Acadianlion
12-01-2015, 12:12 PM
I never in a million year thought I'd be following or posting to a BMW forum. Lately I have been having this wicked E24 fantasy. Yesterday I took our daily driver to the wrench to have its annual state-mandated safety inspection. My mechanic of twenty years was, in a former life, a BMW Master tech. I admitted my fantasy to him and following that discussion decided to invest some time in learning about the E24 cars. The way this sort of fantasy usually works out is that I spend a LOT of time agitating, reading about, and researching whatever the fantasy is, then quite often, I end up with one of them in the yard.
Actually I'm not new to BMW as I have had a few. It was the last one I owned that soured me on BMW and since that time I have largely dismissed BMW as not so much "the ultimate driving machine",but the ultimate German marketing scheme. This particularly so during the "Bangle-butt" period, but I digress.
My very first BMW was a 1600-Alpina, one of (I was told) 12 imported in 1967. "Twas a fine, throaty beastie, too, when the air box and filter was removed from those lovely Weber carburetors. Actually that was the second BMW, the first being a black/gray 1600 bought two or three months before for my wife. That was the car we went on our honeymoon in and was the car that originally sunk the BMW "hook". I traded my Austin-Healey 3000 for the Alpina and over the next two years rallyed and autocrossed the dear thing like crazy. Then I was summoned to Southeast Asia to meet some folks intent on killing me, so I took a while off before returning to the BMW. Actually the BMW went away as it was tired then, and I went on to other things.
In 1978 I was buying another car and my most important client was the local Olds/Buick/GMC dealer who also had the BMW franchise for northern Maine. Sitting on his lot was a brand new '77 630 CSI and I just had to have that car. I seem to recall it was a very light, lime green with some sort of pale-colored interior. I actually got that car back to my office with my license plates on it before I came to my senses and realized that neither the business nor I could REALLY afford the thing, lease or no lease. So, back it went in favor of a brand new, 79 320i, which was a much more reasonable and responsible vehicle for both me and the business. Wonderful car: maintained on a "cost-no-object basis and I pounded it over Maine roads for the next three years and 110,000 miles.
In 1984 I bought what I expected to be the last BMW, a new 318i. I will not go over long about that car other than to say it was arguably the worst new car I have ever owned. If memory serves it was about fourteen grand and for that princely sum it really should have run better than it did, and the transmission synchronizers should have worked for more than 30,000 miles (both times the transmmission was replaced by BMW) especially considering that I was mostly a high-mile, steady state driver. I replaced that BMW with a Mercedes 190D which was the ultimate driving machine even if was not the ultimate driver's machine. A bit dull but stone reliable.
No more BMWs except for the E9 coupe someone had restored and which I boght as a toy after retiring. Now I have this fantasy for an E24 and the search a learning curve climbing exercise begins again. My wrench thinks the cars are "simple", and I am very much interested in old, simple cars that have good usability left in their tired old bones. They can be fixed without the requirement of a gazillion dollar cardiac machine just to see how it is feeling. So, I'll hang out here sopping up all the good info from all of your E24 experts. The one I want is outthere somewhere, needing a new home for its new duty as a late spring, summer and fall car. Who knows? maybe we'll grow old together.
Actually I'm not new to BMW as I have had a few. It was the last one I owned that soured me on BMW and since that time I have largely dismissed BMW as not so much "the ultimate driving machine",but the ultimate German marketing scheme. This particularly so during the "Bangle-butt" period, but I digress.
My very first BMW was a 1600-Alpina, one of (I was told) 12 imported in 1967. "Twas a fine, throaty beastie, too, when the air box and filter was removed from those lovely Weber carburetors. Actually that was the second BMW, the first being a black/gray 1600 bought two or three months before for my wife. That was the car we went on our honeymoon in and was the car that originally sunk the BMW "hook". I traded my Austin-Healey 3000 for the Alpina and over the next two years rallyed and autocrossed the dear thing like crazy. Then I was summoned to Southeast Asia to meet some folks intent on killing me, so I took a while off before returning to the BMW. Actually the BMW went away as it was tired then, and I went on to other things.
In 1978 I was buying another car and my most important client was the local Olds/Buick/GMC dealer who also had the BMW franchise for northern Maine. Sitting on his lot was a brand new '77 630 CSI and I just had to have that car. I seem to recall it was a very light, lime green with some sort of pale-colored interior. I actually got that car back to my office with my license plates on it before I came to my senses and realized that neither the business nor I could REALLY afford the thing, lease or no lease. So, back it went in favor of a brand new, 79 320i, which was a much more reasonable and responsible vehicle for both me and the business. Wonderful car: maintained on a "cost-no-object basis and I pounded it over Maine roads for the next three years and 110,000 miles.
In 1984 I bought what I expected to be the last BMW, a new 318i. I will not go over long about that car other than to say it was arguably the worst new car I have ever owned. If memory serves it was about fourteen grand and for that princely sum it really should have run better than it did, and the transmission synchronizers should have worked for more than 30,000 miles (both times the transmmission was replaced by BMW) especially considering that I was mostly a high-mile, steady state driver. I replaced that BMW with a Mercedes 190D which was the ultimate driving machine even if was not the ultimate driver's machine. A bit dull but stone reliable.
No more BMWs except for the E9 coupe someone had restored and which I boght as a toy after retiring. Now I have this fantasy for an E24 and the search a learning curve climbing exercise begins again. My wrench thinks the cars are "simple", and I am very much interested in old, simple cars that have good usability left in their tired old bones. They can be fixed without the requirement of a gazillion dollar cardiac machine just to see how it is feeling. So, I'll hang out here sopping up all the good info from all of your E24 experts. The one I want is outthere somewhere, needing a new home for its new duty as a late spring, summer and fall car. Who knows? maybe we'll grow old together.