Hello everyone, I'm so happy to be back in the club! I have to tell the story, as I believe you all will be able to appreciate it. About three weeks ago I told my wife we need to think about finding a beater for me to make my 50 mile round trip to work in. She agreed, especialy since filling up our 97' 5.7 Silverado was costing $75.00 a pop. We had replaced her mini van with a Focus which has prvoven a good choice as the saving in mileage is making the car payment. So, I'm at work and I get a message to my wife. I call her. She's at a rummage sale and they have a 1985 318i for $1500.00. She called because the owners had a sign in the window stating the car got 40 mpg. I told her to put money down to hold it and I would leave work ASAP! This is like 8:30 am. The funny thing is, I had seen the car the day before, with the for sale sign in the window. I drove right by thinking, 1 it would be 5 or 6K (it was so pretty all shiny and all) and 2 there would be no way the better half would even think about it. So I knew the car seemed to be in good shape from the condition of the paint. And she was callin' me about it... it was meant to be. We get to the house, I get the keys from the the lady, and start it up. I started to purr right away. Bro street muffler just a grumblin', nice and steady tach. Service lights off-no colors at all. I'm thinkin' SI board-no biggy- an 85', I'm hoping it has a basic computer. I open the hood, not shiny, but the paint looked intact. O2 sensor disconnected-still running nice and steady though. Everything looked appropriate. I asked if I could take it for a spin. The woman called her husband and she said he would be home in 20 minutes. The time is now 4:00 pm. She had held it for $40.00-I told my wife to put a $100.00, but she was going to more rummage sales and didn't want to go to the ATM again(she's lucky). The guy gets home, we go for a ride... the car is tight! I'm grinnin' from ear to ear on the inside! He tells me it has a new gas tank, brake pads, clutch, drivers window motor and a few other things. All I could think about is $1500.00 for my new BMW beater! I can't friggin' believe this is happening-to me! So we get back to his house, I tell him we'll take it and we shake hands. The lady tell's my wife she could have sold it 10 times that day. Mostly because of the 40mpg that they had stated. I'm no fool, I knew there was no way it would get 40mpg, but the Silverado averages at 14.6mpg, a no brainer, right? We are talking and this guy walk's over and the owner tells him the car is sold. The guy said he would offer $2200.00 cash for the car! I'm thinkin' there it goes...even after they held it for $40.00 for over 6 hours. The owner looks at me with the "he just offered me over $700.00 above my asking price" look on his face, I'm like this guy better not be a friend of yours... Long story short he took my above asking price offer-not close to the $2200.00 the other guy offered but more than the original asking price. It will be two weeks this friday that we own a little red bimmer. I'm still pretty pumped, been all over the net-man there are a lot of bimmer sites. The Bentley book should be here any day now. I have already spent the gas savings from driving the truck on detailing products. I had an 87' 535i BFTW. This one will be kind of a second chance, I didn't do the last one justice. I guess that's enough, just called CCA and reinstated my membership with my original number. I can't tell you how happy we are. Take care, look forward to many hours of diagnosing and wrenching. Regards, Brent
What a great way to rekindle the fire. That was a very good deal you got and you are lucky the seller decided to stick with you. I got a great deal as well and joined right afterwards, so that's one thing in common. Hope you enjoy your new ride. The best way to spend ~$2000 on a car is an E30 for sure.
