Milestones ÔÇô BMW 1500 from BMW-web.tv video

[mika]

<object width="425" height="271"><param name="FlashVars" value="requestUrl=http://bmw-web.tv/en/stage/playerxml?items%5B0%5D=Ql7RuIJ"/><param name="movie" value="http://bmw-web.tv/en/player.swf?requestUrl=http://bmw-web.tv/en/stage/playerxml?items%5B0%5D=Ql7RuIJ" /><embed src="http://bmw-web.tv/en/player.swf?requestUrl=http://bmw-web.tv/en/stage/playerxml?items%5B0%5D=Ql7RuIJ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="271" allowfullscreen="true" FlashVars="requestUrl=http://bmw-web.tv/en/stage/playerxml?items%5B0%5D=Ql7RuIJ"></embed></object>

 

[The_Veg]

Thanks John; you reminded me of the 1971 1600 that my parents brought home from a European vacation that year. It looked just like these:

By the time they made ours, the interiour had been updated...ours looked like this, except we had the stock steering wheel, a radio (the first Blaupunkt I'd ever seen), and outsourced air conditioning ('FrigiKing' brand).

My mom got the car in the divorce in 1976, probably because it was the only halfway-economical thing we owned that would be a good kid-hauler (we also had a V8 Plymouth and a Sunbeam Alpine). She kept it until 1978, by which time the paint was faded and the interiour was getting ratty, but it still ran like the proverbial Swiss watch. I have no idea how many miles it had on it by then, but it got traded for a new 1978 VW Rabbit with sport-stripes, a sunroof, and an 8-track deck. Dang we were stylin'!

But I still have many fond memories of that poor old red BMW...riding in the back seat and looking up at the night sky through the rear window, the way it zipped through the hilly streets of our neighbourhood, my classmates not having any idea what it was because it was the only BMW in the small Alabama town where we lived, the weird seatbelt buckles, and going in it to see Star Wars for the first time. I hope that our old car survived and got fixed up. Who knows; maybe it's one of the ones in the pictures I posted!