The BMW M3 was a good decision…. but my heart had been in control and definitely not my head. As I cruised around the extremely steep hills of San Francisco I started to hear a buzzer. A few sharp turns later I noticed that the buzz was accompanied by a red light on the dashboard…. the low oil light. “Oops” I thought to myself and headed straight to a gas station.
A few quarts of oil later I was back to cruising around my new favourite city. San Francisco, what a place. Whether I was in the Castro watching the crazy naked people or in the Marina looking at vacuous pretty people, the BMW was great. Hood down, tunes pumped up I constantly had a smile on my face. The fact that it wasn’t a ‘proper’ M didn’t really matter. BMW America had tuned it for a flat torque curve for smooth power delivery and it worked perfectly.
I was happy.
Work was going well. Long days were started and finished with 45 mile commutes on the wonderful 280. If you haven’t been to the Bay Area then try to imagine a 5 lane highway (M25 in the UK) with virtually no traffic, draped over the Scottish Highlands and you will have some idea of how happy I was. My evenings were spent either asleep or at a bar listening to live music with friends. Life felt pretty good. Moving to California was definitely in my (short) list of good decisions.
The oil late came on again.
Everyday for months I found myself breaking into a smile as I rounded the final curve of the 280 and the skyline came into sight. A great car, A great city and beautiful sunsets.
but no matter how much oil I put in, that blasted oil light came on.
I soon realised that it was drinking a quart of oil for every 500 miles… about the same as my beloved RX-8. Not ridiculous but definitely not a good sign so after only 6 months of ownership I realised it was time for an engine rebuild or a new car….
After some “Rob Maths” I decided that spending four thousand on a rebuild would leave me with a new engine in a 12 year old car and the potential for even more costs so a newer car would be cheaper… an investment really…. so what next….
Well I won’t answer that today…. but bear in mind it was a World Cup Year and that did influence my final decision.
Dreams, cars and dreams about cars 