Today, while looking through YouTube, I stumbled across a video of me driving my now-sold 2014 BMW i3, and I couldn’t help but feel and say aloud: “Man, I really miss my old i3.” My wife, probably thinking I’ve gone crazy, then reminded me that I have a much nicer version of the exact same car sitting right outside. She has a point.
It has dawned on me that I’m a sucker for nostalgia when it comes to my cars.
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It’s one thing for me to feel nostalgia for my first car, this burgundy Jeep XJ:
Or the vehicle I’ve owned the second longest, my Jeep J10:
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But it’s a whole other thing to feel it for this:
I bought that car only 26 months ago, and roughly a year ago I decided that I loved my i3 so much that I wanted to buy a lower-mileage, higher-range version of it that would not only be more practical, but that would also last longer. My gray BMW i3 made me fall in love with the model to the point where I decided I wanted the very best version of it. Here you can see the two i3s in the topshot of my article about decontenting:
“It’s the same car.”
That’s what most people would say when they see the photo above, but I see two rather distinct vehicles. There are three reasons why I miss my 2014. The first is that, to me, it is a more interesting piece of automotive history. The BMW i3 in 2014 was simply an out-of-this-world marvel of engineering, while the BMW i3 in 2021 was an outdated and expensive EV. When I look at the photo above, I see a moonshot on the left and a tired EV-veteran on the right.
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Beyond that, the 2014 was a purer example of the i3. It didn’t have a big battery (which was the point of the Range Extender), it was relatively lightweight, it had super skinny tires, its front end wasn’t as aggro, and the interior was simply perfection, and hadn’t yet been cost-reduced.
Which version of the BMW i3’s famous “Giga World” interior are you most fond of?
(Notice the slight change in leather color, change in armrest color, and change in fabric pattern). pic.twitter.com/tUkNakP9Pm
— David Tracy (@davidntracy) June 4, 2024
And of course, there’s the memory of that i3. It was my first, and it was the car that made me fall in love with i3s. It was also the car that introduced me to Los Angeles, as I bought that vehicle shortly after my arrival.
I almost kept that i3, actually. I was going to use it as my commuter, and my gold i3 was going to be my “minty” rare one. That’s a bit nuts, and even I was able to discard that idea from my brain. The BMW i3 is the perfect commuter car, and to treat one as a collector car that just sits in my garage — especially since I don’t have to commute to work every day — is a bit absurd.
I love my too-expensive 2021 BMW i3, and the decision to sell off my 2014 is one I’m quite happy with, especially since the thing went to a good home. But man, if nostalgia doesn’t put up a fight.
Luckily, I have covered some of the most prolific car collectors ever, and I’ve seen how in some cases those collection can get out of hand. Nostalgia is often a main culprit behind the struggle, and my gray BMW i3 reminds me just how much of a powerful force that can be. It will be a tough one to face as I stare down the reality of having to part ways with either my Jeep J10 or my first Jeep XJ now that I’m a family man.
I recently read the Reddit post “I want to keep my first car forever. Is this something everyone feels but grows out of?” and, between that and all those videos of “Grandpa getting his dream car,” it’s become clear that it’s not just me. Car Nostalgia is just a hell of a drug.
Uh yeah. I still have the second car I purchased. It was what I wanted as my first car, but time and availability fought me. It has spent a significant time set aside, but it is still with me, and has been since 1978. A ’67 VW squareback.
When I was 10, dad and I spotted a 4-door truck for sale going down a cross-street in our neighborhood. We had been whining about “why don’t they make a four-door truck” for years, and then this one appeared. Dad ended up buying it in 1965, and it has been in my posession since 1993. Still running on original running gear with 350k miles on it. Learned to drive in it. I’ve mentioned it here, but in case you haven’t read about it before, it is a ’64 F100 crewcab ordered by a rich person in Sacramento, built by Crown. While many have stopped by to ask about buying it, it will end up with my grandson most likely, and he loves it for what it is too.
I still miss my first VW bus. Utterly reliable ’64 sunroof deluxe with a top speed of 54 miles per hour. When I had to downsize in ’84, I kept the squareback and sold the bus knowing at the time that the bus would eventually more valueable than the squqreback.
I’ve loved every car I’ve ever owned and would love to have any of them back.
A pickup t-boned my first, so there was nothing I could do about that one.
Of course, I’d have to spend a bunch of time/money making/keeping any of them roadworthy.
