A lot of FWD cars have AWD versions available (or in other models based on the same chassis) so I presume that’s a big part of having the center console.

BMW E61 535xi touring... the styling is a little questionable, but the N54 is a proven powerhouse that can easily make 450hp+ without any major work. With a $30,000 budget, you could buy a really nicely specced example for $15k or less and then ball out on maintenance & mods.

Since I refuse to ever buy a new car and exclusively buy used cars, I won’t run out of gas-powered cars any time soon. So I’ll be in some old BMW 5 series, whether it be an E12, E28, E34, or E39.

I’m pretty biased, but any oldschool BMW headlights. There are 4 separate circles— 2 for high beams, 2 for low beams. Turn signals are separate. There’s no LED nonsense, no weird stylistic cues, just headlights. They’re honest and functional, and that’s why I love them.

That’s fine by me— modern car leather hasn’t really felt all that great anyways. Even the “real” leather feels kinda fake in most new cars, it’s all processed and coated to oblivion. Leather in cars peaked in the 80's and 90's when it actually smelled and felt like leather.

Realistically speaking, Ford/Chevy/Mopar will continue making V8's for their commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles are generally not subject to the same emissions requirements as regular passenger vehicles, so they’ll keep chugging along with their pushrod V8's until gasoline stops existing... and then they’ll just…

I forgot what the check engine light even looked like until I read this article, since most BMW’s just have a text “Service Engine Soon” warning.

I’ve never really minded the fried egg headlights, but my absolute favorite thing about them is the undue amount of rage they induce in Porsche enthusiasts. Anything that makes the crotchety old men at Cars & Coffee mad is good in my book.

A manual transmission. Automatics just make cars depressing (to me) and I get bored of them very quickly.

Screw that, I’d rather have a regular key for everything. I don’t even have keyless entry, don’t need it.

I don’t see the appeal of dark mode... it hurts my eyes more than the regular mode.

The main takeaway from this article is that I should charge more at my shop, lol. I fix old BMW’s and I charge way less for all the stuff listed in the article. I dunno why I have such a hard time charging a proper amount, me trying to be nice to people always screws me at the end of the month when rent is due.

Yes I do! And given that I live in Arizona, I can hoon all year round. I have yet to take my current hooptie on the track, but my last one was a lot of fun:

I honestly sometimes forget, because all my friends drive clapped-out old BMW’s like I do.

Eh, when your daily is worth like $2k tops, who cares? If I crash it, I’ve got a bunch of spare body panels at my shop, along with front and rear subframes, headlights, taillights, bumpers, etc. 

I’m okay with this. Realistically speaking I can afford the cost of my fillup to go up by $20 and not feel too much of a difference... I paid way more for gas back in the day when it cost more, and I made less money back then. My car gets half-decent fuel economy but maybe it’ll make the truck bros think twice about…

I’m well aware that financing is a thing, but it’s stupid to finance a depreciating asset that is worth more than your annual income... if you’re making $40k a year you should be driving a $25k Hyundai or Toyota, or buying a used car. People just have wildly unrealistic expectations of what cars they can actually…

Under $80k and “mass-market” in the same sentence? Suuuuuure.

My car is almost 30 years old, has a manual transmission, and 273,000 miles. That alone makes it completely invisible to thieves.

That’s SEMA in a nutshell...