While BMW was a well-known name throughout Germany in the 1960s thanks to their prolific motorcycle history and pre-War exploits in the Mille Miglia and other sports car races with the 328, outside of Germany they remained fairly unknown in the 1960s. Indeed, in the late 1950s or early 1960s, if you asked someone to identify where the kidney grills belonged in Britain, they’d probably point you towards the BMW-derived Bristols of the day – straight copies of some of the first post-war BMWs, right down to the grill. So in the 1960s and 1970s, BMW went racing to try to spread the reputation of their engineering out of motorcycles or perhaps some veiled World War airplane references with their “New Class” sedans. It was independent tuners like Schnitzer and Alpina that first really started to get the small sedans noticed in Touring classes. While the large coupe based upon the New Class design wasn’t raced much in its day – efforts instead focusing on the smaller, lighter and similarly powered sedans – it’s none-the-less exciting to see a 2000CS that has been modified in the style of the period racers:
While generally I find myself looking at C4 Audi S4/S6s and thinking they’re an amazing deal right now, it’s hard to not feel the same way about the E34 M5. If the E28 was the unloved M from the 1980s for some time, more recently we’ve seen a surge in E28 prices that are starting to pick the “original” super sedan up in price. In some cases, clean versions of the E28 M5 are now trading for more than their sister in a prettier dress that has traditionally carried more value, the M6. In even more rare cases, some have surpassed the values of the market-darling E30 M3. Where’s the M deal to be had now, then? Even if the driving experience was dulled slightly by some added weight and luxury with the E28’s successor, the E34, the retention of the great drivetrain coupled with some refined looks wasn’t all bad. In my opinion, the E34 is a very worthy replacement for the E28 – and a strong alternative to the S4/S6 market which is also beginning to tick up slightly. Check out this first year Brilliant Red example:
There’s something about Alpine White on a BMW that looks just right. This M3 Coupe for sale in California sent to us from a reader of ours, Jeff, is super clean and has covered just over 63,000 miles. Short of the ultra-rare lightweight, this one is close to E36 M3 perfection.
Tuner cars can be a scary proposition, with trails of work of unknown quality hiding in places you may not be able to see. At the same time, the lack of originality often drives the price down, meaning you could pick up a lot of fun for reasonable money. I’ve always loved the E36 sedan, and today’s example corrects the E36 M3’s most common complaint of lack of power. Someone put some serious miles on this car, and that leaves even more question marks. More investigation is need, as in “what’s a 90s interior look like after that mileage?” and “what does the E36 suspension look like after 100k miles of burnouts?” But maybe you don’t care, and seeing a 300+whp M3 sedan for the price of average E36 M3s is an open door for the next owner to continue exploring the badass sedan life.
Mercedes-Benz has been one of the mainstays in diesel passenger car offerings in the United States. However, into the 1990s, the selection became a bit thin. If you wanted a diesel engine with estate carrying capacity towards the end of the W124 E class production, you were out of luck. In fact, Mercedes has not offered a diesel estate in the US since 1987, as 1988 saw the introduction of the 300TE to replace the 300TD. One intrepid Mercedes mechanic, though, has gone the extra mile to create what never was on this side of the Atlantic, with this 1994 E300 Diesel Estate.
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