I dropped off my car at my indy shop "
SCHNELLER BMW" this morning to have some work done and Mike and I had a pretty good discussion while riding in his '87 325(VERY nice car) about BMW's great years. We both agreed that the 80's and spilling over to the early 90's were perhaps some of the best years BMW ever had in terms of design and performance. Look around, see what older/high mileage luxury vehicles are on the roads still. I see old Bimmers all the time. It's not just because I'm an enthusiast or biased towards them, I love European autos, so when I see others such as Mercedes, Volvo, Audi and Saab, it's always noted. As Mike told me this morning, "BMW's were truly built to meet 200K miles at the time". Agreed.
We all know what it's like nowadays, not that our newer cars are crap, but I think many of you would agree that, as much as we hate to admit it, they're crappier than their older siblings. Tell me who doesn't get a little worried when they start to hover around 75-100K miles? When I bought my '82 E21 14 years
after it rolled off the assembly line it was nearing 100K. I owned it for a little better than 2 years, drove about another 50K and had but 1 hiccup, a radiator. $200 poorer and a couple hours later...DONE! The simplicity has gone the way of the Do-Do. The lines from series to series until you get waaay up there are similar to each other. I love my Bimmer, I really do, but I've been yearning to fall back to the old days. I'm hoping after I finish paying off this car and have a proper garage to house it in that I'm able to source a decent 635 to work on.
I know this topic has come up before, but with new folks joining these forums, to include myself, different perspectives arrive all the time. That's why I'm starting this thread. Anyways, what say you folks, what do you think were the best days of BMW? Elaborate a little, let's make this interesting.