What Started Your Passion For BMW?

[M3 boi]

Suppose I put this in the wrong form as well…how nice

What made you like BMW? Enough to join Bimmerpost at least. For me it was red hot wheels E92 M3 that my parents got me for Easter when I was 4 years old.

[Chi_weezy]

Never been a brand obsessed person. I think a ton of brands offer some amazing platforms. But I joined to learn more about these cars. Went from Evos to Supras to GTRs to Z06 to GTRs and now F82 M4. Super helpful community here it’s been great

[jmg]

My Aunt let me drive her new E30 Convertible to the mall while she was over for Thanksgiving dinner. My first car was her old E21, and it was dogshit slow but I loved it as my first car, but the new E30 was something else. I just loved everything about it. The way it smelled, the way it drove, the attention me and my cousin got. I wouldn’t own another BMW for decades, but when I came back, it was like coming home.

[nerdogray]

It was seeing the marketing for the Competition when it was first released. That Frozen Dark Grey, and I thought, "damn that's nice." Never gave a damn about a car until then. Drove the biggest beaters around, to include the ubiquitous Ford Taurus. So, I am a relative newbie.

[wtwo3]

I actually didn't like BMW up until relatively recently (with the exception of the M3 - always been a bucket list car for me). I thought they were poorly made cars with bad build quality and even worse reliability. I was all about JDM cars.

The G05 surprisingly changed all that for me. We were shopping for a new SUV to replace our aging Lexus RX350 and considered pretty much all options in the class. The G05 to our surprise was above and beyond anything in the class in terms of luxury, performance, and comfort.

And that's when it began. 2 weeks after ordering the G05, I ordered a G20 m340i to replace my infiniti Q50. Now I've replaced the G05 with a G07, and am proud to say I'm finally in a position to purchase one of my bucket list cars, an M3 which will be replacing my m340i.

[SW111]

I saw a schoolmate getting dropped off at junior high in a brand new 320iS. That would of been 1978 I think. It was black and had gold BBS wheels. I been a fan of BMW since then. It took until 1996 before I got my own. My first was a E-30 318iS. Bright red with silver BBS wheels. Autocrossed and dailyed that car for years and never had any trouble. Next up was an E-34 M5. I wish I still had that one. I had a long stretch without a BMW until I got my F-22 M235i in 2019. Love watching them race. Met Bill Auberlen and several other BMW racers. The BMW museum in Munich was incredible. I’m not in love with the current grills (who is?), but still a fan.

[StradaRedlands]

My spouse's E30 convertible was just the best vehicle ever... loved that car.
That started a love affair with the E30 and wrenching on cars that only ended when we had too many kids. I still hold those cars up as the ideal vehicle, but had to move to the minivan and SUV route to accommodate things. Moving back towards fun cars with the E90, and maybe even an E30 if I can find the right one!

[Marcoose]

Back in the day, in the old country, it was indeed the ultimate driving machine.

[overcoil]

Didn't want to die in a Porsche.

[chassis]

No passion, just interest.

Drove an E30 318i when they first came out and thought, "This is cool and different." Fast forward 30+ years and we have a G01, it has been a good car.

[///MPhatic]

Interest? E30 M3
Passion? F87 M2

I've always felt BMW's interiors were very unfriendly, and their cars were weirdly quirky. The E46 almost got me, but the interior was still terrible. Then the E92 with that V8 was wow, but Jesus the price. Forget it. The F87 fixed everything. Beautiful, affordable, reliable, friendly, and fun as hell.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by M3 boi

What made you like BMW? Enough to join Bimmerpost at least. For me it was red hot wheels E92 M3 that my parents got me for Easter when I was 4 years old.

I have a feeling I’ve been a BMW fanboy probably since before your parents were born. The first BMW I was seriously in love with was the 1978 E24 635CSi. After I got my driver’s license I used to make a circle around my city and spend hours wandering around the car lots of every single brand, except maybe Chrysler products. I spent many hours looking in the windows of BMWs at the BMW dealership. In 1988 an older friend got a new E30 325i and he let me drive it. I was totally ruined. I will never forget that drive. That was before I even appreciated the value of the inline six motor design. In about 1995 I read an article in Popular Mechanics about the superior design characteristics of the inline six and then I was really ruined. Owning a car with an inline six became my goal.

[M3 boi]

Originally Posted by Chi_weezy

Never been a brand obsessed person. I think a ton of brands offer some amazing platforms. But I joined to learn more about these cars. Went from Evos to Supras to GTRs to Z06 to GTRs and now F82 M4. Super helpful community here it’s been great

I Totally agree with the all brands have good platforms thing, most (performance) cars on the market are incredible (Porsche, amg, some of the muscle cars and the jdm cars). Sounds like you’ve had quite the experience, and I’m sure that they were all different in their own way. Which one of the reasons I like the modern car market, their are so many options available.

