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I constantly find myself waffling back and forth between preferring the BMW E34 to the E39, or the other way round. Both cars so well thought out and as time goes on I suspect that proclaiming on better than the other will only get more difficult. The older a car is, the more consideration it gets for classic status. The E39 5 Series has already achieved that to some degree and final models only rolled out 12 years ago. Does the E34 have the edge right now simply because it is older? Personally, I don’t think it’s the time that has passed that makes the E34 a classic, so much as the era that ended with it. I look at the E34 as the last holdout of the old guard. The round headlights, the forward tilting hood, the exterior lines, all true classic BMW. At this point both the 3 Series and 7 Series had a more modern, squared off look. Perhaps most importantly, the headlights were now enclosed, gone was the iconic side by side design. If there is one little detail that I can point to that makes a BMW a classic, that would be the one. It also happens to be the reason that the E34 typically comes out on top when I’m thinking about which body style I would rather own. I love a lot of things about the E39 5 Series, the headlights are not one of them.
The E30 Touring influx continues to flow, helping pull prices down and increasing the variety of available models. Having the fastest possible option is always a nice idea, but there is something extremely appealing about having a base model workhorse that wasn’t originally available here. This 318i won’t be a racer, but it will be useful! It’s right-hand drive, which immediately makes me think of using it as a small-town mail or newspaper delivery vehicle. With even US-spec E30s going for more money all the time, does rarity and a funny steering position rationalize dropping almost $10k on a base model?
We’ve recently had a good string of Audi Avants up here, including a rare converted 6-speed S6 Avant. Oddly, as several people noted we’ve seen a fair amount of these converted V8 cars come up for sale quickly after the conversion. Economically, that doesn’t make much sense; if selling was your goal, replacement with a used automatic would likely be a better route than going through the expensive swap. What’s even more perplexing is that the similar 01E-equipped allroad V6 2.7T (and its running mate B5 S4 Avant 6-speed) are highly sought and loved cars. So I brought two together today in rare color combinations; if you were going to pick a C5 Avant, which is the one you’d go for?
Recently I relayed to the group that a family member had bought a 2004 Audi S4 Avant 6-speed. It was with some excitement and trepidation that this car actually came into the family; after a long search through seemingly countless cars, my cousin finally found one that looked right. It was a silver over silver/black Alcantara 6-speed with just over 100,000 miles. 2004 isn’t the preferred year of the S4 Avant, nor does it have the reputation as being the most reliable Audi ever produced – but overall, it was priced right for what it was and he dived in. There were some exterior condition problems, though, and I offered my assistance with a detailed refresh; I thought it would help to show how you could take a reasonable but not exceptional example of a nice car and make it look pretty special. So, starting with a rather tired and tatty exterior, I dove in:
You could say that the Mercedes-Benz R107 has finally attained classic status. This was the Mercedes to aspire to for two decades and spanned a period of great change in automotive performance, safety and technology. Through it all, the R107 kept going on and on and on. Towards the end, we in the US market had but one model to choose from, the 560SL. Only Japan and Australia would see this model sold new. The rest of the world could chose from two V8 models, the 500SL and 420SL and the car we see here, the six-cylinder 300SL. For a car with such a storied number on its boot lid, few here in the US know about it. For the more spirited driver, you could even spec one with a 5-speed manual. This car is so equipped, showing less than 40,000 miles on the clock.
