1997 BMW 3-Series

I bought my fiance this car used and it's become a loved vehicle for the both of us. I never ever thought I would ever fall in love with any other BMW other than a Z-4 or Z-3. However, this little guy has stolen my heart! The person who owned it before us was a neat freak and really took great care of this little car beyond what a dealer would have even done! The interior is “leather” although we’re convinced it’s a medley of real leather and something else, because leather is not as soft as what is in this car. The seat space in the front is amazing, although we don’t take others in this car even though it’s a 4-seater because it would barely fit a child back there. There’s not much room for anything in the back of this car, but it makes up for it in character. The pick-up on this vehicle is tremendous. We haven’t put any after-market engine parts in it, so it’s all stock material and this little puppy can take off. My favorite was rolling up next to a brand new (with the paper license plate) Cobalt SS with some “tough guy” sitting in the driver’s seat revving his engine. Our car left him in the dust and left us with huge smiles on our faces. The prior owner did lower the car, put it on a sport’s suspension, and really put us in a bad position with this car because the oil pan is way low to the ground to begin with. Because it’s a little sporty coupe, the tires aren’t handy for driving on wet roads and when my fiancé slid out and hit the curb, he drove up on it and shattered his oil pans- both the upper and lower. After going through an additional 3 or 4 lower oil pans after that, we put it up on lifters for the suspension and haven’t had a problem. The rims are very expensive, so try and drive like a normal human being with this car- you’re looking at $500 a pop with each tire so I would try and avoid crunching the sides of your tires against the curb while parallel parking. I’d also highly recommend grabbing up some snow tires for this guy if you live in snow terrain like we do. I would not recommend getting this little guy if you are constantly in snow terrain- it would be very unwise to buy this car because you’ll wind up in a snow bank even with snow tires. Some upgrades needed would be a new stereo system because the stock one is obviously an old model. We also replaced the sunroof with the old-school crank style sunroof because the motor died and we thought the crank looked cool. There are also a few “switches” that didn’t have any connections to them; we plan on using these for something one day, but they are just blank buttons right now, which is weird. I’d recommend this car for people who love quick speed and don’t want the typical flashy sports car- a great way to psyche out tough guys in their little flashy-mobiles trying to one-up you as you fly by them!