but in eight years and 100k miles it has only failed to proceed once when the original battery decided to give up one winter's morning and that was my fault because I knew it was on its last legs anyway - luckily had a new one waiting in the garage ready for a quick swap. 194K on the clock tomorrow and the condition of the interior still manages to look near identical to when I picked the car up on just under 94K miles.

[Mits]

24yrs for me…
E36 320i
E36 m3
E30 m3 evo 500
E46 m3
E46 m3 conv
E46 m3 csl
E90 alpina d3
E90 330d
F06 M6 GC
F80 m3 CP
I3
I3s
G05 X5 4.0i

After the m3 evo and csl never really enjoyed M cars after that. It’s more about comfort now.

Edited by Mits on Wednesday 19th January 08:47

[McGee_22]

Mits said:

24yrs for me…

<snip>

After the m3 evo and csl never really enjoyed M cars after that. It’s more about comfort now.

Back to Alpina then?

[d_a_n1979]

Only 10 years for me; baby in the group...

E38 728i was my very first BMQ back in 2011:



Followed by a few E39 530i Sports:




With an MG ZT V6 190 as an 'over winter' car whilst the 2nd E39 was having bodywork done:





Then the black 530i sold and moved onto another 7'er, this time around an E65 730D Sport in LMB:



Then that went and bought my previous Jap import E39 530i Sport touring:



And then that went and now in my F01 730D SE Luxury:

[fushion julz]

I've been a BMW owner for nearly 35 years...

My first one was an E28 525i manual ... no pictures of this, unfortunately

Next was a 2002Ti replica racecar...seen at Silverstone on a test day:



Followed by a 1802 rescued from someones back garden and restored.



Then had an E34 530i (M30 engine) manual SE of which the only picture I can find is this not quite complete one:



This met an untimely end on the M4 one night...
Replaced with an E30 325i SE 4dr manual:



I then bought an E30 M3 which I only sold in 2020



I also had for a short time an E30 320i Touring...manual SE



When the 325 was getting a bit too unreliable for me to use as a daily I bought an E34 525iX touring on eBay very cheap...



Unfortunately, it was too thirsty and developed an oil pump fault. So replaced with an E36 328i SE saloon manual with really top spec (sports leather, sunroof, etc), but no DSC or aircon.



Rust did for that at 240K miles....Replaced with an E46 330i SE Manual Touring ...also really high spec with sports interior, sunroof, HK sound, etc.



This was a super wagon...I've just said goodbye to it at 295k miles and needing a bit of TLC...
Replaced with an E91 320D (N47N) Lci MSport manual