[bmw] research, again

[Richard Welty <rwelty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

some of you may recall that a year and a half ago, i was researching
1995/1996 3 and 5 series, looking towards getting (newer) cars for
my wife and myself. the plan took a sharp left turn, with my wife ending
up with a 1996 MB E300D and me ending up with a less expensive
stopgap, a 1991 Alfa 164.

the 164 was tired when i got it, and is looking moreso. i'm also looking
at a probable future job that will involve enough driving that the
bimmer plan is back on, at least for me.

so i'm interested in opinions about 1997 and 1998 3 and 5 series
cars. the parameters is that this will be the 4 season daily driver,
in upstate NY, so an M doesn't seem like the best idea.

so please coach me on the respective merits. the 164 is similarly
sized to the 5 series, and is about as big a car as i'd consider. in
the past i've been quite happy with cars that dimensionally were
about the same size as the 3 series (my wife's benz is about the
same size as a 5, so there's no family requirement for me to have
a car that large.)

thanks in advance,
  richard
-- 
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
    Java, PHP, PostgreSQL, Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security
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