There’s only two cars I would have back if I could. My ’95 C1500 Silverado. A nearly perfect pickup truck. My 2016 Volvo V60 Cross Country. I love my current ride (’23 WRX) and the Volvo is a couple cars ago but she was a great car. The only drawback was the low city MPGs and the premium gas.
I still have frequent dreams about driving my first car.
It was a dark green 1993 tercel 2 door base. 4 speed manual, no air conditioning, spray painted black steelies, vinyl interior, and a subwoofer in the trunk. I sold it for $300, and the muffler fell off a week later.
Boy that car was fun.
There are a few cars I’d like to drive again out of nostalgia, but not necessarily own again.
1968 Datsun 510 station wagon (my first car, my brother wrecked it not long after I handed it down to him)
1971 Peugeot 504 gas sedan (the first car I bought with my own money and sturdy AF!)
1986 Honda Accord (really, a perfect car in its day)
2001 VW Jetta TDI (not trouble-free, but fun to drive)
The rest of what I owned were money pits or unmemorable.
And I’m quite fond of my ’17 Accord V6. It may well be my last car (I’m 68). It has 65K on the clock and my ’86 Accord was still very nice to drive with twice that many miles on it.
What’s kind of mind blowing is that, back in the 55 mph era, the ’86 Accord got ~34 mpg. Driving down and back from Tacoma to ~Sacramento last week, doing 5 over the limits (65-70) the ’17 Accord got 37+ mpg. And that includes summiting a 4310-foot pass in southern Oregon.
It’s amazing that a gallon of gas can propel a 3500+ pound vehicle 37-38 miles. 40+ on flat ground at 65.
If it’s any consolation (no idea), the posts about the 2014 i3 prompted me to get one, and I lurve it. So please have some vicarious car joy from me.
Does The Autopian health insurance cover psychotherapy? Or is madness considered a Greek muse here?
It’s covered. If you are lacking madness they have a rigorous program to induce it. It involves washing your clothes and dishes in motor oil and cutting batteries in half.
I’m only nostalgic for the condition my CLK was in when I bought it preowned, and the adventures I’ve had in her.
Now that we’re closing in on 130K miles – she needs some cosmetic TLC.
If I ever came across a relatively clean MK2 VW GTI or an Audi Coupe Quattro that had a fully-functional brake system, I’d be tempted. However, as time wears on, the likelihood of either of those happening for not-stupid money becomes less and less.
That’s ok, though. The older I get, the less I care about material possessions.
I’ve had my Kawasaki ZX7R for 21 years. I’ve been all over the place on the big, heavy, fast, good-looking bastard. I love riding it, I love looking at it, I even enjoy random compliments about it from strangers. It got me through some of the toughest parts of my life just by reminding me that I’ve been able to live my dreams before, so I will do again. Also it’s deeply, stupidly fast, and it’s that Kawasaki lime green that you just can’t help being cheered up by.
A couple of weeks ago it dumped all its fork oil out of the RH fork, just one of dozens of rubber parts that are about to fail, on a bike worth less than those parts. It’s also objectively a bit rubbish compared to pretty much any sports bike from 2000 onwards. It’s also a bit rubbish compared to my RVF400.
It’s being collected on Tuesday, for a new life on a farm in the country. I’m sure that’s what he said.
I’ll miss it. I have a picture of it on my desk (bolt upright a few feet away from the apex of a corner during my one terrifying bike track day). But I can cope with no longer owning it, because it was starting to own me.
Oh man, my favorite bike from that époque. I had two, both ’96 in Cherry Red metallic. First one got stolen, second one (with a full Muzzy Ti exhaust) got totaled after I put off chain maintenance et it bound up and sent me sailing.
I would love to pick up another one but I live in Europe now and they never sold it here in this color.
Maybe once they hit 30 I’ll import one.
Thankfully I don’t get too nostalgic for whatever it was a was driving in the past. Perhaps having a good number of shitboxes sprinkled throughout the 70-some cars I’ve owned has helped… or maybe it’s just the ADD people tell me they think I have.
Either way, I do feel just a tinge of nostalgia when I see pics of my ’59 Caddy and ’57 Plymouth. I also have a video of those cars leaving their storage garage on the back of that same transporter and it’s actually a little painful to re-watch.
