Oil is definitely the lifeblood of the engine, since most engines will seize pretty quickly in the absence of oil or if the oil level gets too low. If a car runs out of gas, it’ll just sputter and stall, but the motor usually won’t have permanent damage from it and will start right back up after you put gas in.

Oh no, another car that nobody can afford. Let me go find the world’s smallest violin real quick.

I love taking my car to the track and surprising people with how well an old BMW 5-series can handle, along with going to canyon roads and making people in newer/sportier cars have to work hard to keep up. But I also love long road trips, I’ve done 16 hours in one sitting like it was nothing. I love a car that can do all of these things, which is why I’m a big fan of the E34 and E39.

The BMW E39 5-series looked considerably better after its 2001 facelift, which is impressive considering how little changed— front bumper, headlights, taillights, and steering wheel.

In my mind, the facelift E39, particularly in M-Sport/M5 form, is one of the best-looking sedans of the late 90’s/early 2000’s. It’s handsome but understated, and it’s aged incredibly well compared to some of the more radically designed 2000’s cars.

It also depends on my mood and general mental state. Years ago when I was happier, I drove cars with stiff tires and poly bushings without a care in the world. Now that I’m old, cranky, and just generally bitter about everything, I’m bothered by any imperfections in my car.

Abso-freaking-lutely.

I have torn car interiors down to the bare metal to find offending noises. Sometimes they’re caused by crazy stuff, like on one 92 BMW 525i where a creak in the rear parcel shelf was being caused by two sheets of metal where the spot welds had popped (from hard driving and chassis flex). I had to sit in the bare metal rear seat area of the car while a friend drove me around some intentionally awful roads while I poked everything. I drilled a bunch of holes and used some bolts to fasten the sheetmetal together, problem solved.

My current daily driver is a 2003 BMW 530i with 316,000 miles, and it thankfully does not have a single rattle or squeak. I religiously condition/lubricate the rubber door seals with Gummi Pflege, lubricate the latches and hinges with white lithium grease, and condition the leather seats, all to reduce squeaking. The other day I noticed my clutch pedal was starting to creak when depressed, so I took off the kick panel and lubricated all the pivot points, it’s nice and quiet now.

The key is to stay on top of the rattles and squeaks, because if I let them accumulate I get angry and end up selling the car. Wind noise is also a big no-no, I have to have the windshield sealed up perfectly and the window + sunroof seals need to be perfect so I can drive 90mph in complete silence.

Next up is replacing all 4 wheel bearings because I’m starting to be able to hear them at certain speeds and that bothers me.

It’s almost entirely down to the turbos. NA engines can only really be pushed so hard before they become full-on race engines with special high-octane race gas/ethanol and insanely high compression. Manufacturers can’t really get away with putting those into production cars because it’s impossible to warranty a race motor to 60k+ miles of daily abuse.

The only other way to make more power NA is by going bigger with displacement, but fuel economy/environmental regulations make that impossible for any large-scale manufacturer.