Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
This wide-fendered, heavily modified 1974 BMW 2002tii Turbo we featured over a year ago is back up for sale. Last time, it was on offer at $38,000. Now with a reserve, will bidding reach those heights? It may not be to everyons taste, but we are big fans of the look.
I normally write up trucks and vans with an eye on how they could be used or repurposed as a do-all traveler for camping, biking, and exploring. Westfalias remove some of the imagination, as they were created for exactly my kind of adventuring. Today’s black Transporter panel van presents the yang to last week’s Westy Hightop yin, cutting the Vanagon’s great lines to their essence by removing most of the windows and doing without any add-ons. The clean, all-business exterior continues in the cab, while the rear area shows the scuffs and bare bones of former commercial use. I am truly in love with the look of this van, and while my mind runs wild thinking of a bed and Porsche motor retrofitted in the rear, the 41k-mile, 52mpg diesel makes it an eminently practical van as is.
Coming up on 3 years into our relationship, I’m still loving my E28, largely due to how it reminds me of a time when cool cars didn’t have to be all things to all people. Today’s 524td may be at the opposite end of the powerplant spectrum from mine, it doubles the gas mileage and keeps the great 80s looks. It is truly shocking that this car has 203k miles on it – inside and out it looks like a showroom model from the year before I was born. At first I thought “that must be a redone interior,” but the presentation of the exterior and engine bay corroborate the seller’s indication that this is just an amazingly-kept, all-original survivor. It may be slow, but the E28 is a great car to practice carrying speed with. What a commuter this would be!
As Wagon Week comes to a close, we’ve got a little halfling. If you were to ask a layperson if a shooting brake was a wagon, they might say yes, and the hatch certainly taps into some of the same styling cues. Can we at least count them as longroofs? Regardless, I’ve made my love for the clownshoe known, and it’s looking like I better consider them a little more seriously as even S52-engined years are climbing in value. This is a clean example in Texas, but it’s not extraordinary and is a bit weak on description.
E30 Tourings are coming across with greater regularity, and we’ve been documenting the increase in immigration. No longer are they subject to endless hoops and finagling involving Canada, a European relative, and several thousand dollars. No, the glory days of the E30 wagon are nigh, and today we have an exciting rarity. The 325ix sedan is a cool car in its own right, but an E30 wagon with all-wheel drive and the flared arches is ice cold. I’ve seen good examples of these in Germany, but this one has made the transatlantic voyage and is in my hometown of Seattle, WA, making it that much more tempting. With few listed issues and low miles, this is a very hot wagon.