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Occasionally I’ll come across a car that at first glance seems dingy and hardly worth my time writing about. Such was the case with this E36 BMW 328is, but upon closer inspection of the photos I thought it worth posting. The rear seats appear to be in fantastic condition, same goes for the front passenger seat. The drivers seat does appear to have a normal amount of wear for the vehicle’s age but no cracks, tears or other egregious blemishes are mentioned. The owner has added sport pedals and an M shift knob which are nice little touches.
If I have one gripe it’s that they didn’t put more time into properly photographing the vehicle. I know not everyone is a master of automotive photography but it’s pretty easy to copy what the professional listers on eBay do and apply it to your own post. Lack of photographs of a car from every angle will only make potential buyers concerned that something is being hidden, though in this particular case I think it’s just laziness.
Last weekend I came across a very early E23 BMW 7 series with a manual gearbox for sale in Canada. Finding one of these in good shape is rarer than the proverbial hen’s tooth in the Americas. The first generation 7 series is one of those cars fading away to memory, stuck in between the handsome E3 “big six†sedan and the E32 7 series with its available V12 engine that succeeded it. Always on the lookout for the unique ride, we’ve stumbled upon this 732i for sale in The Netherlands is sure to be a hit for those who like the slim bumper appearance of the cars sold in Europe at the time.
Time for another 10K Friday roundup, and this time I’m focusing on Coupe Week for the theme. That results in a diverse selection to choose from; from a turbocharged 1.8 inline four right through a twin-turbo V12, we have front drive, all-wheel drive and two rear-drivers. Three are automatics with one manual and ten years separate the oldest to newest; yet these are all two-door cars that fit into the $10,000 budget price range. I wanted also to include a Porsche, but wanted to cover models that we hadn’t seen in other posts and the closest I could get in a 911 was in the mid-teens, so we’re down to four choices. Who wins this crazy competition?
Though they’ve spent the last decade or so sitting unused in the back of the enthusiast dream garage, BMW’s E31 8-series has seen a resurgence in interest and appreciation recently. As the most range-topping coupe BMW’s produced, it took the shark-nose look into the techno era and stands out as an impressively clean design in the face of today’s luxury rhinoceri. This example spent its first 22 years with a single owner in California and has just crossed the 100k mark. It’s no show-stopping 850CSi, but that very fact helps it become one of the cheapest ways to get behind a V12 in the world. Well cared for and showing normal signs of age, it’s sweet example of BMW’s megacoupe that is quickly becoming collectible.
It’s winters like these when I don’t miss living in New England. We’ve seen a little bit of snow here in the Mid Atlantic, but generally this winter has been bearable for someone like myself used to dealing with worse precipitation. Of course every time the white stuff begins to fall my mind wanders towards the thought of a vehicle with power routed to all four wheels. While my MINI Cooper S with its 6-speed manual is much more capable in the snow than my last car, a rear-drive Mercedes-Benz C-class, it’s still not the greatest in the snow, mainly due to the low ground clearance. I always thought it would have been cool if MINI offered all-wheel drive on the Cooper S with about a half-inch more ground clearance. I don’t need a full on crossover to do my bidding. Just a few mods would be good enough for me.
This E30 BMW 325ix got the formula of what I’m talking about above just right. You have to look closely to differentiate the 325ix from the rear-drive 3 series. The added ground clearance is barely perceptible, rather, the fender flares would be your first tip off if you didn’t approach the car from the rear and see the “ix†badge. There’s not too many of these all-wheel drive E30s knocking around anymore, but this sedan for sale in Idaho is one of the best I’ve seen as of late.
