√I peaked way too early in terms of cool car ownership…

My first car, a 1990 BMW 318is (E30), was about as cool a car you could get on your red Ps and I miss it dearly. Someone please sell one back to me at a reasonable price.

I won’t quite say that I’ve always been a BMW diehard, but ever since first getting my licence I’ve held an affinity for cars built by the Bavarian brand.

Every car I’ve ever bought with my own money has been a BMW – from the E30 318is I bought as a first car, to the E28 528i Motorsport both James Ward and I were custodians of, and to the car I drive today, an E91 323i Touring.

I can’t quite remember how the blind BMW love affair started exactly, but I’d hazard a guess it had something to do with my other life as a photographer in which I sat passenger in some properly cool M cars.

Some of the most special drives I’ve been on were shared with like-minded enthusiasts – in a 2003 BMW M3 CSL with its glorious naturally aspirated induction note, photographing a group of four Individual-coloured E92 M3s, and even getting behind the wheel of a friend’s E60 M5 V10.

In addition to this, I reckon there was an element of passionate influence conveyed through the motoring media I consumed growing up, be it from TV or print media.

It was cliché at the time, but BMWs of the noughties really were the Ultimate Driving Machines. They felt more dynamic than their peers, participated in countless motorsport categories, and there was more of a community surrounding the brand to share stories with.

Carrying strong influence from the above learnings and experiences, this led me to borrow Drive publisher James Ward’s E28 528i Motorsport with a view to buying something similar as a first car. With its lumpy mild cam, Alpina adornments, and a mischievous limited-slip differential, it was love at first drive.

After teaching myself to drive manual in it (sorry James) over the course of a few weeks, I went down the BMW rabbit hole and subsequently bought a mint E30 318is as a first car.

It was a Lazurblau metallic example without a sunroof, and sat on a set of knock-off BBS alloys. It cost me around $7000, which I borrowed interest-free from my grandpa. The seller was also a BMW fanatic, so I felt comfortable buying it knowing it had been taken care of.

While my parents no doubt lamented the lack of included safety equipment for their newly licensed son, the car meant everything to me. Its free-revving engine was loud, it handled superbly, and it was oh-so-much more awesome than the Mazda and Honda hatchbacks my friends were rockin’ at the time.

The 318is was one of the last variants of the E30 shape and had less than 100kW supplied from the M42 engine. It was only available as a two-door coupe. As a sporty variant of the 3 Series range, the 318is stocked sports suspension, sports cloth seats, disc brakes, M-Tech trim pieces, and a five-speed manual transmission.

It taught me the simple joys of going for a drive for the hell of it and asked for little in the way of maintenance and upkeep. As every first-car owner does, I bought some sweet new Fifteen52 wheels (they were all the rage at the time) but sadly never actually got around to mounting them.

There were no particularly hairy moments – I took great care of the thing and didn’t often drive beyond my budding skill level. However, there was one lesson it taught me about how differentials work…

It was a rainy night where I was out for a casual drive, and I decided it’d be a good idea to try and flick the back end out around a right-hand bend. I applied more throttle than was necessary to navigate the corner and nothing was happening, so I continued to apply more before both wheels broke loose. The car started to swivel around faster than I could manage.

With full octopus arms I applied all the opposite steering lock I could muster, and somehow ended up stopping just in front of a street-parked BMW X5. I counted my lucky stars having not smashed into the car on the opposite side of the road, and promised myself I’d never do anything so moronic again.

Driving this daily cemented my love for the brand, and it wasn’t long before the desire for a garage-mate for the E30 started to swirl. It just so happened that I came across the E28 528i Motorsport once owned by James Ward on classifieds and quickly snapped it up.

On top of being a unique Australia-only special edition, this specific 528i Motorsport was upgraded with a host of Alpina parts to give it the ultimate OEM+ look.

Sadly, the car wasn’t around long as I quickly realised how expensive the upkeep would be on two 25-year-old-plus BMWs.

The 5 Series ended up going to New South Wales for a loss and I broke even on the E30, which I counted as a win. If only I’d known how much they’d go up in the ensuing years, I would have held onto it and made four times as much, but hindsight is 20/20.

These days, the BMW brand doesn’t do nearly as much for me, with its slew of unsavoury-looking products and an array of questionable marketing techniques.

I still hold out hope for finding another E30 318is once the market comes down to a price I can stomach, though I won’t hold my breath. At least I was cool for a couple of years early on.

The post I peaked way too early in terms of cool car ownership… appeared first on Drive.