When buying an E28, there’s an amazing breadth of options when it comes to style, approach, and history. Some go with the M5, an epic and significant performance sedan that comes with steep prices and even steeper maintenance costs. Some look to the affordable and classy daily drivers out there, highlighting the simple sportiness of this great mid-size generation. Somewhere in between, there are some fantastic modified examples, whether they’ve been turbo’d, Euro’d, or all of the above. Today’s E28 wears the sharp exterior of a Euro M5 with its slight bumpers, clean foglight setup and 80s-tastic trunk spoiler. The seller, a strong member of the MyE28 forum and owner of both an E28 M5 and Hartge H5S, has spared few expenses. Beyond the full Euro conversion, the all-black interior is redone including a leather dash, undergone a nice repaint, the M30 was rebuilt just over 30k miles ago, and much more. Despite the beautiful looks, excellent attention to detail, and a very reasonable price, he’s had a surprisingly tough time finding a new home for it.
Tag: 535i
Hartge has never really enjoyed the popularity of Alpina, just as the E34 doesn’t enjoy the popularity of the bookends to its production run – the E28 and E39. There are a myriad of reasons for both occurrences, but the result is that for the discerning individual who would like a potential future classic on an affordable budget, the E34 is a great chassis to consider. Solid build quality, good looks and plenty of luxury combined for a genuinely lovely experience. Even in the small motored 525i, the E34 was an entertaining drive when coupled with a manual transmission – I spent many hours at the wheel of the 1995 example my family owned for several years, and while a few times I wished it was an M5, I never was really left disappointed. Move to the bigger brother 535i and you’ve got more go under your right foot – and if you introduce a host of Hartge bits coupled with a Japanese build from famed tuner Tommykaira, you’ve got one interesting and future collectable driver’s car:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1990 Hartge H5SP on eBay
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There’s so much to like about this E28 5 Series that it’s hard to know where to start. The car itself is an absolute gem, the manner in which the seller has photographed boarders on editorial quality and the bidding sits at at very reasonable $5,200 (though we don’t know the reserve is) with 4 days left to go. However, as with so many things in life, there’s a catch. This bronze Bavarian beauty only has two pedals, which for many people is a deal breaker but not for me. Would I rather have a 5 spd manual in this car? Absolutely but given the pristine condition this vehicle appears to be in, I don’t think I could pass up a chance to be its caretaker for a little while, even though it suffers from PRND syndrome.
The E28 is considered by many to be the original Q-Ship and for those of you out there that would harp on the automatic transmission found on this example, let me remind you what a Q-Ship is all about, stealth. Now I know it would be more fun to row your own in this car but what better way to fly under the radar when having fun than to have an automatic transmission keeping you in check. I honestly believe that just taking away the option to quickly downshift and take off around a corner completely changes the personality of the 535. Where most folks would envision themselves tearing up windy roads in this car I see myself cruising around town with friends or road tripping around the Pacific Northwest. That may seem oddly specific but I’ll attribute it to the Bronze Metallic over Nutria leather color-way and the car being from Vancouver.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1986 BMW 535i on eBay
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One thing I really love about writing up these 10K posts is a odd combinations pricing allows me to come up with. For today’s post, I decided to do something a little different. Instead of maximizing the budget, I decided to look at it from the perspective of what was a classic 1980s car that you could buy and maintain well under $10,000. Obviously, if you’re willing to shill out much more, there are countless classics you can jump in to turn-key; but under $10,000 means with almost certainty that the car you’ll be getting in to today will be at least in part a bit of a project. Is there anything wrong with that? No, I think there’s an inherent appeal to trying to save and resuscitate a car that was in part neglected or just needs attention. Certainly I’ve tried to do that several times with 1980s cars – with mixed results. Today, I grabbed one classic from the 1980s (give or take, we’ll see…) from each of the major manufacturers – which is the one you’d like to save?
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1980 Porsche 924 Turbo on eBay
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Clean, low-mileage E28s are always a treat, and there have been some nicely preserved examples of the 535i here on GCFSB before. This one has the standard fog-lighted 535i bumper with an “is” rear spoiler, looking pretty sharp on Style 5s but more cruiser than the M5/is package. You can’t get much more 80s than baby blue over blue leather – I love it. 82k miles with no real defects means this is could be a special daily driver or fun entry into the E28 world for an enthusiast.