Bayerische Motoren Werke (2008/2016)

Thursday, 20th November 2025

Today, we move on to the 2nd item on the rapture list, namely to own a Bayerische Motoren Werke (ie. "BMW"). 

When my dad was in his mid-30s, he bought a Mercedes Benz. That is a photo of it being used for his brother's wedding.

Having fulfilled his dream, he would then opt to drive Toyotas for the rest of his life.

I, on the other hand, have never fancied a Merz.  I seem to get the vibe that Merz drivers are very "ah-zhek" ie. "lao uncle" haha.

But I have been very fascinated with Bimmers, especially so after I joined a Munich-headquartered company in 2005.  Up until then, I had been driving Japanese cars -- a couple of Toyotas and a couple of Mitsubishis.

In 2008, I joined a Canadian-headquartered company.  It was at this point in time of my career when continental cars became affordably within my budget, and so I took a trip to Performance Motors Limited ("PML") to check out the X3.

An ex-colleague of mine from that earlier German company, Valerie Foo, happened to be MBA classmates with the then-GM of PML and informed him about my interest.  That weekend, the GM arranged for his top salesgirl to attend to me.  She also told me her boss told her to give me a staff discount!  As a result, the X5 suddenly became within my budget, and I ended buying the X5 at the price of an X3!!!  God was exceedingly, abundantly answering my prayer.  Hallelujah!

And so in December 2008, at the age of 41, I checked off item 2 on my rapture list.  That's my bestie and I posing in front of the X5.  And yes, 5 and 7 are my favourite numbers.

Truth be told, the X5 was the most ostentatious car I have ever driven.  The monthly instalments were around $4,200+, petrol cost was in excess of $900 a month as I was only getting like 6km per litre, not to mention road tax and insurance was exorbitant too.  But hey, I was at the peak of my career and paying tax at rates higher than corporations.

Sometime in late 2015, I thought I saw an MPV with the BMW logo.  I googled it and sure enough, Performance Motors had just introduced into Singapore a 7-seater to compete with the likes of Honda Odyssey and Toyota Wish.And so in April 2016, it was time to check-off item 2 of the list a second time. I bought a Diesel 2-series Gran Tourer for a mere $138,888.

Here is a video of the car I took in 2020 as part of the SG55 celebrations.  I actually bidded for SLC7557G but someone beat me to it.  So I bidded for SLC5775G and thankfully that was successful.

And this car was so much more wallet-friendly.  Monthly instalments was just over $1,500, diesel was very affordable, and I was getting like 13-14 km per litre.

Now that I am in my late 50s, my fascination with continental cars has waned.  I currently drive a Tesla and am seriously considering a Lexus as my next purchase.  And for some reason, neither the Tesla nor the Lexus is on my rapture list.

Riding a motorbike, however, is on that list, and I will blog about that in a future post.