My buddy is losing his mind!

[newby]

I've known this guy since high school (14 some years) We were roomates in college and we have always been into cars. He was big into mustang when we were younger....I think he had 3 or 4 of them within a period of 5 years.
Well anyway, he is turning 30 in April. He hasn't had a sports car for some time now while he was finishing up his MBA. The plan was to buy something awesome after graduation (this spring). Well now he tells me he's getting a BMW 3 series convertible.
WHAT! was the first word that came out of my mouth. He says he wants to stay around $35-40 K....and he currently ownes an older 3 series (coupe) that he loves. So he wants to upgrade. Now this guy has a company car that he uses most of the time (for work and misc stuff...gas is paid for), so the car he buys is only for pleasure driving on the weekends and what not. To me it just doesn't make sense.

He had always talked about getting something comparable to my NSX and my buddies Viper.... I kind of think he might feel as though there isn't much out there that compares to these two cars (in that price range)... I also think is new girlfriend (which he plans to marry) is having some influence in his decision. She's probably thinking more practical then fun. hummmm I just don't know what to do :frown:

Any advice..

 

[len3.8]

Talk him into the Convertible M3.

 

[newby]

He actually test drove an M3 and said he wasn't impressed. He said the power band was high in the RPM range...where as his 3 series has nice low end torque. I could have dealt with the M3 easier then this choice.

 

[Jasil]

Whatever floats your boat. A friend of mine has a similiar story grew up around mustangs and camaros. Flunked out of his 1st year in college too much partying etc etc.

He made a decision to change sold his mustang 6 years later and lots of hard work he was a Physical Therapist. After 2 years working for a private practice he was ready to buy a new car. We weren't as close as we once were, but we joked around about what he would get. Him being single and myself married with 2 kids at the time...I was hoping to live vicariously through him.

Well, his car of choice was a ....SUV!! He bought a fully loaded BMW X5. He said he outgrew sports cars and wanted something practical. I reminded him that he was single, so what was practical about buying a 60K SUV??

This was in 2000' he has since sold it and bought a suburban and a 34' boat. Some people buy sports cars just for the "LOOKS" factor he was obviously one of them.

 

[caseycarson]

Sometimes people "grow out" of needing or wanting a sports car. For example, take my brother and me. In high school and college, we always drove Corvettes. Around age 25, he lost all interest in sports cars and was only interested in "luxury" cars such as Mercedes, Jaguar, and Land Rover. These cars do NOTHING for me personally. I, however, still love sport cars. American, Japanese, WHATEVER.....I just love sports cars.