WHO | Andrew Everett, Contributor
WHAT | 318ti Compact
MILEAGE | 148,000
YEAR | 1995

There’s a fair bit to report this month on the fleet. Both the 730i and the 318iS have done around 600 miles each this year and were both MoT’d in October before being SORN’ed and put away for the winter. Somehow I doubt they’ll be seeing much use next year either as the cost of insurance and tax makes such limited use a bit expensive. Both sailed through the MoT as well-maintained cars do, but the 318iS had a couple of advisories from last year to deal with – a small crack in the screen that became a lot bigger, and perishing front flexihoses. Auto Windscreens put a nice new screen in, courtesy of the insurance and an excess payment, and it took me an hour to replace the front flexis with nice new Continental ones – £16 the pair.

So it’s down to the 318Ti Compact to put the miles in, not that it does that much mileage anyway. Its daily duties were curtailed recently when a Mondeo pulled out in front of me on a roundabout, resulting in a low speed collision which was enough to bend the wing, bonnet edge, nosecone panel and crack the bumper, as well as cracking the headlight and indicator. Thankfully I’d gone for fully comprehensive this time round as it was actually cheaper than TPF&T. I dropped into Stratstone BMW in Chesterfield on the way back, getting a repair quote for £1,800 and they sorted out a courtesy hire car for the following day -– a shiny new Vauxhall Insignia which has proven to be a very good car indeed

 To read more about this BMW see the February 2012 issue of Total BMW.