BMW: Break My Window
Well, the window was never broken, but that's about all it's got going for it. More pictures...

One sure way to impress people is to buy a BMW, and tell them about it. Especially in the case of this car. "You bought a 1979 BMW?! Where'd you, of all people, come up with that kind of cash?"

Well, let's clarify a bit first. I hate BMWs. I think they're ugly, this one in particular being super ugly. (Just my opinion! BMW 528i owners are free to disagree with me either silently, via e-mail, or in my BMW forum. I don't care.) But the price was right ($83) so I figured, why not? So on May 8, 2001, I became a BMW owner.

Here's why not: the car's back windows don't roll down, gear shift knob was missing, and the seats were pretty badly torn up. But not a bad deal for $83. So I immediately put it on eBay and it sold for $242.50. I was happy. I went to move the car and [jump] started it for the first time and discovered that the fan was completely broken off the engine, and the steering column was broken. D'oh. But, I mentioned "as-is" in the eBay auction, so that wouldn't be a problem, and we somehow managed to move the car out of the parking lot.

The buyer came out and looked the car over, and seemed to be happy with it. Then he asked me for the title. D'OH! I remembered how I hadn't gotten the title from the previous owner, and now he was unable to be found. So I'm currently negotiating with the buyer to pick up the car for $200, without title.

OK, the buyer decided he didn't want the car, and let me keep $100. Score. On June 20th, 2001, I sold the car for $30 to some random passer-by.