However, as Clarkson would say, “Oh No! Anyway…” and it’s then I think of what I did with the money I received in exchange for those two unrestored cars I wasn’t going to get to anytime soon. I bought our family’s first new TV – a 65″ 4K outfit back when that was actually still special. I also bought a Chevy Volt and got to experience something actually close to new. Later on came an ’82 Jaguar, then a ’71 Caddy, and finally an ’00 XK8 convertible. I still own all of those cars and have some great family memories associated with them. None of that would have happened had I stubbornly hung onto the rusty fin-twins, as cool as they were.
In other words, I leveraged some fun new times straight out of the old. I’m sure you’ll do the same, enjoy the ride!
Totally agree. I bought my first car when I turned 16 and ran it in the driveway every few weeks until I got my license at 17. That was almost 30 years ago and I still have it to this day. My wife can sell it when I’m dead!
Is your wife hoping you don’t get nostalgic for a former girlfriend?
My Fit turned 11 yesterday. I have no intention to do anything but keep it going. I’ve read too many regret stories, and I love mine.
I’ve owned a lot of crappy cars/trucks at least once I’ve tried to “recapture the moment” by buying a later model of one I’d previously owned but never feels the same.
Nowadays I try to subscribe to ichi-go ichi-e, remind myself the experience I had, I can’t duplicate, so have to have new experiences.
I guess that’s a way of saying, think about the first experience you had with the i3, a car you never would’ve considered while living in Michigan wrenching on old rusty jeeps.
Now you’re nostalgiac for your 1st i3, like you are for your old Jeep, maybe instead of constantly trying to chase the Jeep feelings of the past, you should focus on what the future holds, maybe the new Scout, maybe a Jeep Recon, maybe something completely out of left field like the i3 was, like a Subaru Outback 3.6r for family wagon livin’.
David have you ever noticed how no real car guys or collectors ask for your advice? Maybe time for you to ask advice and take it. Hello you have Jay Leno’s contact call him. Isn’t Barris custom cars out there? Stop collecting bottle caps and start collecting real items.
I do occasionally pine for a few of the cars I’ve owned over the years. The only ones I think.I’d really like to have out of all of them would be my 71 SBC swapped TR-6. It like all the others rattled and could be unreliable at times. It was a fearsome beast and a hoot to drive when it ran properly. The other was my 72 SBC swapped 240Z, for the same reasons. They’d be fair weather cruisers at best. Maybe with modern ignition and fuel systems and 5 or 6 spds suspension and brake upgrades. On second though, maybe not such a good idea.
If the car was actually amazing you’d still have it today and not have gotten rid of it. Same thing goes for ex-girlfriends. Hint: you broke up for a reason.
I can list every flaw of my old cars as reasons why I don’t have them today. Ditto for the ex’s.
You have to remember DTs amazing bar is very low. He gets rid of cars when they become reliable
Tell me about it. I’ve spent the last nine years fighting with a car that I fell in love with from a coffee-table book when I was seven years old. And the damn thing still isn’t properly roadworthy. I’m getting ready to pull the engine to do a bunch of work, because I can’t bring myself to seriously consider selling it.
Omg. Are you me? The most miles put on the 86 Cabriolet was when I drove the turd back here from Boston. The amount of money spent is obscene. The amount of fuck I’ve been through with it via crap drivers t-boning it. Crap mechanics saying they knew what they were doing (no they did not) Crap body work ‘professionals’ suggests I need an amount of therapy I’m too old to complete. I’m now actually considering sending it out to California to have my trusted cousin finish the refurb. I have not driven it in over 8 years. All this and more because of the memory of a weekend with my now deceased older brother in Connecticut putting it right enough to get me back to Wisconsin. He is fucking laughing his ass off at me. I will never part with it. Nostalgia is not for the faint of heart or c bank balance, it is however what makes us interesting as human beings
I have my first car, but there are two that I wish I could have back.
First is a 1966 Chevelle hardtop, which will never come back. It was a car my dad bought while I was in middle school, and we sold it when I was in college. I would love it back, but it went to a guy who exported it to Russia. It popped up 4 or 5 months later on a chevelle forum, getting a frame off resto.
Second is a 1987 Crown Victoria. A C4C reject (1987 didnt qualify?), I bought grandma’s car that was minty. No option, base model. Crank windows, manual locks, no cassette and 4 presets on the radio. It was a great car! the LoPo 5.0 actually peaks torque lower than the HO so it felt faster than it is. I gave it to my dads friend who was in need, and felt good about that. Then he traded it to a ford dealer in on a minivan. Then who knows.