My BMW Journey

[Jims5543]

It all started 20 years ago, I was tired of my unreliable Audi. I had a 2001 A6 Quattro 2.7t 6-speed that was always having an electrical issue. I traded it in to lease a 2005 A6 Quattro 3.2 auto. It picked up where the other car left off. The icing on the cake was during a road trip from Florida to Virginia and back. We were driving up for my son to buy his first car from a friend of mine, it was 1991 325i that needed a LOT of TLC. We were worried it would not make the drive back to Florida. Not only did it make the trip, the Audi broke down in North Carolina, the stealership refused to give us a loaner, after 2 days of waiting they told us they had no idea what was wrong and it was going to take a couple of weeks to fix it.
We loaded the E30 and drove to Florida. They kept the Audi for 1 month. The wife and I few up to Asheville to pick it up and spent a weekend in Savannah. More elctrical issues cropped up on the drive from Savannah to Florida. The lease was up in 3 months we parked it and let the stealership deal with the problems after we handed it back.

The moment the lease was up on that POS I handed it back and bought a E46 330i. I was so impressed by the Virginia E30 I decided to grab an E46. Then I had the chance to purchase Rammstein's E30 off of here and did. That was 12 years ago now.

4 years ago I purchased a R53 Mini, that would be the 3rd time I have owned an R53 now. That one was a rescue story.

3 years ago I purchased a F10 M5.

I will add to this thread when I have time.. For now, here is the E30, M50B28 swaped with a 6 speed out of a E46 M3. Front tag a small tribute to the PO.

[dirty30]

I love audis but they're such heaps of garbage especially when compared to an E46 or any old real BMW for that matter. R53s are pretty fun cars albeit a little more finicky than their BMW siblings! Look forward to some updates!

[Jims5543]

I love the looks of the newer Audi's and the performance of the RS Models is in line with the BMW M cars, my experience was so bad I vowed to never own one again. When my lease was coming to an end they called to try to see if they could get me to look at a new Audi, after I stopped laughing at them I told the salesman my experience was so bad, they lost me forever.

In 2021 I was working over 70 hours a week, the wife was no longer commuting 500 miles a week so we wanted to get rid of her BMW i3 and get her back in another R53 Mini. I found one 20 miles away on an indy lot with less than 40K miles on it. I purchased it sight unseen via email. I wired the money e-signed all the paperwork, sealed the deal from my office. On a Friday after work my wife and I drove down to grab it, I walked in said my name, they handed me the keys and I left. As I was walking to the car I started laughing, they had expertly photographed it so you couldn't tell the paint was really faded bad. It must have spent its life sitting in a parking lot. I didn't care, I was more interested in the 40K miles on it.

I had a friend who owns a body shop respray it. In addition to that, it has a full Milltek racing exhaust on it. I also added a larger intercooler, CAI and 17% pulley. She makes fantastic sounds from the exhaust and the supercharger sound glorious when you are a WOT. We have had the car 5 years now, It has just over 50K miles on it now. We have only had a couple of problems, clutch slave and master needed replacing and the coolant tank had a crack in it. Other than that, the car has been perfect.

Before and after pics.

Before:




After:

[Jims5543]

This was the E46 we had after the Audi debacle. Here it is on the Tail of the Dragon with my son chasing me in his E30. I wish I never sold that car, I sold it to buy an RX8 R3.