my daughters have insisted that we name all our cars. with the recent passing of the Queen of the 'Ring, they agreed with me that this one shall be called Sabine. 2010 328, RWD, 6MT, sport package, heated seats, *no iDrive*, just shy of 72k miles.
back story: in 2003 my buddy bought a new Mazda6 and I bought his 1996 Probe GT. Then in 2010 he bought this E92 CPO with 5k, and I bought his Mazda6. I've been bugging him for a few years about falling behind schedule, and about a month ago he said "it's time." He's lived within a couple blocks of the Pentagon City Metro since 2010 so the car has mostly been in the parking garage. Dealer service since new, clean PPI, new PS4's, aftermarket 16" rims with winters. Given how good the 224k N52 in my E60 runs, I'm pretty confident that this much simpler car will be a good ride for several years to come.
AK1 just finished her first year of college, so I planned this fly and drive to be just for her and me. one-way tickets were cheap, and cheap is my second-favorite price. i took a vacation day Friday and drove up to get her from school, and Saturday morning we headed for the airport. best gate ever:
ready to push back from the gate:
Mike picked us up at DCA and drove us back to his house in Pentagon City to do the paperwork. He was sad to let Sabine out of his driveway, but he knows I will give her a good life, as i did for Probee and Mazduka before her.
we crossed the Key Bridge into a gridlocked Georgetown, where I got to develop pro-level muscle memory with the clutch pedal, then got through town and on about our day. visited with family and friends, cruised my childhood neighborhood, past my elementary school, some old hangouts, etc. Killed some outstanding ribs and had many laughs with old friends at Adam's Taphouse and Grille in Edgewater, then crashed for the night at a friend's house in Chesapeake Beach. Looked out the window Sunday morning and damn I love this car! You can almost see in the pic below that the rear seats are folded down and there are four winter tires bagged and stowed. The folding rear seat was a surprise and delight feature that I honestly didn't know she had.
Hit the road from Chesapeake Beach around 9:30AM Sunday, and had a surprisingly clear drive around the Beltway and up 270 to 70 West, stopped for a brief visit with my sister's fam, and headed for Breezewood PA and the PA Turnpike just after Noon. After a couple hours in the passenger seat, AK2 decided to face her fear of stalling the car in public and declared her desire to take the wheel. She did great for a first-timer! One stall in a toll booth, followed by a deep breath and another push of the Start button, and we were back in motion.
Sabine rolled over 72k on the way home, and I got her unloaded and tucked in for the night at about 9:30PM.
for now, the only planned changes are to delete the front plate and add matte black grilles, then stay on top of routine maintenance and enjoy her for years to come.
