Classic Bimmer is a durable daily driver

[f1reverb]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/17/MT7717AHCP.DTL&type=autos

John Ertel is an Opto-Mechanical Engineer at Agilent Technologies in Santa Clara. He and his wife also own a Porsche Boxster and a Chevy Tahoe named Igor, and John also races a Formula Mazda in SCCA.

My "daily driver" is an 18-year-old BMW with over 240,000 miles, and it's the most satisfying car I've ever owned. I bought the car - a 1990 535i - in 1998 when it had 140,000 miles on it. Apparently there isn't a large market for used BMWs with over 100,000 miles, so I was able to negotiate a very good price for the car, but I didn't buy it without looking closely at the service records. Those records showed that the previous owner was as meticulous as I am about vehicles. Even then, I stipulated that a few things had to be done to the car before I'd agree to buy it - replace a broken taillight lens, fix a few interior items, etc. Driving the car home for the first time, it looked and drove like something five or six years newer than it was. But that's partly due to the fact that BMW keeps the body styles the same for years at a time . . .

[scottt]

I bought a 1985 735i with about 100k on it in 1994. It was about 10 years later at about 360,000 miles when she said " This car is never going to die, is it ? " She didn't mean it in a positive way.

I gave it to the kidney foundation for the tax deduction, the guy drove onto his trailer.