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If ever there was a company car for The Hamptons, it would be the luxury estate vehicle. No surprise, then, that this 1992 BMW 525i Touring finds itself not far from those beaches in Syosset, New York. The E34 Touring was BMW’s second attempt at an in-house estate car, following on the five-door version of the popular E30 3 series that was never sold new to US customers. With the dawn of a new decade, BMW decided to gift the US the 5 series Touring, which would become a hit for families looking for something a bit more dynamic for the school run. Sadly, one of the company’s tastiest offerings, the M5 Touring, would still be out of our reach. Nevertheless, BMW would continue to offer the 5 series Touring for two more generations of 5 series, but sadly, we are now stuck with the awkwardly proportioned 5 series Gran Turismo. This 525i Touring has under 60,000 miles on the odometer, a rarity these days as many of these long roof E34s have been run hard and put up wet.
I’m not sure if I can do justice to this car. While not the ultimate version of the 964 Turbo, nor the ultimate air-cooled 911 Turbo, the 1992 Porsche 911 Turbo S Leichtbau remains for me the best. It is the final iteration of Porsche’s turbocharged 3.3 liter flat-six that had been in use since 1978 powering these machines to heights most other automakers scarcely would have envisioned. This is a car that probably never should have existed since Porsche likely had intended for the 964 Turbo to debut with a turbocharged version of the 3.6 liter engine found in other iterations of the model. But the development of that engine took time and the early years of the 964 saw the continued usage of the engine from the 930. When it finally became time to retire its use, Porsche gave the 3.3 a wonderful send-off in the guise of the Turbo S: a lightened, more powerful, version of the standard 964 Turbo that remains one of the lowest production models in the Porsche portfolio. I featured one a couple months ago that we surely wouldn’t call subtle, but whose exterior did come in a somewhat subdued Silver. The one we see here, painted in stunning Electric Blue Metallic, possesses no such subtlety and will be on auction as part of Silverstone Auctions’ Salon Privé 2015 on September 4 in Oxfordshire, England.
While it’s a model that’s rather forgotten to this day, the 400E was the car that brought the V8 engine into the mid-sized E-class sedan and one with which I have a personal relationship. My father bought a 1992 400E when I was in college and ran it for a while until the new MINIs appeared in early 2002 and he decided to bring back a little nostalgia in his life from his autocross years in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While I favored the 190E 2.6 my father previously drove, there were things to enjoy about the 400E, mainly the lusty eight-cylinder lump under the hood. This 400E for sale in California is looking rather crisp for a car with over 150,000 miles and offers a lot of brawn for the buck.
This 1992 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.6 isn’t an enthusaist dream machine, it’s basic transportation, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The listing caught my eye because this car is a one owner vehicle that’s up for sale only because the elderly owner has had her driving privileges taken away. In terms of ideal purchasing situations, that is right up there with the best. Not only do you have a vehicle that has been driven hard, but you also have the added bargaining power of knowing that they need to sell the thing. This example is up in an affluent area just east of Beverly Hills, so I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that the car has been routinely serviced. There is no mention of service records, but I’m hoping that there’s a big ‘ol manilla folder full of them in the glovebox. If not, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to track down the shop that serviced the vehicle and get all the details on what it may, or may not need in the near future. My guess would be, not very much.
The 1992 Porsche 911 Carrera Cup we featured back in May is on offer again, with a price reduction of a little over $10,000. It’s still not pocket change, but with air-cooled prices on the move, this rare, competition focused 964 is sure to be a top prize in the vintage Porsche portfolio years on.
The below post originally appeared on our site May 11, 2015:
