[ Life Cycle ]
Since being a surprise gift new in 1990, this BMW 320i has had everything thrown at it, from repairs to golf balls and even a deer!
Words MIKE RENAUT Photography JONATHAN FLEETWOOD
April 1990 – Chris Colbeck buys his BMW 320i In April 1990, Christopher John Ashton Colbeck walked into Wellsway BMW in Bath and paid cash for the red BMW E30 320i convertible that was sitting in the showroom. ‘I’d already seen the car, since the dealership was half a mile from my house,’ remembers Chris. ‘It was the only convertible it had in stock. I wasn’t looking for a BMW but the other convertibles I’d seen, such as the Volkswagen Golf and the Peugeot 205, had roofs that sat on the bodywork behind the back seats. BMW had developed its soft-tops to drop underneath a solid panel – it was the only one that appeared properly developed, the others seemed like an afterthought.’
Chris maintains that he bought the car for wife Sandie as a surprise birthday present, while Sandie believes it was actually a wedding anniversary gift because the BMW was registered on 6 April, the day before their anniversary. ‘I definitely collected the car on 7 April. I even tried to get a discount because I was paying in cash, but Wellsway wasn’t having any of it…’ Chris says.
The as-new list price of the Brilliant Rot – Brilliant Red – 320i automatic was £20,130. Fitted options already on the car included a leather interior adding £901, cross-spoke alloy wheels at £454, and £112 rear headrests. Floormats were an additional £61.62, mudflaps cost £96.42, and there was £331.06 of delivery costs as well as a £100 road tax charge. Chris had paid a ten percent deposit of £2300 and returned two weeks later with the outstanding £19,886.10 in cash.
1990: BMW 320i arrives into the Colbeck family
1990: isn’t she lovely? Sandie looks pleased with her birthday gift
1990: first inspections of many, many more
‘I walked out onto the balcony of our house, and the BMW was parked in the driveway with a big white bow on it,’ remembers Sandie. ‘Chris had hidden the car in the garage earlier that morning. It was a huge surprise. I was also scared because I’d never driven an automatic before. The first drive was to go to lunch at a nearby restaurant and Chris’s dad was a passenger. He was a driving instructor and examiner, so I was doubly nervous! The car certainly drew some attention when it was new, being bright red.’
The 320i was immediately put into employment as Chris and Sandie’s everyday car. ‘It was mainly used for short journeys,’ says Sandie, ‘We never went far. We had several classic cars and used those for our European trips. Oddly, this BMW remains the only car we have never taken out of the UK.’
Chris agrees. ‘It does not have any special history, it has a high-ish mileage of over 130,000 because it was just used as a daily hack taking children to school and by Sandie to drive to and from work. We never took the car on any holidays.’
2005: at home with Chris’s Janspeed XJ40
The first service was the pre-delivery check on 15 March 1990. ‘I took the car exactly as it was,’ says Chris. ‘It didn’t even have a radio, but at the time, my brother-in-law Bryan ran a car tuning business. In April 1990 he supplied and fitted a Clarion 956HX radio/cassette with an electric aerial to the BMW. Looking back, I suppose really it ought to have had a German radio...’ The £548.88 price included front and rear speakers at £9.50 and £10.58 respectively. With 1266 miles under its wheels, the E30 returned to Wellsway BMW in July of the same year for a check over and has had almost all the regular servicing and oil changes since performed there.
In January 1991, the BMW had repairs to its bonnet and nearside front wing. ‘There were not any defects because the car was very good from the outset, so I can only surmise this was due to golf ball damage,’ remembers Chris. ‘The car Sandie had driven before the BMW was a Rover 213, and living right next to a golf course there was just one drawback... Between 1986 and early 1990 three car windows were smashed and that poor Rover got no less than 32 golf ball dents.’ Parked on the driveway, it was then the BMW convertible that was very much in the line of fire. In July 1992, Chris had the only service that wasn’t done at Wellsway BMW carried out at Ivor Holmes BMW in Luton. By then the car had clocked up 14,404 miles.
