The 528e is a bit of an odd duck. The product of the oil crisis of the late 70s and early 80s, this was essentially a gasoline engined car that attempted to mimic the frugality of a diesel, at a time when BMW was yet to bring a diesel engine to the US market (the e stands for “efficiency”). Powered by a 2.7 liter, de-tuned version of the inline-six cylinder M20 motor, what you got was a car that offered all the good looks of the E28 5-series, but with none of the performance to back it up. In other words, you bought this car to drive cheaply and slowly with a bit of German style and sophistication.
Category: BMW
Every now and then, I come across an interesting car which I slot into my weekly rotation at GCFSB last minute. This 2000 BMW 323i Touring is one of those cars. I was in Hingham, Massachusetts on holiday last week, spending a few days at the house of a childhood friend. He’s been a BMW guy ever since they days my 1988 325is convinced him to take the plunge on a 1992 325i 5-speed sedan. He has stayed true to BMW with his latest rig, a 2009 328i xDrive Touring equipped with a 6-speed manual. We discussed how great this car was, allowing you to have your family car cake and eat it too. But one question posed by my friend was what to do now that BMW no longer imports a 3 series Touring with a manual gearbox. Well, you could always dial back the clock and explore the other interesting Tourings from BMW’s past. This E46 323i Touring for sale in Minnesota belies it’s age and 146,000 miles on the clock thanks to some fastidious care. It also has some tasty bits included, such as M3 front seats, a ZHP shift knob and Alcantara trimmed M3 steering wheel to provide maximum driving pleasure behind the wheel.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2000 BMW 323i Touring on eBay
1 Comment
Consider this the latest in my series of “nowadays it’s really hard to find an early 90s BMW that hasn’t been trashed, but this one looks good” posts. I’ve always really admired the E32, the iteration of the 7-series built between 1986 and 1994. The very definition of a stealthy, executive express, it’s a big body car that dates from an era of BMW styling which combined angular lines, conservative, teutonic good looks and classic BMW cues like the wide kidney grille and four-lamp headlights. In many ways these cars look a lot like the E34, the 5-series of the same era, just bigger and brawnier.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1993 BMW 740iL on eBay
5 Comments
World War II changed the map of Europe, and the post-War period was a strange rebuilding and re-allocation period which saw serious changes to some of the names you know today. Volkswagen, a brand that effectively hadn’t really existed before 1939 and the outbreak of war, found itself the benefactor of British intervention afterwards and became the company we know today. Mercedes-Benz, similarly, picked up the pieces and continued on. Auto Union and the companies of the four rings fell inside the Soviet area of control, and as a result many of the plans, factories and engineers were removed from Germany and sent deeper into Russian control. Then there was the strange plight of BMW. Prior to World War II, though BMW had been a very successful aircraft engine producer and motorcycle champion of Germany, they were a minor player in the automobile industry. Still, they had produced some beautiful and notable designs, including the successful sports car racer 328. Although technically Munich lay in the American area of Allied occupation, there would be an interesting future for BMW. Connections with the British Army allowed a pre-War BMW dealer from Britain to jump into the Munich factory, grab a bunch of plans and some engineers, and return back to the island nation. That would yield the Bristol 400 – a car so heavily influenced by BMW’s 326, 327 and 328 designs that they even retained the signature kidney grills. More strange, perhaps, was the BMW plant at Eisenach. Unfortunately for the city, though centrally located in Germany and not particularly far from Munich, it lay about 6 miles inside the Soviet control border. But their factory had all the plans for BMW’s road cars, so after the war, they turned on the lights and started pumping out BMWs not made by BMW. This, of course, resulted in a lawsuit, and in 1952 they were forced to change their name to Eisenacher Motorenwerke, or EMW. Like Bristol, they retained all of the signature BMW bits, including the Roundel. But since they were in Soviet controlled areas, the Roundel’s color changed from blue to red:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1952 BMW/EMW 327 on eBay
4 Comments
As I scour the ads each week for noteworthy vehicles to feature here on GCFSB, I come across a fair amount of E30 BMW M3s on the market. These original M3s are now the darling of the collector set. I was a bit intrigued by them when I was running my E30 325is two decades ago. Nowadays, they don’t do much for me. This is party due to my preference for the 2.5 liter inline-6 that powered my 325is and partly because their collectability has made them all but impractical for use as a daily driver. If you still want some E30 four cylinder goodness, why not check out this 318i for sale in Maryland? This car has undergone a partial restoration and is a non-sunroof model with a 5-speed manual, a combination suited for the purists out there.