Yes, I have. One of my BMWCCA buddies owns this car's twin, and I have an M235i on order. The M235i is better in nearly every way. Just as fast, corners just as well, while riding notably better if you put the suspension in Comfort. Much better looking, much nicer inside - and not someone else's used car. The 1M feels…

The Dart/SP250 was kind of crap, though I love the way they look and sound.

Getting backhoes up on railcars is done all the time - that's how you unload a gondola or hopper car on some random siding with no unloading facilities. The backhoe is usually specially equipped for it though.

I just don't get the 1M. The M235i is better in just about every way, and I am paying $3K less than that for a NEW one, with a month driving it around Europe tossed in. The 1M is a neat car, but the prices for them are just silly. At least this one is the right color.

I find I get pretty much spot on the EPA figures with my cars. Though I usually beat the highway figure for my BMW on trips. Remember, YMMV.

Best car I ever had for this was my Peugeot 504D. Basically never used the clutch other than for stopping and starting. But I used to drive manual tranny busses. It gets REALLY fun when you add in a 40'+ long shift linkage with well-worn bushings to the mix. Though only 4-6 gears, not 12-18.

The model T was available in a variety of colors for the first quite a few years of production, and for the last few years of production.

You can honk, buddy. It will ENSURE I sit right there for a couple more light cycles.

In the NYC area if you are not already moving when the light turns you will often get honked at. Irks me to no end.

Yeah, same here - raked the snow off the roof. Which was fun with 4'-5' of snow around the house. And discovered that I can't use the monitor heater in my garage because the intake/exhaust is buried in a 6' snowdrift. Sigh.

I saw -14 at my house in Westbrook last Friday morning. That is the coldest I have seen in the 14 years I have lived here, by about 10 degrees. Crazy. I feel like my place has been transported to Minnesota or something.

Yeah - that does not inspire any more confidence in crashing one. That is a full stop in about a foot, with the body just shattering, so not absorbing squat in energy. There was ZERO side impact protection, the doors are just hollow shells of Duroplast. And remember, they made these things up until '91. I'd rather…

It is made of actual metal and has ~50% more power. 2-stroke triple as opposed to 2-stroke twin. MUCH better to drive too, better handling, better brakes.

We do the same thing in Portland, ME too. Front-end loaders with those giant snowblowers on them blowing the snow into dumptrucks. No other way to do it on narrow, winding, 18th century streets, there is no where to put it. Often the truck has to be ahead of the snowblower, as the streets are too narrow for them to be…

I owned a Trabant the summer ('91) I spent in Budapest. Bought it, drove it around all summer, sold it for what I paid for it. It's the best terrible car ever made. It was very reliable, though I am pretty confident I could have punched a hole in the body. An utter deathtrap in a crash. You must know the old Hungarian…

Having lived in Maine most of my life, and having had a pair of Icelandic roommates in college at U. Maine (they could DRINK), I can assure you that winters in Iceland are generally milder than winters in Maine. It is DARK there though.

One of my BMW club buddies has three Miatas, one for each kid plus a spare. All picked up on the cheap and fixed up. So rational parents do exist. He is also the chair of our local BMWCCA chapters Street Survival School for teens, and an ace autocrosser. His kids know how to drive - having had my butt handed to me at…

My Grandmother drove for more than 60 years and has never been pulled over for anything. She was in one not at fault accident, when my Mom was a kid, and she slid her car off the road in a snowstorm once, when I was in high school. Pretty good for 60-odd years, and for a long time she had a 40+ mile a day commute.

I agree with this 100%. My '11 328i has been maintained by the pre-free "old school" maintenance schedule since new. So in 3.5yrs 33K miles it has actually had 5 oil changes, 2 gearbox and diff oil changes, 2 brake fluid flushes and a power steering fluid change. As opposed to the 2, 0, 0, 1, and 0 it would have had…

I think ultimately you have to keep in mind what a car like this is - $100K of absolutely bleeding edge technology. Even if you pay $10K for it, it's still a $100K of absolutely bleeding edge technology, that is now a decade or so old. If you look at it as getting a $100K car for an $85K discount, and know that you…