Here's where we started:
Warning, back story:
Previously I had been driving my parents' 2003 Lexus ES300. It worked great, it was comfortable, but goodness it was sloppy. I really appreciated having a set of wheels I could use, but being an enthusiast it didn't excite me that much
. I had a bunch of money saved up from working, and my parents agreed to sell the Lexus and put it towards a newer car (very thankful for that).
Thought about what I wanted, basically a comfortable RWD manual coupe that isn't difficult as a daily like roadsters are. After scouring cars.com, craigslist, autotrader, etc. for a few weeks I noticed BMWs basically fit all those criteria. Plus they weren't impossible to find in manual, locally. My parents had both owned BMWs back in the day, mainly mom loved her manual E28 528e. So they were comfortable with the brand. I hopped on E90Post and began REALLY researching them. Common issues, maintenance cost, ease of DIYs. I was wanting a 335i but the only ones in my price range were 07-08s and the thought of replacing turbos on my budget was terrifying. My main focus was an E92 328i. Really focused on sport/manuals. Not easy to find.
Found an '06 330i at a dealership in Daytona. Went down and checked it out. Looked great in the pictures and had the 6mt/sport with like 70k mi. Perfect! I got there and the car was honestly a dump. Paint was swirly as hell, headlights fogged, interior had totally peeled apart. The salesman mentioned the sunroof leaked, and lo and behold there was a big puddle in the rear seat floor
. Disappointing to say the least.
After that I found a clean 335i with lower miles, if the turbos were replaced I'd seriously consider it. But the dude flaked - said he wanted to meet a week later.
Annoyed, I get back on the usual sites and continue looking. I hadn't checked autotrader in a while, so I gave that a look. There was a 2008 128i in the area, no pictures even posted yet. Ran the VIN and saw it was truly a manual along with the sport package. I honestly barely even knew the 1 series existed. I thought it was a newer series - like 2011+ or something. I check it out and it's basically the E92 328i I was looking for, but in a cozier package. Call up the dealership and ask about the price - they say if we showed up today we could knock a thousand off. So off we went. Honestly I saw the car, looked at how clean it was and knew it was the one. Didn't even know stick that well, but the salesman let me puts around in the parking lot and felt I did well enough to take it on the road. 79k miles - a little higher than I liked but the car was pristine so I really didn't care at that point. So we bought it!!
____________________________
Here's a small section dedicated to my parent's 528i. It's basically fully loaded.
2014 BMW 528i
Options:
• Mineral White Metallic
• Ivory White interior
• Luxury Line
• Comfort Seats (Massaging, AC and heated)
• Nav, reverse cam, parking sensors & cameras everywhere
• Driver's Assistance Packages (Lane deviation warning, blind spot monitoring, HUD, etc.)
Probably more I'm forgetting.
____________________________
Last but not least, a small section on my other money sink!
1992 Honda Beat
@honda.bito
• Japanese domestic market import, right hand drive
• 656 cc, 3cyl, individual throttle bodies, 9000 RPM redline
• 63 HP, 44 lb*f
• 5 spd manual
• Mid engine
• RWD
• "Kei" car (Japanese city car)
• Festival Red (R80)
• Factory standard zebra interior
So far been a huge project. I bought it from a private auction in Japan, had my friend ship it over and have been working on it since. The rockers were like 50% rusted out, so I've gotten pretty decent at welding and fabricating. Auction said it was running and driving, it wasn't. Motor had a bent rod. So I bought a used motor stateside (there's a decent sized US community for these) and have been feeding my engine builder parts and money to rebuild it. Lastly, I'm having another shop rebuild the transmission as well just to be safe. I don't want to get it all "resto'd" and find out I'm grinding gears away. While they're in there, it's a popular mod to use the Honda Acty minitruck transmission 4th and 5th gears to get taller ratios. The Beat is geared pretty short (city driving) and so to get the RPMs lower on US roads it'll be a nice mod to have.