The low-mileage 1995 Mercedes-Benz C220 Feature listing from last December is back up on offer, with a few days before auction end. Surely there is someone out there who would like to put a big red bow on this for someone for the holiday season?
Tag: 1995
The E36 M3 was an admirable performer in every guise, even with the disappointingly detuned inline-6s we received here in the US. The 240hp that both the S50 and S52 produced was decent, but knowing that just a few thousand miles separated us from 80 more horsepower was like a kick to the groin during a warm embrace. Alas, it is what it is, and I prefer to think of the E36 as the fun, quick, and outstanding handler that it was, rather than the over-popularized or under-powered car that its detractors make it out to be.
Low-mileage examples have been on the rise recently as they become the minority amongst a sea of abused or neglected examples. Today’s Daytona Violet coupe is certainly a looker – BMW’s violet colors are uniquely subtle and gender-neutral – and I’ve always loved the M Double Spokes. Sub-50k mile E36 M3s have always been a tasty proposition, but not too long ago they’d bump the price up to $15k from $10k. Sure, M-cars from the pre-X5M era are receiving a bit of nostalgic love these days, but does a 43k-mile S50’d coupe really demand $25k already?
Click for details: 1995 BMW M3 Coupe on eBay
10 Comments
When I start to recount stories of my early driving years and my family’s run of German automobiles, I’m sure it sounds like we ran a used car lot. Fair enough; before I was old enough to drink we were on to our 5th BMW with a Porsche on the way – and still a few more to come. One of my favorite cars would probably be a bit of a surprise to some, though; when the climate control failed on our E32 735i 5-speed it was replaced by a 1995 525i. Now, normally the 525i is a bit of a downer – too much car with too little motor. But several updates over the life of the 525i meant that by 1993, the 525i was a bit of a sleeper – especially when equipped with a manual. The update from the M20 to the M50 motor and then the addition of VANOS gave the car a mini-M5 feel. It screamed up the tach and felt much quicker than it looked. But for some the M50 just isn’t enough motivation to leave the 525i alone:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995 BMW 525i on eBay
1 Comment
From a poorly represented backyard creation of a tuned E28 BMW we’re heading for probably the most respected and coveted tuner in the world. Ruf cars are legendary and have been since new – grabbing headlines and turning heads wherever they go. By the 1990s, though, Ruf had some serious competition from within Porsche itself. Porsche not only had the monstrous 400 horsepower, all-wheel drive spiritual successor to the 959 in the Turbo, but it also had a stripped and widened GT2 model homologated for racing. Adding power was good, but Ruf really needed to set itself apart. The result was the wild CTR, probably the most famous of which I wrote up about a year ago. But behind the big splashing headlines of the power figures of the CTR was the successor to the Yellowbird – the BTR:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995 Ruf BTR on eBay
8 Comments
Yesterday’s C5 S6 Avant was a great reminder of what we’ve recently lost from Audi – the fast wagon. But try as they might, even Audi themselves don’t seem to have managed to capture the magic and legendary reliability coupled with tuning potential of the original C4 S4 and S6 Avants. While we didn’t get the S4 Avant or the hotter out of the box V8 6-speed versions in the U.S., we did get the the fantastic turbocharged inline-5 mated to the 1995 Audi S6 in Avant form. A handful of these cars were imported to the U.S. originally, and most have been heavily used or thoroughly modified; few remain in clean, original condition with lower miles. They do pop up time to time, but today isn’t one of them. That’s because today’s Avant has been thoroughly upgraded and turned up thanks to 2Bennett Audimotive in California: