It’s winters like these when I don’t miss living in New England. We’ve seen a little bit of snow here in the Mid Atlantic, but generally this winter has been bearable for someone like myself used to dealing with worse precipitation. Of course every time the white stuff begins to fall my mind wanders towards the thought of a vehicle with power routed to all four wheels. While my MINI Cooper S with its 6-speed manual is much more capable in the snow than my last car, a rear-drive Mercedes-Benz C-class, it’s still not the greatest in the snow, mainly due to the low ground clearance. I always thought it would have been cool if MINI offered all-wheel drive on the Cooper S with about a half-inch more ground clearance. I don’t need a full on crossover to do my bidding. Just a few mods would be good enough for me.
This E30 BMW 325ix got the formula of what I’m talking about above just right. You have to look closely to differentiate the 325ix from the rear-drive 3 series. The added ground clearance is barely perceptible, rather, the fender flares would be your first tip off if you didn’t approach the car from the rear and see the “ix†badge. There’s not too many of these all-wheel drive E30s knocking around anymore, but this sedan for sale in Idaho is one of the best I’ve seen as of late.