Saying goodbye to my 1998 BMW 3 series

For years, I drove a 1998 BMW 323is hard top with sun roof.  It was a 2 door coupe with a 2.8L DOHC 6 cylinder M52 engine, with 168 horsepower.  It featured BMW's unique Z-axle multi-link suspension and gave a sporty ride with  225/50ZR 16 Michelin pilot tires. It was a manual of course.  It was awesome.  I was seriously attached to that car because it was the first car I bought with my own money after graduate school and after being terribly broke for years, so it represented a lot of things to me:  freedom, independence, fun, and many other things.  I took meticulous care of it, and moved it from DC (where I had bought it 2nd hand from a doctor in Maryland) to New Mexico and back to DC with me.  My husband and I had one of our first dates in that car, racing it one afternoon in the lonely stretches of road above Taos, New Mexico.

But it got old.  16 years old when I sold it last week to a nice couple from New Jersey.  I really struggled with letting it go, but I don't have the time or mental bandwidth or space- we live in dense housing- to keep it.  The only major work I had done on it was an upgrade to the cooling system, and did that because my outstanding BMW-fanatic mechanic Grant Randall at alexandriabavarian.com mentioned to me that my particular model was subject to its coolant reservoir tank failing because the Germans had for a while made these items out of recycled plastic.  So in 2007 we replaced the radiator, water pump, thermostat, FR hoses, belts, rollers, tensioners, recovery tank, and the radiator cap and bleeder.

Other than that my E36 had its original clutch, suspension, and even the original center console complete with tape deck.  I was aware that other owners of this vintage car often inserted a combination bluetooth, mp3 player into the center console, but I couldn't stand to ruin the original appearance, so I got by with a cassette insert for my digital music.

I keep my cars clean and have regular maintenance performed on them.  My E36 had had its share of oil changes, transmission fluid, filters, belts, and other minor things replaced.  The new owner wrote me and said it felt almost like a new car.  It still tracked well, had kick, and handled the way a BMW does, tight and responsive. Shifted smooth as silk, and stopped on a dime if required.

It had only 122K miles. 

Everything still worked on it other than the digital messaging, temperature and time display had become pixelated, but this is an easy fix.  Not surprisingly there was a bidding war for it on ebay.   Several local residents had come to look at it and drive it, remarking about what great shape it was in.  As tough as it was to sell it was finally time to move on.  In part because I would have had to sink some money into it sooner or later with a new clutch, struts, and no doubt other things.  And it was nice to see the couple who bought it so truly happy. The husband was absolutely ecstatic over this car, and I know it has gone to a good home.