Cars I've Owned (Part 6 of 14)

1992 BMW 325i
Owned: 2002 to 2002
Aka: “The Lemon”

After the 320is self-destructed on me, I needed a car quickly and got a good deal on this. Or so I thought. It seemed I was developing a string of bad luck here. After intermittent engine loping at idle and some odd cold starts, eventual inspection by A&E, and investigation through DMV, I found out that someone had done (err, make that attempted) a piss poor engine swap with a newer E36 engine, the drive train wouldn’t mate properly to the older computer’s engine management system, the wiring harness looked like a labyrinth of disgruntled spaghetti, and long story short – the car was basically sold illegally. I consulted with a really first rate lemon law lawyer and threatened a lawsuit to get the silly dealer (later exposed in the San Jose Mercury News for numerous shady deals like this) to buy it back from me no questions asked, including the price I paid, money for the repairs which went nowhere, and all of my time and effort, including the legal fees. It all worked out in the end, but it was such a big hassle. The only personal memory I have of this car during the hot second I owned it is riding with my old boss David to a High Tech Crime Investigators Association (HTCIA) meeting one afternoon, up the street from our employer Cisco Systems, at Lucent Technologies (random memories here) and him saying “dang, this car’s pretty fast.” I didn’t have the car for long at all and there was certainly no love lost. It woulda’ just been a regular ol’ 3 series anyway. Boring.