Ever since I was a little kid I loved cars. My parents said I could name every car on the road by the time I was five. I was obsessed with cars. My favorite toys were cars, I spent hours drawing cars, I clipped pictures of cars from magazines and I dreamed of the day when I would own a car of my own. When I was about 10 years old we visited my Aunt Ruth in Yakima and my cousin Sid, who was just out of the service, showed up with a sports car, an Austin Healey. "What a cool car!" I thought. It was smaller than anything I'd ever seen before and looked like it was going 100 miles per hour sitting still. Along side of the giant American car my parents owned it looked like a gazelle next to a cow. From that moment on I wanted a sports car in the worst way.
When it came time to buy my first car I really wanted a sports car, but my parents could barely afford the insurance for a 19 year old, much less a 19 year old with a sports car. I ended up with what I thought was a sporty car, a Renault Caravelle. As it turned out it was a sporty looking car with a piece of junk for an engine. It didn't even last a full year. The brakes failed, the clutch went out and finally the main bearings gave out, stranding me in the San Fernando valley on my way to pick up my girlfriend.
As the years have gone by I have owned many cars, some good, some bad, but I've never stopped wanting to own a sports car. During the 70s and 80s there were some pretty awful cars manufactured and the sports cars that had existed in the 60s gradually either disappeared from the highway, or were neutered. The convertible disappeared and the fun went out of motoring.
Then came the 90s and foreign sports cars again appeared in America. Porsche came out with a Speedster, Honda created a roadster, Mercedes introduce the SK, and even the Corvette became a roadster again after a few years with a lift out roof. But the car that captured my imagination was the BMW Z3.
It premiered in the James Bond movie Golden Eye and it looked like it was going 100 miles an hour sitting still, just like my cousin's Austin Healey. It was the only time Bond drove a car other then an Aston Martin, but boy was it expensive! I checked it out at the auto show and looked at the price tag and knew I would never be able to spend 40 grand on a car. However, as the years have gone by I've watched the used car market and followed the price on Z3s gradually decline until at last they became affordable for me to consider.
One of the effects of the rain in Seattle, is that many sports car owners only drive their cars during the nice weather, which as we all know is usually about 3 months during the summer. Therefore, their sports cars sit in the garage for a good part of the year and are pampered and babied. For this reason, you can find low mileage sports cars, which after a decade can still have less than 100,000 miles on them.
One day my boss, Maynard, came into work and told me about a car he had seen near his house in a church parking lot. It was a BMW Z3 with only 22,000 miles on it and an asking price of $11,500. I was suddenly very excited. "I'm going to go by and look at it at lunch time!" I told him. He said, "Why don't we go out there right now and look, I have an errand to run out by my house" So we drove out to the John Knox church and there it sat. He took a picture of me standing next to it and I noted the phone number and vowed to call about the car. I placed a call and waited impatiently, but received no return call. So I tried again, but received no answer and no response to my message. I was very disappointed, but started looking on Craigs list and the Auto Trader for another Z3. However, most of the cars had a lot of miles, and much larger prices. I became resigned to the fact that it might be a long long time before such an opportunity came along again.
Then about two weeks later I went to Craig's List and typed in BMW Z3 and there was the car from the John Knox church parking lot. I quickly e-mailed the person with the ad and scrolled down to see what else was listed. There was another Z3 in West Seattle with only 49,000 miles on it and a price of $11,750. I decided that it would be a good idea to check out more than one car and called and left a message. This time I received a response from the person with the car at the church and set up an appointment for my lunch break. Then I watched the clock and probably didn't accomplish much work until it was time for my break. I drove up to the church and the man was already there with the car. I walked around the car and examined it closely. I sat in it, not at all sure whether it would be comfortable enough for me and discovered that like many small German cars, it had plenty of leg room and seats that enfolded you like an easy chair. He asked me if I wanted to take it for a drive. I said that I would love to drive it. Then he handed me the keys and let me take it for a drive by myself. It handled so well and was so tight and maneuverable that I immediately thought I have to have this car. However, I told him that I also had another car to look at and proceeded to ask him a number of questions about the car. It turned out that he was selling it for a woman who had just been divorced and that she had been the original owner. It was only a four cylinder, but that low, low mileage really spoke to me. At some point the woman owner had clipped the side of the garage and scratched the rear fender and put a chip in the mirror, so I told the man that if I decided on this car I would offer $11,000.
When I returned to work I received a phone call about the car in West Seattle. The man was in Port Angeles on business and had a work schedule that didn't leave much time for me to see the car. We talked about meeting on Friday after work, then he later called back and told me he thought he could meet me at his house in the Admiral district at 4 PM. So I stayed after work and drove to the address and waited. He was a bit late due to traffic on I-5, but finally he showed up. I could hear him coming up the street. This car was six cylinder model, and was much nicer than the 4. It had a power top verses a manual top, wood grain dash verses plastic and most important, a more powerful engine. There were some scratches where someone had fumbled in trying to put the hardtop on the car and one ding the size of the tip of my index finger in the rear fender. He told me it had originally been purchased by a man for his wife as a present for her 60th birthday. At age 70 her husband had passed away and she sold the car to the present owner since she only needed one car. The car had been garaged with a car cover ever since it was new. It had never been driven in the rain and was immaculate. He asked me if I wanted to drive the car and I jumped at the chance. This time the owner accompanied me and we drove up California Avenue and turned around at the lookout above Alki. It was obvious that this car had a lot more power than the 4, and it was just as tight and drove just as well. I told the owner that I had looked at a 4 cylinder with only 22,000 miles earlier in the day and would tell him when I made a decision.
It was a difficult decision to make. On the one hand, the 4 had extremely low miles, but the 6 was the definitive sports car. I called JJ and asked him what he knew about the Z3. He said that they were both great cars, that the engine in the 4 was the same engine that the Mini-Cooper was equipped with. He said that they were extremely reliable cars and it was just a matter of which I preferred. He said either choice would be great.
That night I went on line and read everything I could find about Z3s. I soon discovered that the 6 was worth much more than the 4 even with the lower miles taken into consideration. The retail list for the 4 was just about what the woman was asking for it. On the other hand, with the options the 6 was equipped with, it was worth three to four thousand more than than the asking price. I went to sleep that night still without a decision. At two thirty AM I woke up with the cars on my mind. I weighed everything I had learned. As it turned out, both cars were the same color, silver, but the 4 had a red interior and 6 was equipped with a black interior. Finally, I knew that I wanted the car with the best options and the one that had the highest performance. I e-mailed the man with the 4 and called and left a message for the owner of the 6 and told them my decision.
Of course, Joyce asked me, "Do we really need a sports car?" And I told her, "Honey, no one needs a sports car. But I sure do want one." When we went to Seattle to finalize the deal, Joyce saw the Z3 for the first time. After we had closed the deal she went to sit in the car. I didn't think I was going to get her out of it. The next evening I asked her if she wanted to go for a ride since she had not yet had a chance to. As we drove along in the warm evening air with the top down, she turned to me and said, "This is the best idea you've had in a long time." I'd have to agree with her and I do every time I fire that engine up and hear that purr that becomes a growl as this car accelerates. Finally, my dream has come true.
