Arnold Schwarzenegger Reminisces About Life and Classic BMWs

For the past two years, BMW has published a YouTube series, called Classic Heart, that gives collectors, enthusiasts, and celebrities a stage from which to talk about their experiences with the brand’s classic models. The latest installment of the podcast, which is hosted by J.P. Rathgen, stars Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger’s love of cars is well documented. In the early 1990s, he played an instrumental role in convincing AM General to release a civilian version of the Humvee. At the 2018 Detroit auto show, I watched him join then-Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche on stage to take a shot of schnapps after Mercedes-Benz unveiled the current-generation G-Class. The bodybuilder-turnd-actor-turned-politician gradually toned down his passion for gas-guzzling SUVs and became an outspoken proponent of EVs. He reportedly got Zetsche to promise that Mercedes would make an electric G-Class, though whether that was before or after the schnapps is lost to history. More recently, he teamed up with BMW for an ad campaign promoting EVs.

This time, he’s not only promoting EVs; he’s talking about his love for classic BMWs. Schwarzenegger was born in Austria in 1947, and he tells the host that the first cars he remembers seeing are a Volkswagen owned by a farmer, a Citroën, and a BMW owned by a doctor. The first car he bought was an Opel while he was living in Munich, Germany, but his first car after moving to the United States was a BMW 1600.

“It happened to be that I drove by all the time this BMW dealership in Santa Monica, and I always saw the same kind of cars in the window. And then, one day, I saw two new cars. Both of them were beige, and they were brand new,” he said. “I went in and checked it out. The guy was showing me around and said ‘we just got them in; one is the 1600 and one is the 2002.’ He told me the differences. I loved the 2002, but I couldn’t afford it. And, so, I looked more and more at the 1600 and [the salesman] said ‘this is the first car that you will love. You will never be disappointed.'” He talked Schwarzenegger into his first BMW.

The 77-year-old Schwarzenegger also dishes out life advice while smoking a cigar on his couch. He reveals how his role in the George H. W. Bush administration allowed him to talk Dick Cheney and Colin Powell into convincing the Pentagon to let him buy a Humvee, which he later had modified for civilian use. We’ve embedded the full interview above.