Same here. My first favorite car—and one that I will purchase again when I find one I want for a decent deal—was a 1974 BMW 2002 stick and that got me hooked. I loved that car and drove it into the ground; it literally died while parked on my father’s garden. He still loves to tell the story of how I made more than I paid for it by advertising it for parts in the Bargain News. I was on a semester abroad in the Netherlands and gave our home number in the ad. He basically ran a small junkyard for me by arranging for people to some buy parts, and then finally one guy paid my purchase price again to tow it away.
Anyway, with my first big verdict, after paying off my and my wife’s student loans, I bought a used 540i manual and it’s still probably my favorite car for sentimental reasons. Then we moved to the house we have now and the driveway is a 30 degree angle, which was terrible for a rear wheel drive car. It was fine in the snow otherwise if you got snow tires and knew how to drive a stick, but there was no getting out of the driveway from a standing start so I had to trade it in, which broke my heart. I got a used Audi A6 and thought it would be a disappointment but I grew to love that, too, for different reasons.
Both of those cars were certified pre-owned from dealers and still under a very good warranty when I bought them; and like
@Fishy, I quickly learned what happens when they are out of warranty. Then, like you, I found a good, reasonable local mechanic to work on each and really had no issues with either car.