To those who still use this site and love their E34s,

I just want to say that I miss the good old days of these forums when most of the people on these forums respected and appreciated their cars. There was once a time when there were still a few original owners on this site and thousands of posts a week. Before I bought my first E34 I read through every thread on this site every night so that I would know what to look for in the cars, what would go wrong, and how to fix them. I knew of features like the OBC's 30 second before the hour chime, parked car ventilation, double locking to close the sunroof and doors, etc. before I had ever set foot inside one of these cars. I bought my 535i during the heyday of the online enthusiast community which, at the time, helped me maintain and repair the inevitable defects that a then nearly 20 year old car owned by a young kid was bound to have.

One of the things that drew me to the E34 in the first place was the enthusiasm and passion from the bimmer.info community that was evident throughout all from the technical to the off topic threads. Today's E34 community, more active on bimmerforums.com, is primarily made up of adolescents who buy these cars as cheap beaters and, as one would expect, treat them as such. It's a real shame to see that most of the older people on here have moved onto newer cars or simply moved away from the online community, but I suppose that this was an inevitable state of affairs. I'm in a very different financial situation from that which I was in when I first bought my E34, and could very well afford to drive a brand new 535i. Nonetheless, due to fairly minimal amount of driving that I do these days I have no intention of selling my E34 or purchasing a newer car. Not even an E39 is anywhere near as satisfying to drive for me. I'm hoping that an online enthusiast community of more mature owners will re-emerge over the next 5-10 years as I plan to hold onto my teenage bahncruiser until in becomes a classic. Until then, this is a shoutout to any of those who are or were a part of this once vibrant community, treating their E34s like the finely engineered sport sedans they are, who may happen across this post.

Cheers

I've been here since 2001 and no, it's not as active as it once was, but I haven't lost hope. I still check posts on a daily basis. And apart from a new 535i or 335i (not that I could afford them), I can't see myself driving any other BMW than the E34.