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I have a soft spot for the Bavaria. It’s not because it’s the best looking BMW from the 1970s, nor the fastest. It’s not the most collectable, either – but as a result, the Bavaria might just be the rarest of the 1970s BMWs. To me, I can appreciate this coming from a background of loving Audis – most of which are quite rare today. The look of the Bavaria is even very similar to the Audi 100, and like the 100 very few examples are left kicking around. Also like the Audi 100, people will always be glad to see it, and I’m sure many have stories involving Bavarias. As with the old Audis, it’ll be a mix of people who smile and immediately start to tell you their wonderful BMW story and the balance of the masses who simply ask “What is that?” But the Bavaria was nonetheless an important move for BMW, taking on the larger executive market with an upscale big-body 4-door and that famous M30 power:
Do you need a show car? We often write up very clean, fully restored and consequently very expensive examples of cars that are desirable, but there are many more than exist below pristine level. Generally if we post one of these cars there’s a large amount of feedback pointing out the flaws. Yesterday, a few of the GCFSB authors went to a local open house in our old – and flawed – cars. None of them are perfect; all have plenty of character from being driven over the years. They have stories about how they got various battle scars, strange modifications and unorthodox thinking to get around a problem or previous owner’s work. Despite this, driver quality cars have a charm that makes them desirable in their own right. Do I love perfect examples of older cars? Yes, absolutely – they’re awesome to see. But so are well presented drivers:
