Here she is. My current ride is a 2002 325i. I went back and forth between a BMW 3 series and the Lexus IS and GS models, being admittedly intrigued by the similarities in layout to the Germans while having impeccable reliability. Who doesn't like that? In the end, though, the BMW won me over. I looked long and hard for a good example. Out of the blue one day, I came across an extremely well maintained car at a decent price from a private seller. The car was a 5-speed manual (a must have) and featured the sport package (ZSP) with 17" wheels/summer tires, sport suspension, sport seats, and sport steering wheel. Standard sport fare for BMW. These first two items are very rare in the D.C area, with manuals being rare and ZSP manuals even rarer. It also has the premium package, giving luxury goodies such as wood trim, power seats, and gray leather among other things. Beyond that, it has wonderful HID headlamps, heated seats, and an outstandingly mediocre harman/kardon "premium" sound system. It is also Topaz Blue (topasblau) metallic and not the Booz-Allen staff-car silver.
Some might wonder why I went for a 325 instead of the 330. As an "enthusiast" I should have gone with the 330, right? While I cannot say I would not rather have a 330, I am completely happy with the deal I found. The car had 29k miles with all records and had been garaged its whole life. The orginial owner was moving back to England and tried to get rid of it, but had no takers presumably because of the manual transmission and lack of warranty. He had given up and had arranged to have it shipped to England with him. I could not pass the deal up. The other point is that a well driven manual 325 is plenty capable of moving out and getting you into trouble. It just takes a little more effort and skill to keep in boiling. That is part of the fun though. All things being equal I would have gotten a 330 - but things are rarely equal. At the end of the day, I would rather have a pristine 325 than a questionable 330.
Here she is. My current ride is a 2002 325i. I went back and forth between a BMW 3 series and the Lexus IS and GS models, being admittedly intrigued by the similarities in layout to the Germans while having impeccable reliability. Who doesn't like that? In the end, though, the BMW won me over. I looked long and hard for a good example. Out of the blue one day, I came across an extremely well maintained car at a decent price from a private seller. The car was a 5-speed manual (a must have) and featured the sport package (ZSP) with 17" wheels/summer tires, sport suspension, sport seats, and sport steering wheel. Standard sport fare for BMW. These first two items are very rare in the D.C area, with manuals being rare and ZSP manuals even rarer. It also has the premium package, giving luxury goodies such as wood trim, power seats, and gray leather among other things. Beyond that, it has wonderful HID headlamps, heated seats, and an outstandingly mediocre harman/kardon "premium" sound system. It is also Topaz Blue (topasblau) metallic and not the Booz-Allen staff-car silver.
Some might wonder why I went for a 325 instead of the 330. As an "enthusiast" I should have gone with the 330, right? While I cannot say I would not rather have a 330, I am completely happy with the deal I found. The car had 29k miles with all records and had been garaged its whole life. The orginial owner was moving back to England and tried to get rid of it, but had no takers presumably because of the manual transmission and lack of warranty. He had given up and had arranged to have it shipped to England with him. I could not pass the deal up. The other point is that a well driven manual 325 is plenty capable of moving out and getting you into trouble. It just takes a little more effort and skill to keep in boiling. That is part of the fun though. All things being equal I would have gotten a 330 - but things are rarely equal. At the end of the day, I would rather have a pristine 325 than a questionable 330.
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