These Are the Fates Your First Cars Met

First car that was “my car”? Dad’s hand-me-down BMW X3.

Mom and dad wanted a safe car to let their car-crazy son drive. Mom wanted an SUV because “they’re safer” (much to my chagrin). They both agreed getting a high schooler a new car was overkill so the decision was to buy my dad a car (instead of lease) and then let me drive it a year and a half later. Dad was/is a lawyer and mom is a bit brand-conscious (read: snooty) so a RAV4 wasn’t going to do. This purchase decision was back in 2004 before every car maker became an SUV/Crossover maker that sometimes sold cars so the choices weren’t great. So, they decided on a BMW X3. Not just any X3, one of the first shipments into the U.S. and fully loaded including the navigation system. They let me pick the color – I chose blue as an homage to my favorite color for a E39 M5.

I drove it to high school and disliked it from the start. I remember we had a number of issues including at least one motor mount breaking before the car was two years old. Except for one instance where a friend opened the driver’s door into a stone driveway wall, I left it fairly unscathed when I went to college.

Then my brother got a hold of it. By the time I came home from my first semester of freshman year, he had driven it through the garage door.

Then, the electrical gremlins started showing up. Who would have guessed an early model-year BMW with all the fancy new electronics would have that problem? It got so bad that my parents would only let my brother drive the car locally since the car would unpredictably not start. I experienced it myself when, after sitting in the car for five minutes with the radio on but the engine off, it wouldn’t start. Not to mention, my brother trashed the interior – nothing broken or missing, just very dirty.

Dad eventually threw in the towel in the early 2010s – getting about $11k for it from the local MB dealer where he leased an E350. No idea what happened to it after that, likely went to a wholesale auction, then to a BHPH lot, and, soon after, a junkyard when the hapless next owner gave up on the electrical drain.

First car I purchased myself? 2013 Infiniti G37x sedan. Purchased CPO in Cleveland, definitely got hosed on it as I was new to the world of car purchases. Needed AWD/4wd for my girlfriend (now wife) who would need to, and did, commute during midwestern snow storms, I didn’t want to invest in snow tires, and I still did not like SUVs. Test drove an Impreza and hated it and I got the Infiniti for not much more than the fully loaded Mazda 3 I looked at. Couldn’t find a BMW 3 series, Audi A4, or a Lexus IS at the same price. Ownership was uneventful and the car was extremely reliable. The interior was dated even two years used and it had a thirsty engine but no real complaints. Moved back to NYC and garage parking was not kind to it. On a whim, checked out a local BMW dealership and they had the car I had really wanted when I picked up the G, a blue/saddle BMW 3 series. Traded in the Infiniti that day – did a much better job negotiating the trade-in/purchase. Wife was sad to see it go, not because she particularly liked that car (no matter what she says), but because she’s very sentimental and it was “our first car”.

Kept the VIN of the G37x. It ended up at a new car dealer in Rochester, NY (ironically, I have ties to that city). The dealership did a paint job to fix all the scratches and it cleaned up nicely. Still, it sat on the lot for a while and, after multiple price cuts, ended up selling for within $1,000 of what I had traded it in for. It’s still going strong in Western NY according to Carfax. I mentioned that to my wife recently and she wants to track it down and buy it. We won’t.

So your first car was a handed-down luxury crossover, which eventually gave way to an all-wheel-drive performance-ish Japanese car that lived out the rest of its days in Rochester. Are you me? What number am I thinking of?