update - couple sensors were malfunctioning on the 330ci, didn't know my engine was heat soaked during a 1000-mile trip until it was too late and the symptoms of a trashed head gasket were obvious. Still drives and pulls hard-- if i keep the coolant reservoir filled and the cylinders lubed, otherwise it misfires below 1k rpm. bought a replacement car a week after I figured this out
that replacement is a 2008 silver civic ex sedan 5spd - 210k miles, $2900, 2-owner car (or 3, now) w/ fat stack of maintenance records. generic as hell but the interior is neat and the exterior only has the as-expected rock chips and small scratches that aren't noticeable from 10ft. well, that, plus a dent and nasty scratches on the driver's door as of yesterday, thanks to a oblivious soccer mom lane-changing into me, but her insurance should cover that. all a brother try to do was pick up some spaghetti sauce in peace
car's got no balls but the handling is good for its limits, gives good feedback through the steering wheel. you can definitely tell it only weighs 2600-2700 pounds which i love lol. I have a modified bike for sporty drives now so it's whatever, 4 doors and excellent mpg will make it lot better for the long trips i like to do, plus the insurance & 87 octane requirement has already saved me a lot of money. the car should pay for itself after 3 years of ownership! only thing i can complain about is the worse sound system and the clutch; as soon as it actually bites - which is halfway to the floor - it's immediately at like 75% if you know what i mean. took a week to get used to
as for the motorcycle (black '97 nighthawk 750), once i have my garage space back - aside from general maintenance - I'm going to paint a few more parts a semi-gloss black and lower it a bit more in the front. it's stable up to 105mph with where its at, but i'd rather sacrifice high-speed stability and just never go that fast to gain the low-speed benefits of the change in caster and the lower ride'
my girlfriend's '96 malibu stuffbox shat its last stuff a month ago cuz it also blew a headgasket for the second time in its life (200k miles on the body, 80k on the engine lmao) she bought it off her sister for $1500 about a year ago so she's not too pissed about it. right now she's driving her dad's late 90's silverado which isn't much better off... two of her older sisters and i are pushing her to get a manual but she still doesn't want one as a dd, buuuuut she's got her eye on a couple of focus STs and will most likely go for a white one @ 160k miles for i think 5 grand which she could easily pay for out of pocket
on our favorite twisty roads i always outran travis in my bmw back when he had a stock c4 (~3350lbs/229hp/216tq vs ~3240lbs/300hp/340tq, he should've blown me out of the water), so i'm kinda excited to see if she'll be able to outrun his garage queen c5 (~3230lbs/252hp/270tq vs ~3120lbs/350hp/360tq), seeing as he's really competitive yet still too pusillanimous individual to learn how drive how his car was designed to be driven lol