After driving for about 5 years but never owning my own car,

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68KB, 852x568px

After driving for about 5 years but never owning my own car, I was finally done with school and had some money to spend on myself.

Years of playing driving sims installed a belief that I needed something with rear wheel drive or true all wheel drive, manual gearbox, and a gasoline engine. So I hopped on the used car marketplace, set my criteria, and... it's only BMWs and old Audis. I considered the Toyota RAV4 for a while, but turns out that "4x4" is really just front wheel drive most of the time. Subaru was interesting too, but damn, too rich for my blood.

So I purchased a 2001 3 series. With reluctance. Buying a BMW felt like a breach of my character and values due to the "image" BMW drivers seems to have created for themselves. Despite these negative connotations I held, the car quickly grew on me. Driving it back home after buying it, I was simply amazed at how well it handled. Racing sims aside, driving on the roads is something I try to do with caution. My friend who drove me to the seller threw me a challenge: "I bet you can't overtake every car leaving the ferry". Irrational as I was, I accepted. Thing were going well enough, stupidity aside. But I misjudged a corner and was sure traction would run out. It didn't, Lucky save I guess, but damn, this car felt good. Tho, keep in mind I had driven exclusively FWD station wagons, city cars, and vans.

Half a year and 6000 km later, I still enjoy the car immensely. People told me RWD and snow means no traction, fools I say, it's more fun than motorcycles. Icy roads are not fun tho, that shit is nervous.

But the practical aspects of the car are perhaps not the best. Maintenance and problems are common it seems. But I fix everything myself, not because I'm good at it, but because sending this thing to a shop will quickly become
prohibitively expensive.

Rant aside, here is the question: should I just stick to the E46 forever?; provided I fix shit myself.