Bizon Hunting: Dream Car Found!

(The first and second installments of Bizon Hunting here: First, Second)

At last, I was actually going to leave the house and see cars with my own eyes, feel leather with my own hands.  The first was a convertible M3, 30k miles, titanium silver with Napa gray leather interior.  It was a maunual transmission of course and for sale by private owner.  It was located about 2.5 hours away in Beverly Hills.  Fortunately I wanted to go up and tour the Gamble House in Pasedena with my family and my best friend lived in Santa Monica.  We planned a day of it and I made an appointment to see the car on a Saturday.

The tour of the Gamble House was great but all I could think of was my dream car.  After it was over, we drove west and found the location of the seller to be right off Wilshire Boulevard half a block behind the Ferrari dealership, or was it Lamborghini?  I forget except that I was temporarily distracted from the task at hand by gorgeous Italian supercars.  The man selling the car was about my age, he quickly pointed out the flaws of the car like an area on the drivers seat where some leather was worn, some nicks and such as well.  This guy was as picky as I am because it looked to be in pristine condition.  My pulse was quickening, finally after spewing forth all sorts of facts and stats on the car, we went for a drive.   The speed and agility exceeded my expectations.  He turned off the Dynamic Stability Control and roasted the tires.  For a convertible, the car felt so solid, like it was carved out a single piece of steel.  It was the visceral driving experienece I required of my dream car.  And most of all it was beautiful, fast and excessive.  The title was clean, it was still under warranty and he had all the maintenance paperwork.  He said he didn’t want to sell it but needed the money to start a business.  Maybe that was B.S. but he seemed genuinely forlorn.  He loved his M3.  We were standing next to it and after giving it another look over I turned to him and said “I’ll take it, can I write a check?”  He was a bit stunned, I was the first looker.  I was a bit stunned, this was the first Beemer I looked at.  I didn’t need time to think, I knew what I was looking for and it was right in front of me.

I had to wait two weeks to pick it up, I needed to get a certified check and some other matters needed to be taken care of but the day finally came, my wife drove me up from San Diego, picked up my friend and dropped us off at the sellers house.  His friend was there too, I gave him the check, he gave me the title.  We got in, put the top down and started it up.  What an exhaust note!  As I pulled out of the carport, I heard the regretful mans friend say “Are you going to be all right?”

I was so excited: I was driving my E46 BMW-gonna-drop-the-hammer-and-smoke-all-y’all-M3.  I looked at the rpms rev and noticed the fuel guage stated I had 4 miles worth of gas left.  F-ing great.  My freind navigated us to the closest filling station with 0 miles left.  After that, we headed straight for Malibu and the PCH to let it run wide open.  It was February, the top was down and it was cold but that didn’t even matter.  The sun was setting over the Pacific and I could not have imagined a better scene: cruising a coastal highway with my best friend and my dream car.