:format(webp)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/autos/2023/04/29/bmws-a-boys-bond-with-his-dad-leads-to-a-lifelong-love-of-the-brand/a_bmw_2023_ix_and_bmw_850.jpg)
It was a year at the Detroit Auto Show for a pint-sized Adrian Lazarovits and his father Andrew. The trip had become a tradition and one Adrian looked forward to each year as a son who admired his dad, and as a burgeoning car buff. With all the boldness of a six-year-old, Adrian announced quite earnestly that the 1992 BMW 850, on display that year, would one day be his. Some might have called it an outlandish goal. A few decades later, Lazarovits, 36, a pilot and business owner, not only owns an 850 himself, but is a proud dad to eight BMWs in total, including the luxury brand’s latest and greatest.
Lazarovits explains how the collection came to be:
“From the very first day it was announced, I was on a need-to-own basis with the 2023 BMW iX.
This was a couple of years ago now, and there was this application process … a call-out for those interested in owning one of the first to arrive in Canada. I had to submit one of the current BMWs I own and tell them why I love it, why I love cars in general and why I loved the BMW iX.
Essentially, I’ve been into cars, and BMWs in particular, my entire life. It’s something that I inherited from my father, who was a BMW guy through and through. At this stage in my life — I’m a soon-to-be-dad and a business owner — the iX checked all the boxes for me.
The fit and finish is spectacular; everything is just properly built. It’s also mind-blowingly fast.
Electric cars have notoriously, en masse, lost that driver-focus aspect …. Even though you’re somewhat disconnected from the drive, itself, because it’s an electric car and has electric steering, the way this one handles, the way it accelerates, it just feels like a true BMW.
If I were to be a one-car-individual, this car would do it for me.
I’m sure that owning eight BMWs in total sounds a bit much, but, truthfully, I was lucky that almost all the cars in my collection were only worth about $500 a piece when I was in university. I bought them before anybody ever viewed them as collectible, fixed them up and have given them endless love.
In turn, I’ve been fortunate enough to find that most of them have paid dividends. In fact, that’s one of the ways I paid my way through college.
:format(webp)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/autos/2023/04/29/bmws-a-boys-bond-with-his-dad-leads-to-a-lifelong-love-of-the-brand/b_bmw.jpg)
When I applied for this 2023 BMW iX, I, of course, told them about my 1992 BMW 850. I would say it’s the most special one to me of all the cars because of that connection with my dad. It’s a V12 six-speed manual. It’s green with gold trim. It has pop-up headlights. I drive it all summer long and have been for the last 15 years. It’s got 250,000 kms on it now.
Unfortunately, my dad passed away when I was 12, so he didn’t get a chance to see me finally get to buy it. Why did he love BMWs so much? I don’t know, to be quite honest with you, but it was always an exciting bonding moment to get to drive in some of his neat cars when we were kids.
The local dealer that I dealt with to get the 2023 BMW iX, Budd’s BMW Hamilton, was able to get early allocation for the (vehicle). Because of that I was able to customize the car to my exact preferences with the interior and the exterior — that greenish colour and gold trim …. I spec-ed it out like it was 1992 again.
“They don’t make them like this anymore.”
“The process of acquiring the 2023 BMW iX starting during COVID — which included BMW allowing me to customize the car in whatever way I wanted and choose from a range of features. The funny thing is, car production promptly crashed after that and the full launch of the car to the public was delayed. So even now, my iX has a bunch of extra cool options that don’t come with the model anymore. As a car guy, features like adaptive dampers and rear-wheel steering aren’t necessarily things that anyone would need, but I find them pretty wild.
“We wanted something that was safe.”
“I, thankfully, had the foresight to know that we were going to start a family, so I definitely wanted something that I was going to feel comfortable with my wife and child in. It’s a full-sized SUV, and, although my wife isn’t quite at the same level of car-fanatic as myself, this one ticks all the boxes for her, too. She adores it. I mean, it has seat massagers. Plus, at the risk of sounding like a bleeding-heart millennial, a part of me really does like the idea that it’s actually environmentally friendly.”