6 Attachment(s)
FINALLY got my first car!!
Dear UCP,
I've been with you for years now, (very rarely the last few years; it's all the military's fault) but I figured I would cancel out all the useless threads I made when I was in high school talking about how I wanted my first car to be a Ferrari, or a BMW, or a Toyota MR2......and show you the BMW that I wound up getting! It's 100% my dream first car, a 2003 BMW 330Ci and had just over 81km on the clock when the title transfer happened. I managed to discipline my spending and worked my a$$ off pushing carts at Costco for years (driving mom's Volvo of course) in order to put together just under $25k for a new car.
Thankfully, I hit a deer at 86 mph a few months ago (ha!), and very much totaled the old '96 Volvo 850 GLT. See attached pic for the awesome amount of damage Bambi inflicted. She left hair on my left front fender when I smashed her skull in. At the time, I was putting together the specifics for a brand new 2012 Volvo C30 R-Design, and had enough cash to get what I wanted (with my military discount). When the accident happened, however, I was left car-less and needed to figure things out quickly. I did more car-searching homework than college-homework, and found that I had the funds to get my dream first BMW, if I was ready to dedicate myself to performing maintenance on my own, the right way. After making up my mind, I searched autotrader.com, cars.com, and the classifieds. I test drove four e46 BMWs, and eventually struck gold. The Carmax in Richmond posted a car that had just come in with white paint, 5-spd manual, non-smoker, and sport package (literally everything I was looking for). I did the test drive, and I loved it so much that I had it named before I even shut the engine down. Needless to say, "Brutus" is my new most prized possession, and I've washed him regularly, waxed him every 3 weeks, and even clay barred him! He's getting babied for as long as I don't have a girlfriend!
Now here's my favorite part: because I saved ~$25k for a car and came to my senses to the point that I didn't waste all my money on a NEW car, I only spent ~$17k and wound up with my dream first car and ~8k to dump into my savings! Never, ever going to consider buying a new car again. It's a total waste of money, which is unfortunate for the world's economy.
From what I've read on e46fanatics.com (Sorry, it replaced UCP as my primary forum), BMWs have a reputation for being expensive to maintain because the stealership charges extreme amounts for labor. For example: Brutus needs a new oil level sensor ($100 part), but Richmond BMW wants to charge over $300 total.....needless to say, I'm doing it myself and congratulating myself with $200 worth of liquor!
In closing: I'm sorry for flooding UCP with awful threads way back when about the dream car that I wanted, but had no means of paying for. I don't care if anyone flames me now, I'm just happy to have been able to pay for my first car with my own moneys without parental supervision. Yes, my first car is a BMW, but I'm not rich. I'm an O-1 in the US Army; my monthly salary is online for the world to see, and needless to say I'm not swimming in cash.
Hopefully tropical storm Irene doesn't destroy my boy Brutus......
(I don't care if you know my license plates, I'm getting vanity ones very soon)
EDIT: Before anyone asks: the dash's radio spot is empty because the stock navigation unit was on the fritz when Carmax got it. It's since been replaced.
