Now lucky for me, I picked up a book at that book fair called "World of Racing - Endurance Racing," which got me up to speed really fast with Porsche 911s, 930s, 935s, BMW M1s, Can AM cars of the era, etc. So from 1981 to 1985, I started noticing more and more German cars. I only thought I liked cars, but now I was discovering and seeing cars I'd never seen before. In the 1980s, with the demolishing of the Deutsche Mark, Germany's now defunct currency, many grey market German cars as well as US market German cars were being purchased at a furious rate.
In my sophomore year of High School, being 15, and not able to drive yet, I realized I no longer wanted to ride my 10 speed bicycle to school and back everyday. I wanted to ride in one of my class mates cars. Now I was a paper boy for the Houston Chronicle, for my neighborhood as well as a few other adjacent neighborhoods. I knew where everyone lived and I realized there was an opportunity to hitch a ride from some of my classmates. Not being shy, I asked one of my classmates, Amy, if I could bum a ride home one day with her and her sister. She agreed and told me to meet them in the parking lot after school.
So after the last period of the day, around 3:30pm, I head out to the parking lot to meet my ride home. Low and behold, Amy drove a small little German car, a 1984 BMW E30 318i coupe. To her it was just a way to get back and forth to school. To me, it opened up a whole new world of cars I have not been exposed to. It was a base car with cloth seats, auto transmission, manual sunroof, exterior color silver with blue interior, but man was it a cool little car. I was allowed to open the sunroof if I closed it before she dropped me off. Her sister, Cindy wasn't not too pleased. Being a two door it was a tight fit. I rode to and from school for almost year until I was 16 and could drive my own car, but I will always remember my first ride in a BMW.
My last year in high school, 1988, my friend's much older brother showed up to their family business in a 1983 BMW 533i. I was there working helping out and he asked if I could upgrade his stereo. I put a new CD player in it, 4 speakers and he let me take it for a spin. Wow. Torque for days, heavy steering, teutonic german everything. I didn't even know how to describe it, but I liked it.
In college, I drove my little Toyota pickup and saw many BMWs on campus. One day. One day.
On a trip to Seattle in 1992, I noticed a 3 series with a strange badge and noticeable fender flares I had never seen before. It read, 325iX. This white sedan was not a normal 325i sedan. I remember going to the library and doing some research to find out more about this strange model. All Wheel Drive? Holy cow. A 4 wheel drive 3 series? Interesting. Having never driven in snow, I had no idea why this was so special, only that it was. Not realizing the severe low import numbers into the USA, I had no idea how rare these really were.
Fast forward to end of college and time to buy a car, now that I have a job. Sure I knew what BMWs were by this point and the E36 BMW 3 series had just been released. It was 1993 and I went to the dealer and they had two red 3 series coupes for sale that I could barely afford, a 1991 318is and a 1992 318is. Because the 1992 was an E36 generation, that was the car to get. It was the latest so it had to be the best, right? I drove both and didn't think twice about picking the E36 over the E30. And over the next four years, I enjoyed driving that E36 as it fell apart around me. Interior pieces, suspension bushings, blown head gasket, etc. It had a sunroof and a leather steering wheel. Red on Black vinyl, 5 speed. No other options. No fog lights, no trip computer, no cruise control. We took that car on all kinds of escapades and road trips. Other than the headgasket issue it never failed me. But after so many trips to the dealer for repairs and other issues I sold the BMW outright and swore off BMWs.
I moved to Colorado in the late 90s and got into iconic cars like Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40s and Audis and WRXs. Now the internet had been in motion for almost ten years and there was so much information available to learn about everything, especially cars I knew nothing about. So I knew about the BMW models past and present. The new models didn't intrigue me much. Heavy, fancy, pricey, common. With the random cars I had purchased over the years, I was never able to recapture the feeling of the iconic BMWs of the 80s with modern cars, German or Japanese.
About the 2008 timeframe, I bought a new Toyota FJ Cruiser, and later in the year I realized I should get a second car. I should get back into an old BMW and with the help of ebay, craigslist, autotrader, etc. I was able to begin searching for that car. While searching for an E30 325is, I got side tracked by a very clean, rust free 635CSi, with 110,000 miles. Clean E30s were very hard to find, rusty or modded to all hell, it was discouraging. But this big coupe was well cared for, well maintained and very cheap. $2,500 later and it was mine.
I picked up this 1985 635CSi in Reno, NV, drove it to Northern California, the opposite direction in which I lived. By the time I got to Santa Rosa, I noticed that the car actually needed some front pads, especially if I was going to drive down the coastal road. I found a great shop in Santa Rosa that slapped some new rotors and pads on and sent me on my way. I drove the coastal road over two days to Los Angeles, stopping by to see my dear cousin in Santa Barbara. I drove Angeles Crest highway and then back home to Denver, Colorado. What a great touring car. [Pictures in different phases and locations here]
I spent the next few years lightly restoring and driving. I joined the BMW CCA and met a lot of great enthusiasts that I could share this interest with. But this was a grand touring car and not the sports car I really wanted. I sold it and bought a Porsche 993/911. This was a sports car. A Porsche 911 that is well sorted with adjustable suspension and sticky tires is a thing to behold. Iconic, classic, permanent.
Now my Porsche is a very nice car and really shouldn't be driven in crappy snow winter weather, especially with Porsche 911 values on the rise. After the last couple years, I decided I need something to tinker with so I decided I would keep my eyes out for something special, but cheap and practical. Living in Colorado, I realized an all wheel drive car would always come in handy. Now AWD cars don't always get the greatest miles per gallon, but my commute is only 15 miles one way. Maybe it was finally time to pick up a BMW E30 325iX. One big problem: BMW didn't import many and the ones they did can be very rusty, thanks to much of the US-climate being non-dry. Prices for clean BMW E30 325iX in 2 and 4 doors range from $3-15k depending on miles, rust, etc.
BMW manufactured 2.3 million examples of the iconic 3 Series E30 generation worldwide from several facilities. Coupes, Wagons, Sedans and Convertibles. Of all those, BMW imported 348,140 to the USA. You would think that that's actually quite a lot to choose from. However, the M3s and iXs were very limited in numbers, probably due to prices, $32-36K USD. BMW only brought over 6,346 of the 325iX to the USA and Canada combined. Yikes this is going to be tough, but as expected, you never see these running around. And so I thought entering into 2014, maybe I need to put this dream to rest and move on. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.
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