Our family graduated from Toyotas to Bricks when Toyota stopped making RWD cars.

In '99, the wife wanted a new(er) car and Volvo no longer made RWD, so I looked around and found her a '97 328 BMW. She LOVED that car. She discovered that she liked automatics. She had never driven one before. I told people that if it came down to a choice between me and her little red 328, I would be down the road.

We liked her car so much, that I got a '97 328 5sp 328.

After the girls proved that they could drive and would take care of their vehicles (mid college), we sold their bricks and gave them the '97s. Wife and I got 2004 3 series BMWs. Wifemobile is a 330 sedan (red, of course) and I got a 325 5sp wagon. We love these cars as much as we loved the '97s.

Yes, plastic and rubber parts fail every few years (as they do on Volvos, but worse). I recently replaced the complete cooling systems on both of the 2004s for about $600 in parts each, but all four BMWs have passed 100k miles, and the '97 5sp is closing in on 300k miles, which is as far as we drove the 240s, and it has had never had its engine, transmission, or rear end touched other than oil changes.

I miss the utility of the 245, but these 3-series BMWs are great cars. You cannot put a sofa in the back or tow a trailer, but the lay-down rear seats and a bolt-on roof rack will bring a lot of stuff home from Home Depot. Now that the kids are gone, we have a lot less need for big cars.

And no one ever called a brick the ultimate driving machine.