Solid Walls of Sound: Part 2.

4-year Owner Review: My 1987 BMW E24 635CSi

Price (brand new): $46,965 (adjusted for inflation: $109,245)
Price (as purchased): $2,100 USD
Hagerty Value as of 2020: $18,600 USD
Current mileage: 277,000 km (est.)
Performance: 218 horsepower, 229 lb ft. torque (est. after cat delete), 3.4L inline six with 4-speed auto; 3219 lbs.

<This is a 5-part feature where I rave about my 33-year-old BMW E24 635CSi, which I bought four years ago. Yeah, it's a little long.>

Previously: Part 1: Sense of Occasion.

Part 2: Driving.

Is It the Worst It's Ever Been? BMW Edition.

Looking back on past design failures of BMW.

Just this past week, some images of the next generation 4 series have surfaced on the internet, and the verdict is... uh, not good. It seems that BMW has decided to fully copy Audi's homework in having a massive corporate grill, and just slapped on two enlarged kidneys on the front of the car.

When it happened on the concept cars, everyone shrugged and assumed that such designs will surely not make it to production. And then they did stuff like this, and this, and this -- so it's only a matter of time when the classic signature kidney grills become so enlarged you'd think that the car is suffering from Hydronephrosis.

It's quite amazing to witness BMW's long fall from grace from being one of the manufacturers with the best looking automotive lineup, to whatever the hell they have going on right now.

But then, is this the worst that has ever come from BMW? I don't know. So let's look back.

Just to be clear, this list is only going to include production BMWs -- concepts and prototype cars are not included. Let's start.

Solid Walls of Sound: Part 1.

4-year Owner Review: My 1987 BMW E24 635CSi

Price (brand new): $46,965 USD (adjusted for inflation: $109,245)
Price (as purchased): $2,100 USD
Hagerty Value as of 2020: $18,600 USD
Current mileage: 171,800 miles / 276,845 km (est.)
Performance: 218 horsepower, 229 lb ft. torque (est. after cat delete), 3.4L inline six with 4-speed auto; 3219 lbs.

Full disclose: I had originally planned on writing the review all in one go, but as you are about to realize, this blog post alone is purely on describing the startup procedure of this car. Yeah, I am definitely going to break this up to a couple parts, because the fact is, despite having owned this car for 4 years, despite all its flaws and its attempts to drain my bank account dry, I still love this car to death, and I cannot be more glad to have pulled the trigger on getting this car back in 2016.

So, enjoy, because I am going to spend the next little while telling you all about this car.

Part 1: Sense of Occasion.