Some of you folks may have noticed my recent posts about the hunt for an E39 540 6 speed, and my deliberation between two examples. A week or so ago, I pulled the trigger on the Toledo Blue example, and I wanted to share a story about it.
Friday evening, I made the seller an offer, lower than I would have expected him to take, but he accepted. I'm in Bellingham, WA, and the car is/was in Vancouver, WA. It's a few hours by car. I talked through it with my significant other, and all green lights, the one add on? I'd have to take one of the kids.
Now, one kid is 6 weeks old, another is 4 years old, and as a lot of 4 year old boys, loves trains. He and I have made the Bham to VAN run by Amtrak once before, and if he could ride the train all day, every day, he could. His grandparents (my in laws), live there.
I thought there couldn't possibly be a way that I could get there by train that weekend, but checking the Amtrak site, there was room available, and all of a sudden, I was committing my 4 year old son and I to a train and drive with no backup between Vancouver and Bellingham. A stack of maintenance records and a very responsive and helpful seller had me confident, but still, E36 M3 happens. Worst case scenario, the car is a total dud, and we get picked up by the grandparents, and try to find a way home on Sunday.
A quick late night pack up of some essentials, and we're on the train at 8.30AM Saturday. My kid is beyond excited.
After a long, and eventful train ride (someone decided to stop on the tracks and we tore the back end of a car off). We met the seller at the Vancouver train station. One year from retirement, with grown kids of his own, as straightforward and honest as I imagined he would be. The first time I drove the car, I had to put my kid's car seat in the back. I was running on fumes from the train ride, so it was a quick 15-20 min test drive, money exchanged hands, and we hoofed it to the in laws, in the dark, to get some rest.
At a familiar home base, I took some time to do a quick check over, oil, coolant, etc. I was in very unfamiliar territory as usually I pick a car apart to death before walking away with it. This one, I just sort of had hope in the other human that they were being truthful.
My kid was up at 5 or so, I had some caffeine, a snack, got him breakfast, said goodbye to the inlaws, and we were on the road home.
Recovered from the travel day, and running at sustained highway speeds, a few things immediately became apparent:
- This car tracks dead straight, with no wobbles, noises, or any other oddities
- The E39 is just what they say it is, quiet, comfortable, planted
- The V8, on the highway, is like using cheat codes, changing speeds is so effortlessly simple, and it's barely even working
No antics on the ride home, not only to get us both home safe, but again, it's an unknown entity. Something could still go sideways.
But it didn't. We were home around 10AM, and neither of us were worse for wear. The car was incredible, and I've been driving it daily since.
Sure, there are a few things it needs, I'll slowly pick away at it, but nothing that is impacting it's ability to get me where I need it to go.
I'm sure it will frustrate me at some point, but right now, my only regret is waiting so long to buy one of these. The way you can so easily roll into the power to get on the highway, and the simple, direct nature of the inputs coupled with the stable, robust feel of the chassis and drivetrain combination is very addicting. It isn't a car that is screaming to be driven at 10/10's, its a well behaved, classy looking near vintage German sedan that is a nice place to spend a bunch of time in if you're needing to.
And my kid, he requests it when we go leave for school. It used to be the 100 series, but now he points to the E39, puts some words together about how we went on the train to go get it, and how he got to see his grandpa, and walks over to open the door. He has a speech development delay, so it's sometimes a bit difficult to understand if he remembers things that happen as he doesn't always have the words to express himself.
He remembers this, and I always wished that my Dad would have done something like this with me. I had a wonderful adventure with my Son, and I got a car out of it, not a bad deal at all. Anyways, go and do E36 M3 with your kids if you have them. Whatever your thing is, show them you want them involved. Let them find their own things, and make sure they know you want to be involved with that too.
Here are some photos from the trip.
Us leaving the train station after the short test drive
Parked at the inlaws overnight
Heading home
Upon arrival, not bad for highway MPG, even if it's likely a bit off. And everyone was right, these cars aren't that big!
