By Nate Risch
08/14/2016
BMWs have a notorious reputation—sometimes deserved, but often not—of being expensive to maintain. One way to lower the cost of owning BMWs that are no longer covered by maintenance or repair warranties is to work on your car yourself; this could be a task as easy as an oil change, or more difficult jobs such as engine work.
By Nate Risch
08/14/2016
One of the items on the punch list for my ’87 E30 325is was fixing an intermittent problem in the power windows. The previous owner told me that the problem existed on both driver and passenger-side windows, and that he’d replaced both switches but the problem persisted.
By Nate Risch
08/08/2016
It seemed like a good idea at the time: I would retrieve Nancy Drew from New Jersey and drive across this magnificent country once again, driving from Shell station to Shell station, trying to accumulate enough Shell receipts on my way to Monterey that my odds would be terrific when they were all entered in the drawing to win a Shell gift card that might actually pay for much of the gasoline I’d burn on the way.
By Nate Risch
08/08/2016
I have had my ’73 3.0CSi (WARP9) for 30 years. Originally Polaris with a Navy velour interior, it went through its big adolescent growth spurt in my first 2½ years of ownership, during which I bought a new nose and fenders, had them grafted on, drove the car in primer for a while, then had it striped to bare metal and repainted Signal Red.
By Nate Risch
08/01/2016
Blood, sweat, and tears—oh, and beer. That’s what I think it takes to organize our home’s garage. Not that I would know, because since we moved in four years ago, career, kids, and travel have put a damper on such large-scale projects.
