Poster car that went from rusty to trusty

One evening, two years ago, George Pappas was being driven down his local high street by a mate and mulling over whether to replace his Mk4 Golf diesel, a recent purchase that was boring him to death, when his girlfriend, also in the car, spotted an old BMW 3 Series at the side of the road with a 'for sale' sign in the window.

- JOHN EVANS

"I got out and looked around it," says George. "It was a 1988 320i four-door saloon, a model I'd had a poster of on my bedroom wall as a kid - the M3 version, at any rate. I thought it looked brilliant.

I called the seller and the next day bought it for £7500." The car had done only 75,000 miles and been owned by three people. "Amazingly, the original owner had had it until 2015," says George. "Then it went to a chap who was going to use it as a track car but, fortunately, decided to sell it instead.