When choosing a classic car to buy, drive, and work on, an important consideration to make is the availability of spare parts. Working on a car can be very frustrating when it is difficult or even impossible to find spare parts. Rare parts also tend to be expensive. Here are […]
Beginnings (1918-1961) BMW started out as engine builder, hence the name Bayerische Motorenwerke. Automobile production didn’t start until the acquisition of the Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, which built the Dixi, a licensed version of the Austin Seven. The pre-war focus was on sports cars, culminating in the Mille Miglia-winning BMW 328. Production […]
The most famous version of the first Mustang iteration (1964 1/2 to 1966) is undoubtedly the Shelby GT350R, built for SCCA sports car racing, and its GT350H Hertz rent a racer brethren. But when the SCCA announced the Trans-Am sedan championship for the 1966 season, Ford faced a dilemma: the […]
BMW CS Coupé (E9) After the success of the Neue Klasse, BMW branched out by adding two more upmarket models, the E3 sedan (which would father the 7 series), and the E9 coupé. Production of the latter started late in 1968, at Karmann, most famous for the VW Beetle based […]
These are a couple of BMWs with prices that are still falling, so if you want to get one of these, you can consider waiting a bit longer. E39 5 series BMW’s fourth-generation 5 series has not only been called BMW’s best car, but also the best sedan ever. After […]
Unlike some other brands (looking at you, Porsche), most older BMWs are still relatively affordable and haven’t seen crazy price increases in the last years. Notable exceptions are the rare and wanted models: 507, M1, and Z8. Nevertheless, there are a few models were prices have bottomed out or have […]
With the coming of the E39 530i, it’s the first time in more than 10 years that I have owned separate winter and summer sets of tyres and wheels for a car. Not wanting to deal with the hassle of driving to a workshop to have them change the wheels, […]
My E39 530 came with an Xtrons PX5 Android radio installed. While I’m all about originality (and thus got the original head unit, too), I actually enjoy the features that this radio provides: Bluetooth audio streaming, hands-free kit, and a reversing camera. The downsides are that, by default, there’s no […]
The first parts deliveries are in. My local BMW dealer supplied the missing baggage straps and the cracked footrest. Filters and a new fog light were ordered online. Someone devised this fancy contraption for replacing the original screw for the tool kit, even though the parts (screw and thread insert) […]
My compact‘s driver’s seat shows typical signs of wear, as one would expect of a 17 year old car. Luckily, it has leather seats. Textile fabrics will simply rip at some point, requiring complete recovering. Leather is much more robust, and the wear is often a superficial discolouring. I ordered […]
My 530i is equipped with roll-up sunscreens, consisting of an electric sunscreen for the rear window and manual sunscreens for the rear door windows. These consist of two parts, a vertically moving part for the main window and a horizontally moving part for the small triangular window. The latter wouldn’t […]
Buying a car in the Netherlands is so easy. Whereas in Germany you need to go to a Landratsamt (district office) and might need new license plates, here buyer and seller go to the postal office, the seller shows a nine-digit code and the car’s license card (which is then […]