2011: wedding duties for son Michael’s big day
2013: wheelarch repairs turned into full respray
Two years after the previous exterior repairs, the 320i’s three-year bodywork inspection in January 1993 revealed numerous dents and what was recorded as stone damage on the bonnet, all four wings and the bootlid. ‘That was more golf ball damage, although there were a few car park scuffs too, and the car did act as a standby vehicle for the extended family, so was out on loan a few times.’
It proved no safer for the BMW off the driveway and away from home. The E30 received a new driver’s door mirror, glass and motor in September 1993. ‘A passing car hit the mirror. I stopped, but he didn’t.’ It would also later require a pair of new wings and a bonnet. ‘The stiffener panel under the bonnet badge had rusted badly and there was no easy way to repair it, so it was better to replace the entire bonnet.’
‘It has covered more than 130,000 miles because it was used as a daily hack’
A new cambelt, brake discs and pads all round followed in August 1994, then in November, a leak required a replacement fuel pressure regulator seal. That seemed to be a theme, because during the car’s MoT test the next March, the gearbox oil needed topping up to fix a gear selection fault. The following month a new seal was fitted to repair another leak. In April 1995, Wychwood Garage in Bath rectified a further gearbox oil leak, replaced the rear main shaft seal, and repositioned the aerial. The total? £81.97.
The car was booked into Wychwood Garage again in November for another electric aerial. ‘I don’t recall any vandalism, so that’s probably me driving into the garage with the radio on and catching the aerial in the garage door again!’ admits Chris.
In January 1996, Chris and Sandie returned the E30 to Wellsway to have the passenger door looked at because the glass was sticking out at the top edge, and the kickdown gearshift mechanism was adjusted to alleviate jerky changes. An engine idling issue was fixed two months later with new plugs and a clean of the fuel injection system. In November, the service at 33,766 miles included new power steering belts (£7.80) and a rear silencer for the exhaust (£187).
The following year turned out to be an eventful one. Early in 1997 the Colbecks discovered that the rear window had split and needed replacing. ‘There is a long vertical split two-thirds the depth of the screen,’ Chris noted in a fax sent to his insurer. ‘It was just after Christmas, and it had snowed heavily. I don’t know if this damage was the result of an attempted break-in or the severe weather,’ the fax continued. After paperwork shuffled back and forth from the insurers for a couple of months, Nightingale Coachtrimming in Corsham did the work in April.
In the meantime, the BMW suffered an altercation with local wildlife. ‘We’d loaned the car to Bryan, and he hit a deer at Woburn Abbey,’ remembers Sandie. The E30 received a complete new front end fitted including bumper, grille, headlights, badge and front apron. The inner and outer offside wings were also reshaped. Incredibly, the luckless BMW returned to the bodyshop again in May for a new rear bumper and mountings, rear light, boot light, carpet and number plate, boot floor repair and rear panel respray. ‘That was a hit and run in a car park, when my best man borrowed it,’ says Chris.
When the 320i crept over the 40,000-mile mark in October 1997, it was time for a new cambelt, along with new brake pads and discs all round. Five months later, the BMW’s MoT stipulated a new offside front lower suspension arm because of excessive play, and then in August 1999, the Colbecks decided to have new window seals supplied and fitted by the Bristol Sunroof Centre for £49.94.
Covering an annual distance of around 6000 miles by January 2001 and very much still in daily use, the BMW received another set of brake pads and an exhaust around the 64,000-mile mark. Five years later in 2006 Sandie retired, and with the car approaching 100,000 miles, the E30 was relieved of its daily commuting duties. ‘It became a car we used for visiting friends, because at the time it was our only modern vehicle, although various family members still borrowed it from time to time,’ she recalls.
