Calling any car the “best” you’ve ever owned is always a bit tricky. How do you define a car you’ve owned as the best? Is it the one that was the most fun? Is it the one that gave you the fewest issues? What about the car that you drove during an important milestone in your life, therefore giving it sentimental value?
The answer likely involves a little bit of everything. Relationships with cars, much like those with people, are complicated. Cars are expensive to own and maintain, often have at least a few issues and are things we spend huge amounts of time with. So there are always going to be some good and bad days. For example, my E36 328i was a car I still deeply love to this day and one I owned for ten years. I have some great memories from it (first date with my wife, using it to help move into my first home a 2AM, etc) but I also have some really bad memories with it (coolant overflow tank cracking in half while driving home from work, leaving me stranded on the Garden State Parkway for three hours in 10-degree weather during a blizzard).
So choosing which BMW was your best might be a bit more complicated than it seems at face value. For instance, that coolant tank story had me furious at the time, literally cursing the car’s very existence as I sat inside of it freezing my ass off, waiting for a tow truck. However, looking back, that story makes me laugh and is always great to tell.
Maybe the best BMW you’ve ever owned was perfect during your ownership, maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was a thrilling sports car like an M3 or maybe it was a humble entry-level model like a 318i. Special cars, cars that stick with us long after they’re gone, come in all shapes and sizes. So what was your best BMW?