BMW E36 316i ROAD TRIP

Early December 2025, we had to attend a family wedding in Joburg and decided to drive up from Cape Town after getting an estimate for flights. 

The airfares would cost us around R10k for returns flights for 2 adults and 2 infants from Cape Town to Joburg on an economy airline.  

I was certain that it would cost us less than R10k to drive up and back. Yeah it might take longer, but avoiding the long queues and general frustration that one experiences at airports is a always a most welcoming option for me. Especially with a baby and a hyper 2 year old,  not forgetting extra luggage. 

Besides i always enjoy the open road. 

The car of choice to drive up - our stock standard 1994 E36 316i whcih we owned for a year, and is used daily. 

I was anxious to see how this little 4cylinder with its'75kw / 100hp M43 motor would perform on the 1400km journey.  It has been a while since i drove a small engine on the long N1. 

The round trip journey took us from Gordons Bay (WCape) to Kimberley, to Jhb, to Limpopo (BelaBela), then back to Cape Town via Colesburg. 

The total fuel cost including the tollgates was just under R8k for a total distance of around 3500km. 

An additional 500km was added to initial planned journey. 

The AC was on for 95percent of the journey, and the timing was on point for an average CT - JHB road trip. 

THE JOURNEY

We left Gordons Bay which is situated on the coast 60km west of Cape Town CBD at around 8am on a Wednesday morning, filled up the E36s 60lt fuel tank at Astron Greenways in Strand, then stopped 530kms (5 and a half hours) later at the 3 Sisters Shell Ultra City for a top up of fuel, a lunch break and some playtime for the kiddos. This after passing a couple of hundred long hauler trucks travelling out of Cape Town.

While at 3Sisters, I got a call from our good friend Metesh who was checking up on us and suggested we come to Kimberley for an overnight stay and avoid all these trucks hogging the N1.

I haven’t been to Kimberley in about 30 years, so we veered onto the N12 - which would take us past -Victoria West and Britstown straight through to the City of Diamonds.

We reached a very hot Kimberley at around 5:30pm and settled in at the Narans for the evening. 

The next morning, we topped up with fuel (about 45litres) then drove through the quiet towns of Warrenton, Bloemhof and then to the much busier Klerksdorp and Potchefstroom before reaching Lenasia in the early afternoon.

                                                But not before getting pulled over for speeding (132km/h in a 120zone). This little 4cyl goes hey !!

Since it was Decemer and the schools were officially closed, my brother booked us into Warmbaths for a few days and nights. 

Warmbaths is a popular holiday resort famous for its warm waters and family friendly facilities situated in a vast bushveld about 195km from where we were staying. 

This would mean driving further north on the N1 past Pretoria, and into the Limpopo province. 

Warmbaths was fantastic, it definitely deserves anoher visit from us. We were there from Sunday and left on the Tuesday. First back to Lenasia, then on the long road back to Cape Town. 

We took the N1 back past Bloemfontein and stopped in Colesburg for the night, driving through some crazy thunderstorms. 

We reached safely in Cape Town the following day at around 4pm. 

THE 4CYL E36 (well this one at least) 

I've owned a few E36s over the years,...........

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