Author: Ginny Denton
As a kid from a blue-collar family – Volkswagen on one side and Ford on the other – I adored BMWs but never imagined I’d be fortunate enough to own one. The BMWs I knew were all wildly out of my price range and I often joked that sure, I could have a BMW… if I lived in it!
Fast forward to the summer of 2007 in Dearborn, Michigan, a historic apartment just down the street from Roush Industries and Ford headquarters. BMWs were rare in that part of the world, so you can imagine my reaction when I met a sparkling triple black Z3 convertible owned by one of my Roush engineer friends. How in the world do you own a BMW, I asked. “I knew what to look for,” he said. “Do your research and buy used, and you can have one too.” Challenge accepted! I narrowed my focus to 3-series models in the E36 and E46 generations and over the next year read everything I could get my hands on, spending hours in endless conversation with my Z3 friend. There was one hurdle, though. If I was going to do this, I wanted to do it right…which meant relearning how to drive. Thank the automotive gods for my friend Bruce, who offered to teach me the fine art of driving a manual transmission while I searched for my dream car.
At long last, I found my match in June of 2008 while on a visit to my mom’s place in western Michigan. Originally from Texas, this one-owner E36 was listed for sale in Albuquerque. I called seller Mike from the beach on Lake Michigan and we chatted excitedly about his 3-series, a 1995 5-speed manual 325is in Boston Green with gray interior. The car was in great shape, and it was obvious that Mike loved it. An enthusiast like me, he was meticulous, animated, and full of information. I’m typically not one to impulse buy and $5000 was a vast amount of money to me at the time, so I said I’d need to think it over. Maybe you can guess what happened next? I called Mike less than an hour later and said I’d take it! I knew I’d found something special in this E36. We talked logistics and I bought myself a one-way plane ticket. A few more last-minute practice sessions with Bruce in his Civic and I felt ready for adventure.
In Albuquerque a few weeks later, Mike picked me up at the airport and we headed to the awaiting 325is. Gleaming shiny green in the hot New Mexico sun, my E36 was a dream come true. Excited and still in disbelief, I couldn’t believe my luck. All the time I’d spent on research, investigation, drivers ed, and more culminated in this beautiful BMW that was about to be mine. I handed Mike a check, he handed me the keys, and it was done. The next days were a delightful blur as the 325 and I meandered our way across the country to arrive triumphantly home in my driveway.
For nearly four years my E36 and I went everywhere, whatever the weather. Zooming down highways and creeping slowly down rows at the raspberry farm, on sunny days and in the snow, we had many adventures together…until the fateful night I lost my friend to a stretch of black ice on a curvy rural road outside Ann Arbor. I managed to save the entire front end, but a midsized tree inflicted structural damage that my meager salary just wouldn’t stretch for. It took time but I found a new home for the E36 with one of the Roush mechanics, who planned to part it out but ultimately sold it to a friend in northern Ohio. With its practically pristine drivetrain it was still such a great car and I was devastated to lose it. Last I heard, the new owner was readying it for new life in a Lemons-style race circuit. While I don’t know its ultimate fate, I like to imagine my beloved E36 as a retired racer, a graceful end for my long-awaited dream car.
