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Time for another 10K Friday roundup, and this time I’m focusing on Coupe Week for the theme. That results in a diverse selection to choose from; from a turbocharged 1.8 inline four right through a twin-turbo V12, we have front drive, all-wheel drive and two rear-drivers. Three are automatics with one manual and ten years separate the oldest to newest; yet these are all two-door cars that fit into the $10,000 budget price range. I wanted also to include a Porsche, but wanted to cover models that we hadn’t seen in other posts and the closest I could get in a 911 was in the mid-teens, so we’re down to four choices. Who wins this crazy competition?
I had to do a double take when I saw this 1995 BMW 840Ci for sale in California, as Carter had featured a strikingly similar example at the end of last month. Sure enough, this Oxford Green Metallic 840Ci is a different car altogether, but one which has almost 80,000 less miles. With the lower running costs of the V8 engine over the V12 and such low mileage, this could be one of the ultimate 8 series opportunities that we’ve come across here at GCFSB.
While the BMW E31 isn’t a model that we feature constantly here on GCFSB, it’s certainly one that graces the pages on a regular basis. However, nearly all of the time we’re looking at the car that grabbed the headlines – the V12 engined derivatives that really brought BMW’s Grand Touring coupe more towards the jet set. However, quietly in 1993 BMW launched a more affordable and economic version of the 8-series when it planted the all-aluminum M60 V8 in the slanting nose. Perhaps enthusiasts overlooked it a bit because it wasn’t as powerful as the M70/73 or the S70, but to me the 840 was closer to the 635CSi that it replaced than the V12 model was. Like most of the end-of-the-run E24s, the 840 only came to the U.S. in automatic though, meaning less enthusiasts saw it as an exciting development. The 840Ci thereby became the red-headed stepchild of the E31 lineup – not exotic enough to grab the same headlines as the V12, but too expensive and not manual or powerful enough for the M crowd. Two decades on, though, the more rare to find 840Cis might just be a smart alternative for those interested in the awesome BMW GT:
You don’t have to despair if you’ve missed out on the E30 M3 and Porsche 911 market – there are still plenty of alternatives that make great occasional vehicles with enough sport to have fun with and enough presence to make you feel really special. Two of the best coupes from the early 1990s are often overlooked and are still very affordable – the Porsche 968 and the BMW 8 series. Now, truth be told most 968s are out of the “10K” price range, and 850i/Cis are often close in disrepair if they’re at or below $10,000. But if you’re willing to take higher miles on the well-built 968 chassis and opt for the smaller motor in the E31, you can find examples of either that fit a budget. Which would you choose?
While the 850Ci 6-speed manual we featured last week was certainly an attractive grand tourer, the V12 running costs may put some prospective enthusiasts off. For those, we have this car, the 840Ci. With four less cylinders a little bit of the servicing complication away without finding yourself down on too much power. This second to last year E31 coupe for sale in California has covered under 70,000 miles. If you desire a BMW coupe from the 1990s but want to stand out from the crowd, these grand tourers are a good way to go about it.
