Chuffed with my courtesy car!

[Blue Oval84]

Had to drop my mate's E60 off at the garage tonight (he's on holiday but it's urgent that it's fixed) and return home in a courtesy car.

Now, I half expected a little Aygo or something, and was thrilled to be given this 22 year old beauty-



K plate 318i, it actually drives really well and reminds me of my first BMW, which was an E36 318i, and also my dad's first BMW which was a 1992 E36 (I was 8 when he got it!) Happy memories

Amazingly, it's actually better over the speedbumps than my MK3 Mondeo, more comfortable around town than my mate's E60 (it's a Sport on 19's), and still pulls fairly well for a car that was no ball of fire even when new.

I actually think that it's the most interesting courtesy car I've ever had (excluding a cut and shut E46 which was "interesting" to drive)

Anyone else been similarly delighted with a mega-old courtesy car?

[Spare tyre]

Sensible tyres, seemed to get skinnier since then

[Gruber]

Walker's Autotech?

I've borrowed that very same little car. It's a blinder. Low mileage, well maintained and a pleasure to bimble about in,

And Andy's one of the nicest blokes you could wish to meet.

[MarvGTI]

That is awesome, you'd never get an old car like that as a courtesy car here on the continent!

Most interesting I had was a Citroen C5 with 4 completely used (talking TWI here) tyres. It was amazing fun back in a time where we knew no worries.

[E65Ross]

Yup, a while ago (somewhere around June 2011) I was given a 1990 BMW E34 535i manual as a courtesy car, had >230k miles on the clock.....was awesome

[Blue Oval84]

Gruber said:

Walker's Autotech?

I've borrowed that very same little car. It's a blinder. Low mileage, well maintained and a pleasure to bimble about in,

And Andy's one of the nicest blokes you could wish to meet.

That's the one!!

I've found the steering wheel is off centre (which would piss me right off if I owned it) but, for a 22 year old car it's absolutely incredible. I'm pleased that my memories of mine actually weren't rose tinted, it really was as solid as I thought.

If I had the time I would actually run the polisher over it just to see how good it could look

• scurries off to look in the classifieds*

[BlueMR2]

I thought your mate had an awesome Merc, then I realised he had a bmw.

[Blue Oval84]

BlueMR2 said:

I thought your mate had an awesome Merc, then I realised he had a bmw.

Just a diesel saloon I'm afraid, although an M5 is on the way which should be more lively

[SeeFive]

Took my black Grif into Fernhurst for them to have for a few days and got a green one in exchange.

WLA used to give me a polo when they got my first Grif in for service...

[BlueMR2]

Blue Oval84 said:

BlueMR2 said:

I thought your mate had an awesome Merc, then I realised he had a bmw.

Just a diesel saloon I'm afraid, although an M5 is on the way which should be more lively

Its the same when people mention an R32. I'm waiting for some retro Skyline goodness, they start to talk about a golf.

There was an M5 in Leeds centre yesterday in a kind of bright turquoise blue metallic colour, it looked quite nice, never noticed another in that colour before.

[jimmyt1202]

Walker's Autotech are brilliant! I dropped an X3 in there a couple of weeks ago to get the panoramic roof repaired. Andy gave me a 52 reg 520i Auto with just 132k miles to drive the 70 miles home in. Was a joy to drive!

[bracken78]

I to have driven that brilliant car and the 323i coupe (I think). Andy really is a nice chap and knows his stuff.

[Blue Oval84]

Well my time with the E36 has finished, my mate has it now and will be going to collect his car from Walkers later this week.

Since handing the keys back to my mate I've been all over the classifieds and decided that if a 328i convertible comes up in half decent condition, I'm having it

[clonmult]

A proper courtesy car!

Years back when the E36 318iS was in for some work, the indie (BMW specialist in Bristol) had an epic courtesy car. It was a late 80s E30 318 Touring. The interior was an absolute mess, but all the running gear ran utterly perfect.

A few years later I had a new E220 CDi as a courtesy car after someone reversed into the side of the E36. The old E30 was a much better drive, and the E36 was way more refined.

[MitchT]

Love it. Way better than any of the modern shopping cars you usually get

[Triumph Man]

Ah brilliant courtesy car OP! My E34 was recently in for some work at Emtec Salisbury, and I got to smoke around in their E39 520i for the day. I almost slightly preferred it to my car... apart from it had a fair few patches of surface rust, whereas mine doesn't.