I’ve always liked hatchbacks for their practicality. If you like them too but don’t want people to know you’re driving one, the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe hides its handy hatchback-ness under a slick body that looks more like a sedan.
Read my full review at TractionLife.com.
The 2012 3 Series looks like a BMW and drives like one, but certain parts of it really don’t feel like they belong in a BMW. Click here to read my Autos.ca Test Drive.
Modern European luxury cars are famous for reliability problems, mostly linked to complicated electronics. BMW is certainly not immune, but here’s a car that the Bavarians apparently got right, in large part: the Z4 roadster is a unique-looking sports car that appears to be a fairly smart used car purchase. Read my full Autos.ca review here.
Last week, I told you how much I like my in-laws’ lovely near-vintage 5 Series; today, my used car column at Autos.ca looks at what it’s like to own a newer 5 Series. The short answer is that you’ll likely get to know your mechanic really well. Read the full article here.
The BMW X1 is a smaller SUV with a smaller engine and, most importantly, a smaller price. At a little under $40,000, the X1 is going to attract many new buyers to the BMW brand, and that’s probably a good thing, because the X1 is missing something key to BMW’s appeal with enthusiasts. Read my review at Autos.ca.
By Chris Chase
In 1997, my in-laws bought this car, a 1994 BMW 525i, second-hand.
My in-laws' baby, a 1994 BMW 525i
My father-in-law had debated getting the Touring (station wagon) model, but was turned off by the fact that BMW never sold it with a stickshift (or at least, they’re hard to find that way). BMW wagons are pretty swell, but its manual shifters are better, so I think it was a good trade-off.
Shortly after buying the car, my in-laws had the car shipped overseas so they could drive it during a four-year stint in Switzerland. If this car was a person, I’d like to think it had never been so happy, on that country’s well-maintained highways. It’s probably never been quite that happy since, either, particularly having spent much of the last three years in storage, here in Ottawa, while its owners were living in South America. I’ve been the car’s official custodian during that time, though that job ends this fall, when they move home.
The car still looks good for a 17-year-old; it has 343,000-plus kilometres on the odometer. I expect they’ll keep it another long while; it’ll spend winters from here on stored in their garage.
Front-hinged hood!
One of my favourite features is the front-hinged hood. My dad’s 1978 Civic had one, too, but they’re rare now.
Under that hood is a 2.5-litre straight-six engine. By today’s standards, its 189 horsepower and 181 lb-ft of torque are pretty modest; most four-cylinder family cars have that much power, if not more. This certainly isn’t a fast car, but the motor is really nice to listen to when it’s working hard. The shifter in this car is showing its age, with lots of play, but it still shifts nicely. The clutch is a beautiful piece of machinery to use.
You don’t see blocky dashboards like this much anymore; same for the huge expanse of blank surface around the shifter. You can bring a drink with you, but you have to hold onto it. Think new BMWs are stingy with cupholders? This one has NONE. On an unrelated note, I’ll take this car’s mechanical parking brake over the electric type BMW uses now.
Cupholders? Ha!
A fully-lined trunk is easy to take for granted in today’s economy cars; this one’s nice, but it’s not as deep as what you get in modern BMW sedans, and the back seats don’t fold. There’s a centre pass-through, though.
Drive around in this car, and you’re surrounded by noises. There are creaks from every corner of the interior, and the worn leather squeaks as you slide around in the slippery seats. The soft ride is probably partly due to a well-worn suspension, but I think it’s more an indication that back then, a sporty car didn’t have to ride harshly. That’s different now, and I think it’s a mistake. I’ll take a softer-riding car that can corner any day. The only place for a hard suspension is the smooth asphalt of a racetrack; on city streets, a rough ride feels nothing but cheap, at least in a luxury car.
This car’s steering is a far cry from that in just about any car built in the last 10 years. The on-centre dead spot is so wide that it feels like something’s loose at the front wheels. That’s the way it was designed, though, in the days before the complicated variable-ratio steering systems BMW offers now. It’s off-putting at first, driving a car with a steering wheel that moves through about 10 degrees of rotation before doing much to change the car’s direction. Toss it into a hard corner, though, and the steering feel improves dramatically. I did that once, and I spend every drive in the car looking for more corners to toss it around.
There are many things I like about new BMWs, but I still love the older ones more. It’s been fun getting to know this car.
Chris Chases Cars 