Driving Miss Winny...

The last few days have been a rollercoaster ride. On the the one hand, there are a number of times when I feel very much down because I see the scope of what needs to be done. How I wish that everything could magically be finished by the time I wake up the next morning.

I have actually made good progress this past week having had the steering column bolts tightened (to eliminate some of the loose steering feel) and most importantly for me, started on a detailed cleaning of the interior. My inner neat freak dictates that this is something which cannot be put off much longer even though I realize that when I have the car repainted, most of my work will be undone. But now that the inside is so much cleaner, it does make a tremendous difference, after all this is what you see when driving. The interior grime accumulated over the years has been removed and the grayish instrument panel letterings have once again returned to being white.

Still, a lot of the time has been spent running around various shops for advice, quotations, and schedulings. It gets really frustrating when I cannot immediately get the information I want and even more so when work cannot proceed because of the inavailability of the required parts. This is the main drawback of having a European car in the Philippines. Eventually, what is needed does arrive but it can take at least a couple of weeks for even relatively common parts and up to a couple of months for those which are more exotic.

Now, the good part.

Since getting the yet unnamed 525, my two other cars (Winny the 323 and Ziggy, my Hyundai Tucson SUV) have been kind of neglected in the garage. I do the cursory cleaning for both but they have not really much moved from their spots the past week. So I decided last night to take Winny for a spin and Wow! I realized what a really good Bimmer should be. The handling and power are really noticeably different and no amount of description on my part will fully explain the driveability of the car. I remember that when I first got Winny, I kind of questioned what was the big deal about BMWs considering its premium price over similarly equipped brands. It seemed to me then that the handling was a struggle and engine responsiveness poor, not to mention a number of niggling problems. Then, I had almost all of the front suspension components changed, tuned the engine, replaced the fluids, cleaned up the small issues like dents and dings among others. A six-figure sum of money was spent in doing all this but I have to say it was well worth it. I am not ashamed to admit that I will scrimp on expensive wheels and audio setups, which probably also gives an indication of my age. But when it comes to maintenance, my friends know that I do what's needed plus a bit more. I recall that when I was leaving the repair shop, the owner told me that most people will question whether it was the right thing to do but forget that what you get in return is good as new and should be problem-free for some time. Exactly my philosophy.

I had Winny undergo a full diagnostic scan the other week, just to find out if there are still some leftover issues needing to be dealt with. After all, its a 9-year-old car. Very much to my pleasant surprise, the results showed a total lack of faults and this really impressed the guy doing the scan. He has even gone to extent of posting on the BMW Car Club website that its "One of of the cleanest cars I've ever scanned! So clean internally and externally you can claim it to be brand new".

One proud owner here and reinforces my resolve to get the 525 done...