When my son started walking and talking, I used to sit him on my lap so he could play with Mona’s controls and pretend to drive. “I love Nomar!” he squealed. “You mean, Mona, right?” I asked, thinking back to the moment in France when I decided to name her after the character on “Friends,” who was the only girlfriend who could legiminately corral Ross. “No,” the excitable car nut said, firmly. “Her name is Nomar.” And so, even though I named her Mona Lucy in 2009, 10+ years later she got a new nickname.
So we kept both.
🚘 🚘 🚘
If you’re visiting this page from CarsandBids.com, welcome! Because of the sentimental value of Mona/Nomar, I wanted to take a moment to explain her history. Actually, I wanted hold this amazing vehicle until the wheels fell off. However, and perhaps as some of you know, BMWs in general get very agitated/frosty if they are not driven regularly. (For the record, BMWs also have a thing about driving when gas is close-to-empty.)
After taking delivery of a new Rivian (“Captain Saru“), I couldn’t live with myself letting her just sit there, sad. I was even more sure when, a few years ago, I first found CarsandBids, which is exactly the type of “collector vibe” I wanted Mona to be a part of!
Even though parting will be difficult after all the sights we’ve seen and far-flung places we visited, she’s gonna make the lucky CarsandBids auction winner very happy indeed.
Best gearbox on the planet
Full disclosure: I’d be driving stick-shifts since 1994, and BMWs since 2002, when I purchased a manual 3 Series called Grace. Loved that car, and it’s when I absolutely fell in love with the Bimmer clutches and gearboxes. There’s literally nothing like them! Anyways, when I was looking to upgrade to a 5 series, very few dealerships, if any, offered manual transmission 5s to drive off the lot.
So I decided to do a special order of exactly what I wanted: full-function seats, decked-out M trim and of course, the 6 Speed. Just my opinion but BMWs are *so good* in manual transmission that it feels wrong to go automatic.
In hindsight it was even more the perfect decision given what was to follow—a red-carpet visit to BMW Welt and a taste of Bimmer history.
Picking her up at BMW Welt was a transformational experience. The swanky cafe, “first look” staging and museum all made me, at the time, a BMW lifer. (Since then, I’ve been less-than-jazzed about the company’s design direction, and BMW as a company has been slow to embrace EVs—end soapbox.) After driving out, I was ready to begin an unforgettable European adventure, which would first lead me north for a visit to Dingolfing plant; back to Munich; then through Zurich, driving probably too fast on highways, and ultimately down through France to Montpelier. Literally all peak experiences I’ll never forget.
My BMW rep told me at the time (and I don’t know if this is true) that I was one of the first people to take international and domestic delivery of a vehicle. Spartanburg, S.C., is close enough that it made the journey easy.
Cars are windows to experiences
Sometimes a specific, special car is the gateway—not just a transport vessel—to timeless experiences. Mona was and is that type of vehicle.
We drove up and down the eastern seaboard, as far north as Upstate New York and down south to Tybee Island, where my precious terrier Triscuit (RIP) jumped off a touring boat in the ocean chasing a dolphin. We drove to Lake Martin in Alabama for photo shoots; to mountains in North Carolina; and up to Virginia and back countless times. So yes, it’s been an amazing, accident-free, memories-stacked journey.
Like those moments my dog got mad at the drive-up ATM (yes, really) and, a few weeks later, got equally frustrated with the drive-up teller.
Anyways, the BMW 5 Series E60 Wiki page has a lot of great information if you’re not already familiar. Chris Bangle did an incredible job moving the design forward at the time.
Best of luck to all CarsandBids auction participants, and I’ll be jumping in the comments section to answer any of your questions. And yes, I expect you to keep her name… would you change a 13-year-old dog’s name? of course not! 😂 🚗
Will Pollock
is a perpetually crabby New York City escapee based in Midtown Atlanta. He’s a freelance multimedia journalist, media analyst and author of three books (award-winning Pizza for Good & Leaving Triscuit), and his first children’s book, Gentle with Gertie.
In 2001, Will earned his Masters from The Medill School of Journalism, graduating with highest honors from the magazine sequence. As permanent member of Journalism’s National Honors Society, he’s been active in monitoring, writing and blogging about media and journalism ever since he graduated.
Obsessed with good storytelling and journalistic excellence, Will uses snark, humor and reason to distill dumb shit and make it fun. He’s a seeker/maker of non-consensus news, and helps you cure crankies by finding the nut in every story.
As for-profit media continues to fail us, it’s more important than ever to find reliable sources. Authentic storytelling exists—you just have to look for it. On this blog you’ll get ideas, not ideology. Sass with class. Reporting with rapport. Evidence with a touch of evil. You get the idea.
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