proto-metal
Finally sold the E24 a few weeks ago. I’d been on the fence about selling it for a while, and gone back and forth more than enough times to make Diane uncomfortable about the stability of my intentions with respect to the car, but finally, firmly decided to sell it.
Why? For the reasons enumerated here, along with a few extras:
- Diane’s always hated the car’s color (white), and even I would concede it didn’t flatter the car’s lines,
- Something with four doors is vastly easier to get the kids into (the 6er had two),
- The E24 would have been very difficult to teach Diane how to drive, being a particularly finicky manual,
- I was absolutely paranoid all winter every time I had to drive the car through the salty slush–the BMW rustproofing of that era was notoriously bad, and
- It required too much cash to be brought up to a level where I felt like it looked acceptable visually. It was the kind of car that was so good-looking that you were doubly motivated to spend money to get it “all the way there,” so to speak. Less attractive cars can “stop” in a less demanding visual state.
I was all set to trade it for an Audi 200, but the would-be seller lost interest. After a few weeks of poking around, the net result of the car wrangling is detailed here. It’s a perfect car for us–stickshift and RWD to satisfy my “needs” as an enthusiast, much better rustproofing, four doors, less tempting to “improve” mechanically and cosmetically, and Diane loves the color and the shape. It worked out really well, and I’m grateful to my parents for setting us up with the opportunity to get it.
However, my enthusiasm for the car is tempered by the fact that it’s not quite as classic, not quite as “interesting” as the E24. I think this is a good thing–my time spent thinking about the older car was approaching excessive levels in those last few months. I’ve been a car buff for years and years; I know how my emotions respond to these things, and I should have known better–I should have known how wrapped up I would get in the car and staved things off from the beginning by getting a different car or, heaven forbid, keeping the one we had at the time. I made a bad decision, and I own that. Doesn’t lessen my gratitude for how well things turned out. I certainly didn’t deserve for them to.
A side effect of all this, combined with my “rediscovery” of my journal and rereading past entries, is that my emotional desire to pursue a specific interest has been blown wide open again. During the past nine months (the span of ownership of the E24), my emotional focus was “dialed in” to the car and my attention to other spheres of interest faded proportionally. But now I’m all over the map again as far as my feelings as concerned. The funny thing is, I don’t feel unstable or unpredictable. The insecurity I used to feel when I thought about how strongly I felt about so many interests that often seemed to pull me in mutually-exclusive directions is gone. I just feel liberated. I feel like my life has been greatly simplified, and if you know me at all you know that I love the scope of my life in any given moment to be simple–even though it rarely is.
Where to go from here? The Lord knows. We’ve got a plan to purchase a house early next year, send the kids to school and invest in our church and community. What happens in the periphery only time will tell.
Glad Mom & Dad were able to hook you up with a car that suited your needs better. I’d have to say I agree with most of the guys on the forum…it’s a great looking car exactly as is :o) The car stock happens to look very nice and isn’t begging for any changes to it. It just looks too clean and well taken care of to change. I concede I don’t have the “eye” for lines/proportions/etc, but you could always wait until you get your dream car (be it the E24 or otherwise) to perform all the modifications you want to on that car. Not much sense in modifying a car whose character and story you’re not super passionate about.
Looking forward to reading more, hope you don’t mind the occasional comment :o)
Hey D. I don’t mind at all! To comments I say come one, come all. :)
Agreed about the car–I was just joking with that initial comment on the forum post. It’s going to be stock for quite some time. And I am grateful to Mom and Dad for making the connection. It was hard for Dad, though–they graciously drove it out here from CH and Dad jokingly said that he was tempted to turn the car right back around more than once.