Tomorrow morning I’ll drive our 1999 BMW Z-3 down to Houston where there’s a fellow who wants to purchase it. He found out that I had one that was in running condition, a good motor and transmission and generally in operating order. He’s aware that it needs a paint job and interior work; but is looking forward to restoring the vehicle to its once jewel-like state.
A few
months ago, when we purchased our new Subaru Outback, the dealership had the
opportunity to take the Z-3 as a trade-in; however, the offer they made was
incredibly low, bordering on insulting, so we decided to hold onto the car
until somebody who was familiar with the vehicle’s potential and value came
along.
I went to the BMW dealership over off I-45 and FM1960 to learn a little more, mostly to see how much a new one cost. Geeezzz, that little toy car was going for around $46,000 or more depending on which optional equipment you wanted. $46,000 for a toy car was definitely way out of my price range; however, what about a used one? Maybe that would fit our budget; those were around $36,000; not really something we could justify either.
That said,
Lucy was thinking about getting another car.
She liked the way one of the Dodge products looked, a miniature version
of Chevy’s Suburban; can’t even remember what it was called now. It was built on the Neon chassis and sold for
about $20,000 as I recall. We drove one
and were not impressed with almost anything about it.
I
suggested, just as a possibility mind you, that we could go by the BMW dealership
that was only a few miles away and see if she liked the Z-3 that I’d test
driven earlier. I got one of those ‘eye
rolls’, the kind where it’s pretty obvious that she’s being set up. The salesman recognized me from earlier as
Lucy got into the driver seat with me becoming the passenger. He suggested we go for a spin down FM1960
since the traffic there would let her have more fun.
Lucy familiarized
herself with the workings of this fancy little butt rocket and we headed over
to FM1960. Lucy was going through the
gears like a pro, enjoying the marvelous burst of power with each shifting of the
gears. We’d only gone a short way as the
car eased its way over the bridge that crosses the Hardy Toll Road. She’d gotten into third gear and was accelerating
nicely when I reminded her that going 90mph was a little faster than we should
be going. The look on her face said it
all as she responded, “Oh my, this car does drive nicely, I hardly noticed we
were going that fast.” That’s my girl,
as she toned down the speed a bit closer to the posted speed limit.
We agreed the
BMW Z-3 was a nice vehicle; however, even a used one at $36,000 was out of our
price range. Lucy suggested we look for
one on eBay; maybe find one closer to our price range. That began our journey. It might be more interesting to understand
that in that time period, our use of the internet was via dial-up; the idea of
having a constant cable connection may not have been available then, at least
it wasn’t for us. We would dial the
number for our internet provider, wait, and wait and patiently hope to
eventually be connected. Once connected
to eBay we glanced over the offered vehicles that matched BMW Z-3 Coupe.
We found
one that matched the metallic green that looked like a polished gemstone. It had a moon roof, leather seats along with
a cargo mesh barrier and was only a year old.
The couple offering the vehicle were about to start a family and they
needed to find a family car, a two-seater butt-rocket was no longer practical
for them.
We didn’t
let anyone on eBay know we were interested as we watched the bidding proceed
along with the end of the auction approaching.
The last bid took the price up to around $15,000 with only a couple of
minutes left before the auction ended.
Having the dial-up connection and knowing how it might get disconnected
for any old reason, we placed our bid with a minute and a half to go. Our bid was for $25,000, the top end limit as
to how much we were willing to spend, or about the price of a fully loaded Toyota
Camry.
In that
minute and a half there was a bidding frenzy, different individuals raising
their bid a thousand dollars here, a thousand more dollars there and so it went
as the seconds clicked away. We were relieved to find our bid ended up being
$22,000, just three thousand dollars less than our maximum acceptable
expenditure.
We figured
out how to send a cashier’s check to the seller by working with our credit
union. We wanted to protect ourselves just in case; but that was never needed
on this transaction. The couple met us
at the airport in Philadelphia; the car temporarily parked directly in front of
the passenger terminal where we signed the transfer papers. The BMW Z-3 Coupe was gorgeous, every bit as
beautiful as we’d hoped; maybe even better.
We drove
it down to Washington D.C. where we’d planned to be tourists, a mini-vacation
while driving the car back to Houston.
That’s the first photograph we took of the car, Lucy as passenger,
sitting in the driveway of the hotel we stayed that first night.
Fast forward
to this morning, twenty-four years later and watching the end of an era. We’d gotten a call from our son letting us
know someone was interested in purchasing the BMW Z-3 Coupe. He’d offered a
reasonable amount, knowing the car needed a paint job and work on the
interior. I was prepared to drive it
down to Houston on Friday, topped off the gas tank, cleaned the windows inside
and out and placed the original owner’s manual back inside the car.
The fellow
who wanted to purchase the little BMW Z-3 Coupe had his own car crater on him
and he needs to fix that car before he can afford to pay us the agreed upon
amount. So, it looks like it will be a
couple of months into 2026 before we part with it. Not quite the end of an era.
