I am an old guy also (62) & have owned over 30 cars & trucks, 2 motorcycles & and a self made experimental airplane. For pure adrenalin rush my airplane wins hands down. For spirited driving, my 1993 318is 5sp is the best car, considering all compromises, that I have ever driven. I got a new 318i 5sp in 95 for my wife. She would not let me touch it....so I never really explored it. She owned it 11 years. In December, my neighbor "gave me" his 1993 318is. He had owned it for 17 years. The car had/has a lot of problems….the interior & non working windows mainly. Still It needs ignition wires, left front wheel bearing & clutch slave cylinder but...it still runs good (176,000 miles now) All the problems have not been fixed yet but the car is drivable...after new struts/shocks & front end work. I have owned (5) Fiats...mostly Spiders & 1 Sport Coupe, great fun cars. The 318is 5sp is way better than the Fiats. Fiat is an old design that goes back to 1966. It was the first production car with a belt driven over head cams. The Japanese stole the technology & look at all the belt driven motors out since then. I also like my 318is 5sp better than my friend's 2nd generation Miata (with many mods)
Comments on my M42 5Sp & other 4 cylinder BMW
The first thing I did after the car was given to me was immerse myself into the internet to try to find out everything about my car. I joined every BMW forum that I could find. Then I started to go over every thread that covered the non working window problems, the door panel problems, struts, engine…everything. The internet is the greatest information tool ever created. There is one thing one must have in order to be successful getting the correct information from the internet …a very accurate “BS meter” Without this meter you will be totally lost. The bimmerforum & Bimmerfest forums can be very helpful but are very frustrating. On those forums, whenever I asked a question, there was a whole series of shotgun answers & many answers did not make any sense. Thus the importance of the “BS meter” Bimmerfest is better but still frustrating. Once the members of those forums found out that my car was a 4 cylinder, many of them just dismissed me as somewhat of a “lesser being” After much frustration & reading through hundreds of post & asking questions, I could not find out how to fix my windows. After a week, I found an article on the net somebody had written (not in those 2 forums) detailing how to fix the windows. This article chronicled the problem & the solution with detailed step by step instructions with pictures. My windows work now.
I found the M42club.com site later. For me, this site is great for engine, clutch & transmission related information. On this site one does not get hounded & belittled for driving a 4 cylinder. It is much easier to find/get clear & detailed information. Also, the members on this site must be, on average, a little older than the other sites. There is nothing wrong with being young…it is just that younger members sometimes are more interested in bling , looks & 20” wheels. We need young people more but…hey don’t forget about us old farts… we want to have fun too. You should see the cars & motorcycles we had to work with back in our day.
After a while, one starts to believe the “Sixers” & finds oneself feeling as a second class 4 cylinder citizen. Who wants a bunch of people saying that our car is somewhat less worthy because it has 4 not 6 cylinders & it's actually a “piece of crap”? Anyway our cars, driven correctly, yield plenty of performance. Keep the RPM’s above 3,500 & they scoots. The handling of the 4 cylinder is better than most 6. Driving the twisties, not drag racing, is where it’s at. This car loves to go around curves. One can have a lot of fun without pushing the envelope too. Wiping out & ending in the middle of a cow pasture is no fun…ask me how I know.
Coming soon…COP ignition, Mark D chip, CAI, fix the mess under the intake, thermostat & the interior (little by little)……last but not least, paint.
Anyway, these 4cylinder BMW’s (all of them) are a lot of fun to drive & work on. Some of them are well meaning but don’t let the “Sixers” get you down.
Ivan from Sugar Land, Texas.