[br438]

I drove one of these at a Komen for the Cure BMW event...

[spammysammich]

A ride in my buddy's Estoril Blue E36 M3 coupe around 2002 or 03, followed shortly by another buddy's E39 M5 and time in Munich sparked my interest in the brand. Then I saw a Dakar Yellow E36 M3 near Portland in 2004 when I was there for the ALMS race which sealed the deal. I had to get one some day. Not sure why I always gravitated towards that color.

[MJBO]

BMW E38 in Tomorrow Never Dies.

[billnchristy]

Working at an automotive plant got me back into cars. I was perfectly happy with my Fiesta as an appliance but my company paid 5k down, taxes and upto $450/mo for payment so I got an X1. Been hooked ever since.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by jmg

My Aunt let me drive her new E30 Convertible to the mall while she was over for Thanksgiving dinner. My first car was her old E21, and it was dogshit slow but I loved it as my first car, but the new E30 was something else. I just loved everything about it. The way it smelled, the way it drove, the attention me and my cousin got. I wouldn’t own another BMW for decades, but when I came back, it was like coming home.

The E21 is what got me hooked on BMW. My first drive in a BMW was in 1978 in my brother's friend's '76 E21iS. To this day I can still feel the steering wheel undulate in my hands as I just drove it 400 feet up our gravel driveway. I've never owned an E21, but I've had a few thousand miles of seat time in a few in the early 1980's when they were still new cars. The E21 was not fast accelerating (most cars back then weren't either) but at speed the E21 chassis was magic. 85, 100, 110 MPH, it just smoothed out and ate miles like nobody's business. The E30 was the same.

Pardon me while I go kick myself in the ass for selling mine in 2006...

[DarkishM5C]

To me, BMW has always had the reputation for being expensive and unreliable. Honestly, not sure where that reputation came from, maybe from hearing it from friends or relatives. That changed last year when I was trying to purchase a Cadillac CT5 BW and I saw an article comparing the BW to other cars like the M5. After 6 months waiting on a BW allocation and finding out the dealer was using the allocations to build for themselves and selling them $6K over, I decided to look at BMW. I remember the article had the M5 outperforming the competition but came in second to the BW because of the steering feel.
I visited a BMW that had a really good reputation and put my order. I had my M5 Competition within 4 months. I found this forum while waiting on my car and I have learned so much through this forum. Getting the M5 was the best decision!

[jmg]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

The E21 is what got me hooked on BMW. My first drive in a BMW was in 1978 in my brother's friend's '76 E21iS. To this day I can still feel the steering wheel undulate in my hands as I just drove it 400 feet up our gravel driveway. I've never owned an E21, but I've had a few thousand miles of seat time in a few in the early 1980's when they were still new cars. The E21 was not fast accelerating (most cars back then weren't either) but at speed the E21 chassis was magic. 85, 100, 110 MPH, it just smoothed out and ate miles like nobody's business. The E30 was the same.

Pardon me while I go kick myself in the ass for selling mine in 2006...

I had no frame of reference when I owned my E21, but I do remember the manual steering! I really mistreated that car, but you are right, it didn’t have to be fast to be fun.

[MalibuM3]

The passion for BMW started when I sat as a 9-yr old in the back seat of a brand new black 1983 E30 323i with a nice Blaupunkt gooseneck car stereo. The car was owned by a friend of my dad. He was a real car guy. Before the E30 he owned a 911, later always the latest versions of the 3 or 5 series.

Back in November 2021 I have ordered my first new BMW in years amd my very first BMW M car, a black M3 G80 6MT. I told my dad the same day that I placed an order for the M3 and how my passion pushed me towards this car. I thought it would be cool to show the M3 after delivery to my dad‘s car guy friend. Unfortunately just four days after I have placed my order, my dad‘s friend passed away, way too early. So I was never able to show the M3 to him after I took delivery in May 2022. He would have loved the car.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by M3 boi

Good story! No one in my family have ever owned BMWs (none of them are car enthusiasts either lol), reading these comments I’m noticing a lot of people say the e30 is the reason. What were some of the cars you had in between the BMWs?

I was definitely lucky to start with a RWD BMW, although at the time it was an old POS and I had no idea why RWD was something special.

Cars since:
VW MKII GTI
Honda EJ Civic
Mitsubishi Galant V6
Audi B5 A4 1.8T Quattro
Audi B7 S4 25Quattro
Subaru SJ Forester
BMW F30 328i
BMW F30 340i
BMW F80 M3
BMW i3
BMW F80 M3CS
BMW i3
VW Atlas 4Motion
BMW i3
BMW G82 M4 Competition X-Drive