1989 - 1995 BMW 5-Series Sedan Pre-Owned

The Best Sedan of its Era

My love affair with the Bavarian brand began way back when I was a kid. My dad and I stood crouching, staring through the

My love affair with the Bavarian brand began way back when I was a kid. (Photo: BMW Canada)

side window of a silver-blue 1973 3.0 coupe that just happened to be parked on a local used car lot, a rare sight even back then. The dark blue leather bucket seats looked a lot more enticing than our 1966 VW Beetle's black vinyl chairs, while the BMW's inviting interior design, incorporating real wood accents and power operated features, sent my mind astir. Its outward appearances still transmit an anticipatory tingle up my spine every time I see one.

I've never been able to find the right 3.0 coupe when sufficient funds just happened to lay unspoken for in my bank account, thus my first BMW was the next best thing, a 4-speed manual 3.0 S sedan. The hopped up Bavaria was an awesome performer with relatively simple

Its reasonably good power, superb handling, wonderfully executed interior and gorgeous exterior styling made up for a few too many trips to the dealer. (Photo: BMW Canada)

engineering by today's standards, allowing me to perform rudimentary maintenance myself despite my limited high school mechanical background.

A few years later I picked up a fabulous 5-speed equipped 1982 528e with a mere 317,000 km on the odometer. It performed flawlessly to 408,000 km and I sold it to my best friend, who drove it for years afterward. Forgetting a short stint in a very poorly maintained 1985 325e my 1989 525i, also a 5-speed manual, wasn't quite as reliable as the old 528e. But still, it was commendable for a first year example after 118,000 km. Its reasonably good power, superb handling, wonderfully executed interior and gorgeous exterior styling made up for a few too many trips to the dealer.