Why do I suddenly want a BMW wagon?

Totally normal, right? And also realizing that, maybe, I should have bought my parents' E9x. Yeah, you should have, was my dad's reply. (And he's not interested in selling its replacement.)

You want one because they are really rad!

An E34 M5 clone with a panoramic roof is a bucket list car for me.

edit: The new board update is still really skewing photos for me.  This looks like a penny racer on my screen

Photo looks fine for me. Clear your cache? That was messing with me. 

Also kicking myself for not buying a friend's rear-drive, stick-shift E46 wagon a while back. 

I see the first photo as a bit squished, the other 2 look good.  And I've been having a BMW wagon thing lately too...  My E38 needs a friend or 2.  SWMBO is looking to replace her Prius at some point, and it's looking like the replacement might be either a TDI Sportwagen or one of the AWD diesel BMW wagons.  Only thing that makes me nervous about the BMW ones is transfer case issues...

In reply to Trent :

And now it's on my bucket list as well. I never really liked E34 sedans, but the E34 wagon is the best looking BMW wagon.

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

Or E39 Touring? Drop it, fit the right wheels. You're set. 

My bucket list car would be an e30 325iX touring.

e36 tourings are old enough now that they could be imported into the US, but I'm a little surprised I haven't heard of anyone doing that yet.

In reply to stuart in mn :

I missed "the one:" E36 Alpina Touring. 

David S. Wallens said:

Photo looks fine for me. Clear your cache? That was messing with me.

I don't think it's anything to do with the cache, because the first photo is all pinched up and this is the first page load of this thread for me.  Second and third photos are fine.  That's on my desktop machine.  It's worse on my phone.  Nearly all the photos are pinched in like that.

And, you want a BMW wagon because they're awesome.  My nephew bought a really nice manual E46 wagon for his wife a couple years ago.  Even though I had just bought the V60 I was actually pretty jealous.

In reply to Duke :

You know, I think I see something that might be an issue with the photo. Let me pass it to the devs. Thanks for saying something. 

For the photo, I just confirmed the squishing is related to browser width.  As you narrow the window, it shrinks the width, but doesn't scale the picture down proportionately.  The second and third photos scale properly. 

Trent,

What browser are you using to post the photos? Devs are working on the problem now.

e91 with diesel swap

Suddenly? It's a constant for me.

Rennie had a roached out E34 wagon on M-parallel reps (IIRC) for sale back when I was in FL. It died when I was out test driving it and even still, if it were a manual, I would have bought it. 

Tom Suddard said:

Trent,

What browser are you using to post the photos? Devs are working on the problem now.

Chrome Version 88.0.4324.190 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Also when posting I attempted hotlinking twice with what seemed like no luck. No error, just nothing showed up so I downloaded the photo and uploaded it with the site tool and that came up as the skewed image. I still only see it, yet other people mention seeing 3. Even if I edit the post there is no other images or even spaces to delete.

Quit reading my mind David!  Funny you post this, I have been actively searching for one the last week or so.  Is it wrong that I kinda want to sell my Boxster for one? 

And it appears Atlanta is floating in them.  When I was visiting last week I couldn't believe how many BMW wagons were there.   I would so rock the one Trent posted!

I should think that the best BMW wagon would be one of these:

I loved my E34 wagon. 1993 525iT with a 5 speed. It was not a fast car even with a manual transmission, but it was smooth, quiet, and comfortable. A buddy of mine (who owns some nice cars) said it was the smoothest car he's ever been in. Knocked down miles like nobody's business, and yes, the giant roof still worked!

On snow tires:

I don't like tan interiors, but this one didn't bother me with the wood and the two-tone.

With having a second kid, I needed something bigger than my Clubman, but I also wanted something fairly modern, manual, RWD, and at least a distant ancestor to something sporty. That pretty much narrowed it down to an E91 or a CTS-V, the latter being massively out of budget. Bought my E91 a year ago and have really enjoyed it. Even thinking about tracking it since my Elise is down. Plus the market has been kind to those, so values are pretty strong. Tax appraisal on the other hand is basically nil. 

You really need to ask yourself,  why do I really need an E30 wagon?

I want an e30 touring very badly. 

wspohn said:

I should think that the best BMW wagon would be one of these:

 

 

<grenade pin pull> That's a hatch, not a wagon. </grenade pin pull> 

To answer David's thread title - because you were confused before. Lost in a choppy sea of improperly directed automotive lust. Glad to see you have found your way.

I've had three E91s, it took a while for me to find the configuration I wanted.  The first was AWD/Auto and it made for a slow car and the automatic is paired with a super short final drive which makes it drive awkwardly.  I got an AWD/manual one after that and promptly hurt my left knee and couldn't drive it.  The knee recovery took forever and it got tapped while it was parked and I knew I had to get rid of it before it was destroyed, so I ended up with the RWD/automatic one I have now.  

I heartily recommend getting the sport package no matter what you do, if for no other reason than the seats, and you get surprisingly decent paddle shifters in the auto/sport package cars. The RWD E91s drive better than the AWD ones.  And if you have to choose between a RWD/Sport/Auto and an AWD/Sport/Manual, get the RWD one--you can do a manual swap easier than you can do a RWD swap because the floor pans are different between AWD and RWD cars.  

Part of me really wants to buy up a wrecked 135i and swap its N55/DCT driveline in.  Stay tuned in 5-6 years, I'll make a GRM project thread when I do it.  

A friend let this E34 go for welllllll under challenge money within the past 2 weeks. It probably should've been posted on here as he just wanted it gone.