[champignon]

This is, of course, a rhetorical question that none of you can answer for me, but I hope you will try :-)

By way of history, I am a disgusted former BMW owner who abandoned the brand around 2002, after having owned a 1973 2002 for 8 years, and a 1993 325i for 10 years. The 2002 was my first car, bought new for $3700, with crank windows, no A/C, and no radio. but I digress . . . .

I use the term "disgusted" because I think it is accurate. Of all the brands that should have abandoned "drivers' cars," to have BMW do it is enough to make one puke. Most modern BMWs are hardly better than Lexus or Infiniti or any other "luxury brand" when it comes to the "joy of driving." If all you want is comfortable chair in which to sit, with functional, automatic climate control, and isolation from the road while the car essentially drives itself, then there is no reason to be disappointed. But if what you seek is the "fun" of driving, then look elsewhere.

So, I abandoned BMW for Subaru, among other brands. My current "real car" is a 2015 Subaru WRX-STi, which is a rough and sometimes unpleasant experience to sit in, however, it delivers up heaps of road feel, control, and performance.

About 9 months ago I happened to run into someone I vaguely know, who was sitting in an ancient 3-series car with about 250,000 miles on it. We got to chatting and it made me yearn for my old and enjoyable experiences driving ancient BMWs, before the brand came to represent hardly anything at all other than outdoing your next door neighbor. This got me to thinking that maybe I should buy some old examples from the good-old-days.

So, now I have a couple of Z3 Coupes, one of which is an M, and they certainly drive like real BMWs. Of course, they are not comfortable like modern cars, but they are a lot of fun to drive, if not the most practical cars given their size and cargo carrying capacities. I expect to keep them for the duration.

Somehow I got interested in the 1-series as the last bastion of genuine BMWs, before electric steering, automatic transmissions, and all the rest turned BMW into a totally lost brand. Then I found the 1M and now I own one, and it is a great car, if not entirely representative of BMW's past, mostly because of the turbo engine. It's a keeper for sure.

So I am thinking about buying one more car to complete my little BMW collection. I've been thinking about buying a 128i, because it is the last naturally aspirated 6 cylinder small sport coupe that BMW is likely to ever make.

But them maybe I'm just fantasizing something that is not real, and that in actual execution it is just going to remind my of my 1M, and and not in a positive way, since it will be lacking in a number of the attributes of my real 1M. So maybe I should either buy something else, something older and more genuine, or just stop buying cars :-)

What do you think? All opinions welcome, especially from people who have formerly or currently own 128is, but also own or have driven 1Ms.