‘We started to think of the BMW as a classic, rather than just a car ’
In July 2009 the Colbecks had a repair carried out to the near side rear wheelarch, quoted at £150 by John Wegg Accident Repairs. ‘Likely that old rust problem again,’ suggests Chris. ‘John did most of the bodywork on my BMW 3.0CSi and also my Aston Martin V8, plus other cars. He was an old-fashioned craftsman.’ Fritz’s Bits in Wellington fitted new steering rack arms and ball-joints in April 2010, then in the September, a driver’s door lock strip down and replacement cost £84.60. ‘The central locking stopped working, as did the extra lock for the car alarm,’ says Chris. By October 2010, the roof was ready for replacement, with a £781.82 bill.
The 320i was employed as one of son Michael’s wedding cars in August 2011. ‘I remember being taken to school in it when it was still a new car, and being very cold sometimes when the roof was down,’ Michael says. ‘Dad did also have a 1956 Corvette though, and that got a lot more attention on the school run!’ A photo taken on the morning of the wedding depicts the 320i lined up on the drive alongside Chris’s Aston Martin DB4 and V8, and the red four-door 320i he bought secondhand in 2008. ‘After selling my Janspeed twin-turbo Jaguar XJ40, our remaining cars were coupés. We needed a four-door and I’d been impressed with the convertible. I later bought an E30 Touring too,’ Chris recalls.
With almost 120,000 miles under its wheels, the BMW’s rusting wheelarches then needed attention. ‘This was particularly evident when a mudflap dropped off with part of the bodywork one day…’ Bell Hill Garage in Norton St Phillip undertook this latest round of repairs. ‘That was organised through a chap I’d met when I was playing cricket. We got talking about cars and he offered me a quote.’
Two wheelarch repair sections were ordered in December 2013 at £42.35 each, as well as a pair of new front wings for £152.71 each, and another new bonnet at a further £263.26. ‘In the end it amounted to a complete respray.’ Along with various clips, seals and bolts, bonnet sound insulation, £565 of paint and £2145 in labour, the total bill was £3933.40. ‘The sills were originally black but when the body was repainted, I asked Bell Hill to finish them in body colour instead, it’s one of the things people always point out at car shows as being wrong but I just preferred it that way. At this point we started to think of the BMW as a classic, rather than just a car.’
By now the driver’s seat side bolster was getting worn and cracked, and with minor wear in other areas of the interior Chris decided on a re-trim.
‘It was the only part on the car that didn’t look like new.’ He couldn’t resist adding a personal touch, so in May 2014 Auto Leathers supplied new covers in mid-tan with black centre panels. ‘From the factory it had an all-tan interior. The seats are referred to as “sports seats” because they’re Recaro-style, but I quite fancied a two-tone interior. I don’t know why. I’m usually quite a purist when it comes to my classic cars, but I thought I’d have something different, and I really liked the way it turned out.’
Bell Hill Garage replaced a blowing exhaust manifold the following June. At this point the 320i was semi-retired and used sparingly during summer, spending winters garaged. It covered around 1000 miles a year. ‘It had occasional and car show use, and won BMW Wellsway Car of the Day at the South Gloucestershire Show in 2016,’ Chris remembers. The fastidious maintenance cycle continued, and the Colbecks had a new timing belt and water pump fitted in July 2021 as the BMW approached 130,000 miles, along with a Jaymic-supplied exhaust for £1311.11, including fitting. ‘Then during a classic car tour of Exmoor, the alternator failed, and I finally got to use the factory warning triangle that came in the boot!’ smiles Chris. ‘We came home on a lorry. Then it needed a new radiator in March 2023 and reconditioning the leaking fuel tank cost another £1182. Hopefully that’s all the big bills for now...’
What does the future hold for the BMW? ‘It wasn’t a car we’d ever intended to keep,’ Chris explains. ‘But it will stay in the family. After all, I’ve probably spent as much again as it originally cost keeping it going…’
Know your car’s history from new?
Let us know at classic.cars@bauermedia.co.uk and it might make for one of our life cycle features
Subscribe to Classic Cars today. Choose a Print+ Subscription and you'll get instant digital access and so much more. PLUS FREE UK delivery.