derBayerische May/June 2022 - 20

A U N I C O R N
And so Klauß (AKA Klaus), as
we named the car, was our main
family car for the next nine years.
A lot of life milestones were passed
in that car: we brought our baby
daughter home from the hospital.
We transported numerous rescue
group foster beagles to the dog
park. I hauled all sorts of music
gear to gigs and my wife loaded the
car up with AV equipment and floral
supplies for the conferences and
special events she planned. We
went on numerous road trips to
places like New York City, Boston,
Montreal (to the 2004 Canadian
Grand Prix), Georgia, and North
Carolina.
By 2013, Klauß was nine years
old and starting to show its age. We
leased an E91 wagon to replace it,
but just didn't have the heart to sell
the car that had become like a family
member. And then in 2016 we
replaced the E91 with an Estoril lue
M-Sport F31 Sport Wagon. We still
just couldn't fathom selling KlauB.
It sat out front of our house, mostly
unused, especially for a stretch
while we waited for Takata airbag
replacements. I did some basic
- R E B O R N
■ Relegated to truck duty, hauling yard waste to the dump in 2013.
Photo by Monica Bocaner.
maintenance, and we used it mostly
to pick up diesel fuel for our tractor
or to pick up big loads of feed for
our pet alpacas. Plastic trim pieces
started breaking and falling off
regularly and the headliner started
to sag. I attempted to make a list of
all the repairs the car needed with
the intent of tackling them myself
one by one, but after three pages it
got overwhelming. In 2019 we
bought an E61 535i xDrive Sport
Wagon on the auction site bringatrailer.com,
moving up to a 5 Series
touring, and finally came to terms
with the fact that we just had too
many BMWs and needed to sell this
car that we just weren't using.
When, in early 2020, a technician
from the local dealership came
■ Monica accepts delivery in the Munich Kundenzentrum. Photo by Barry Bocaner.
to our house to replace yet another
recalled Takata airbag and
expressed interest in the car, we
were delighted to make a deal so
that he could take it. A few weeks
later we cleaned our belongings out
of the glove box and cargo area and
drove it to drop off with him at the
dealership. It did not go gently, the
battery died when we stopped to put
some gas in, but we eventually got a
jump start and dropped it off with its
new owner. We heard the car was
parked in the back lot at the dealership
for a few months while its rehabilitation
was ongoing, but eventually
the technician's plans changed,
he did not finish the car, and it disappeared.
This was a little bit of a
disappointment as we had hoped
the car would be restored to its
former glory, but the car was sold
and gone.
More than a year later, I was
reading the BMW Touring Wagons
Facebook group and saw a post
about SMG E46 wagons. I shared
some recollections about our car
and another user replied to my comment
that he now had our car!
He and I double checked with the
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http://www.bringatrailer.com http://www.bringatrailer.com
derBayerische May/June 2022

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