If you follow this site, you’ll probably know I love my ’06 325i, but not being a big BMW fanatic, I didn’t realize until last night that they had discontinued all 325 and 330 models as of September 1st, replacing them with the 328 and 335, respectively. (I’m not sure if this is only true for the US or if it’s happening everywhere).

I bought my new car at the end of March after doing an ungodly amount of research, but I don’t remember reading anything that suggested that BMW was planning on discontinuing the model later this year. In fact, I believe the last major redesign of the car (E90) was in 2005.

Luckily, I strongly prefer the look of my car’s rear 1/3rd to that of its successor. (Of course, I’m biased here.) Frankly, the rear end of the new 2-door 3s reminds me of a Japanese sedan, which is fine if you’re a Japanese sedan, and not so fine if you’re supposed to be the Ultimate Driving Machine. Plus, a change in design makes the previous design look that much older and affects resale value.

The change in 3s also means about a 5% increase in price to get into a “base” model BMW. One speculation about why this change is occurring is that BMW is rumored to be bringing the 1-series over to the US soon and thus needs to create a place in which to wedge this line, e.g. between a Mini and a 3.

Oh well. The bottom line is that I love my car and bought it knowing I would keep it many years and wanting to have something I’d enjoy for all that time. So far, I don’t see any reason why that wouldn’t be true, having managed to purchase it as a value buy (= nice engine performance for the buck), having enjoyed the thrill of its handling, and still loving the way it looks, maintains, and runs. Had I been forced to choose between paying more for a 328i versus some of the other cars that we were considering back in March, the choice might not have been so easy.

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