My First BMW And Trip To Berlin

Time had come to buy me a car, first ever. We headed to berlin with plane where our friend Matti acted as guide and translator. Without Matti we propably wouldn't have been able to buy anything!

We traveled to Berlin on friday morning by plane, landing on Tegel airport. Then we traveled across the city searching a rental car which we were able to find in Schönefeld airport. Rental car was very good decision, without it we would have been unable to check out as many cars as we did. Recommended!

On weekend we visited many places selling used cars. On sunday we went to "auto market" where people can sell their cars after paying a small entry fee. Potential buyers had to pay 2.5€ entrance fee but it was worth it. There were many different cars raning from old Ford Fiesta to previous BMW 7 series. This is the place where we found car for Miska. Seller was man that had was originally from Ukraine, he had Israeli passport (he was jew actually) and polish driving license. Hmmm. We only drove 3 kilometers with our new car before polizei stopped us and checked the sellers papers and VIN number of the car. Alles klar!

First place we visited. No Coupes but three E36 Convertibles. Nice cars but too expensive and not that sensible cars for finnish winter.

First 325i we checked out. Condition was poor, car has had collision damage on left front corner and the repairwork was shoddy. Also liner of left front wheel arch was missing alltogether! Inside was untidy and full of ugly modifications. Price was only 6000€ but we did not seriously consider buying it.

Decent 320i's. Prices were about 6000 and 7000 euros but with bit of negotiations they would have been ours for lot less. These were my backup cars in case I could not find perfect car in time.

320i Coupe. in good shape but the price was ridicilous! Sticker said 11990€, after 5 minutes it went down to 9500€ but it was limited time offer, just for us! We think it was still several thousand euro's overpriced, no matter the condition.

Vorsprung durch technic? My brother Miska bought 1995 Audi A4 1.8. Car had ok papers (kilometers on meter matched with those on service book) and condition seemed to be great.

On sunday we also saw the car I found from www.mobile.de for the first time. It was Mauritiusblau 1994 BMW 325i Coupe with air conditioning, 235/45R17 BMW Motorsport M3 wheels and M-Technic body kit and M3 mirrors and rear spoiler. We inspected the car thoroughly but did not take it to specialist (no such place was open). We testdrove the car next day and it felt quite good, fitted winter tires skidded after changing to second gear so engine was not totally kaput. Matti negoatiated about the price and we got "final" offer. After few hours of hard consideration I decided to buy the car, afterall it was just what I was looking for and we hadn't seen any other car during the weekend's hard search. Matti called the seller and we agreed that goods and cash would be exhanged on monday evening. We went to sellers home, made the papers and I was proud owner of car, first time in my life!

Tuesday was spend on wandering around Berlin center and eating out. On wednesday we headed to Hamburg and finally had opportunity to test the cars on genuine autobahn. We drove only 190 km/h because there was other trafic and old, worn winter tires on BMW did not inspire confidence. We went to Hamburg for bit of a snack and then headed to Lubeck and Travemunde's Skandinavienkai where our ship was about to leave to Helsinki.

Freude Am Fahren. Unfortunately the autobahn to hamburg was bit crowded and old winter tires fitted to car were not helpful for trying out the BMW's top speed. It should go 230 - 240 km/h. (I tested it later in finland, speedo indicated 260 km/h, true speed was about 235 km/h)

On last morning of trip, just before driving off the ship in Sompasaari harbour in Helsinki. BMW Motorsport M3 235/45R17 wheels with summer tires can be seen on backseat. Better photos will be taken soon!

We thanked Matti as he headed back to berlin, then we drove cars to Finnpartner's (our ship) cargo bay. After that we congratulated eachother for making it alive. Rest of the trip we just rested.

On friday morning we arrived on Helsinki and went straight to customs office where we did the required paperwork and got permission to drive the cars to our homes. Roads were quite slippery (it had snowed a lot while we were on berlin) and I almost did 360 degree turn while driving in Hervanta, the german winter tires were next to useless. Miska drove his A4 slightly off road at one roundabout at Juva but fortunately no damage was done to car. He had 205/60-15 summertires fitted...

Afterall, everything went well. We got our cars and learned good bit about Berlin and german in general. Big thanks to Matti, without him we would have been in great trouble!

Larger images from trip can be found from here. Photos about my BMW will follow later.

Miscellaneous photos

Our rental car, Volkswagen Passat with 1250 km on meter. Not bad.

Etap hotel Marzahn. Functionality was the keyword, not the luxus.

Two kinds of German automotive excellence. I prefer the blue one!

Barf!

Bit overdone modifications on this 325i Coupe but with little work it could be restored to more original look. Hopefully this one finds good home too eventually...

Avus straight just south of Berlin. GP races were held at here during 30's I think, later it has been used in DTM. Did you know that in 1994 BMW produced a limited number of 318iS painted on Avus blue (of course!) with M-Technic body kit for homogolation purposes?

One good candidate. Unfortunately it was with automatic transmission.

Some gold laced babe with wings. Nice.

Whatever you say, it's still a Volkswagen.

Bugatti. Never seen this one before. Looks kind of pricey.