My love for BMW’s go all the way back to 1985-6 when I visited my cousins in San Francisco, my uncle had a white E30 four door. I immediately fell in love with the car. At the time, I wasn’t able to fully articulate what exactly had pulled me in but I just knew that it was a gorgeous car. The proportions, stance, lines and just the quality of the parts just oozed all sorts of cool. Since then, my affinity for bimmers have only grown over time. And no, this is not a paid sponsorship (although that’d be amazing!) despite how much I’m gushing! ;)
My parents owned an E46 (325i) and every time I got behind their wheel, I had the biggest grin on my face. In fact, it was one of the best driving experiences I ever had (Honda’s S2K still takes the cake). The perfect 50/50 weight distribution, solid handling (thanks to hydraulic steering, which sadly no longer exists), rock solid chassis and the buttery smooth inline 6 made it a dream to drive despite being paired with an automatic transmission. Although, I must say, I’ve driven the E46 330i with the 5 speed manual, I wasn’t blown away. The clutch engagement was too high, throws were too long. My 5th gen Honda Prelude had a better 5 speed driving experience in my opinion.
I’ve owned 4 BMWs in my lifetime and knock on wood, all 4 have been a trouble free ownership. We currently own the F48 X1 and the i3 BEV and we’ve been absolutely loving both vehicles. We regularly get calls from our dealer to upgrade but we can’t seem to find a good reason why we need to. Although, I was seriously considering the X7 after spending an entire summer with it in Toronto last year but driving such large vehicle in downtown Vancouver just doesn’t seem like a great idea.
Currently we’re loving our bimmer setup situation. The F48 X1 for all the gear hauling mural projects because of it’s rather large boot and interior space especially when I have the seats down and the little electric i3 which they sadly discontinued last year.
Hands down, the BMW i3 is the best car I’ve ever owned. From the solid carbon fibre chassis, punchy 1 speed automatic, feather weight and rear drive dynamics make it a real joy booting around town for all our studio errands.
I’ve been eyeing the BMW i4 and the iX and weirdly enough, the older X5s are looking pretty darn nice too. But for now, we’re keeping our setup for the next little while.
