The perfect counterpoint to Volkswagen’s GLi 16V like the one we featured earlier has to be the BMW 320is. Ostensibly, these two cars were aimed at close to the same market although the BMW was a fair chunk of change more expensive than the Jetta. But both were sports sedans, both came only as manuals, both had BBS wheels, grippy Recaro seats and sport suspension, and critically both featured a 2 liter 16V motor. But it’s there where the similarities end, because while Volkswagen rung 134 horsepower out of the 9A, BMW squeezed a seemingly unbelievable (for the time) 192 horsepower out of the lower displacement S14. For some time, the 100 hp/liter mark was considered about as good as naturally aspirated motors got and the 320is was hauntingly close with 192 ponies from 1,990 CCs – proportionately, more powerful than the larger 2.3 and 2.5 variants. We’ve previously covered this model a few times and so won’t go into lengthy detail about the history (plus, some of it is included in the listing), but if you wanted to understand why you’d pay more for one of these BMWs in the late 80s, that engineering feat alone was a good indication. As the E30 market has been red hot and importation becomes possible for more of these cars, we keep seeing them pop up:
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What if one car could really do it all? What would it look like? It’s always amused me that these civilized off-roaders we see rambling about these days are referred to as Sport Utility Vehicles. With a higher center of gravity, sport isn’t really what comes to mind. A sports car really won’t be a good solution for the school run, given limited seating capacity and luggage space. Sure, a sedan is a good all-around vehicle, but they often lack soul and don’t have as versatile a cargo bay as a vehicle with a lift gate. So what about a wagon then? And one with four-wheel drive. And a 5-speed manual gearbox. And a smooth, torquey inline-6 under the hood? Too good to be true? BMW got the formula right with the E30 Touring, like this 325ix Touring we see here for sale in Essen, Germany.
Click for details:Â 1990 BMW 325ix on Mobile.de
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Here’s a chance at an affordable E30 that should be a pretty decent driver. It has the 2.7-liter eta engine which may only return low-20s gas mileage but is definitely a cruiser, as the 2000rpm highway speed noted by the seller confirms. He’s apparently put quite a bit of effort into making the car quite strong, with lots of newly replaced parts and no mechanical issues to note. There are a few cosmetic bits, but they can be forgiven in favor of that sweet early cowcatcher underneath the bumper. The interior looks quite nice other than the typical dash crack. Altogether it’s a tidy E30 that could be a good value.
Click for details: 1986 BMW 325s on eBay
Comments closedThe automotive ‘Field of Dreams’, it seems these days that if you post it, they will come. Potential buyers (read: mostly tire kickers or keyboard warriors who pontificate about what they’d buy with when banks finally allow them to cash their internet checks) play the roll of Ray Kinsella, cutting through the field of vanilla cars, driven by a ceaseless desire to find their magical dream team. Playing the roll of ‘Topless’ Joe Jackson in today’s lineup is a 1990 BMW M3 – a car you could have gone to the driveup in to watch my topical movie. Now, truth told I’ve previously spoken about how fast convertibles don’t really make a tremendous amount of sense to me, and I have to point towards the E30 M3 Convertible as one particularly odd topless choice. What BMW did was infuse your normal 3 series with race-bred DNA, winding up the motor with the revtastic S14 and stiffening the suspension to handle all of your curb-hopping, door pounding action. And then, they chopped the roof off, adding 400 pounds to reinforce the chassis and utterly transforming the car from a potential podium to a potent pocketbook. Alright, that’s a huge exaggeration, but still, it just doesn’t make sense to me. It does, however, make sense to those who are happy to part with a fairly substantial chuck of change to jump into this pristine example:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1990 BMW M3 Convertible on eBay
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