Rusty But Trusty

Update, 1/28/10: Looks like this car has resurfaced here. No conclusive evidence, but the likelihood of two clean gold 2000 sedans in the Pacific Northwest even existing, much less being for sale one after the next, is pretty slim!

To prove it’s also possible to feature interesting cars from a mainstream brand (from a US perspective), I dug up a couple of old BMWs that were the foundation of their success story, if not the runaway hit the E10 ’02 BMWs were. The E09 sedans came with the common M10 engine that was also found in 2002s, so drivetrain parts should not be the hardest to get. These cars were outfitted a bit more luxuriously than their 2-door siblings, particularly the 2000tilux, which had a fancy walnut dashboard among other things. They were also commonly fitted with an automatic transmission for the US market. If you can get your hands on one of these, it’s always seemed these were a bargain alternative to an E10 – trade a bit of style while still getting the same handling and sportiness. Similar tradeoffs are available with, say, a E3 Bavaria vs. a E9 coupe, or an Alfa GTV vs. a Berlina.

Anyway, let’s get on to the first of this 2-car set. As usual with many of the lower-end craigslist offerings, there’s not a lot of detail and the photography is kind of shabby. However, you can still glean something from reading carefully and looking closely at the pictures. From the brief description, which says it’s nice but not perfect, and it’s a straight car that runs, let’s assume it’s a decent driver, possibly a rolling project. You can find it on craigslist in Bend, OR fitted with the cold weather package including the super-rare optional icicles, for $3000 all told.

While the car is in the same gold color often featured on super-exciting Corollas and Camrys (with stuffed animals and tissue boxes on the rear parcel shelf, all the better to see out), it really looks good in a period way. Adding some period alloys, wing-mounted mirrors, and lowering it a tad could give it a sportier attitude if that’s what you’re going for. Wheels appear to be missing the outer trim rings, and you’ll notice it looks like the roof and rear deck have surface rust.

Walking around the car, you can see the trunk lid is actually shiny, so there’s hope yet for a good paint job. Wide taillights are the clue to the fact this is a 2000, and the badge is almost visible enough to confirm it. There’s some interesting trim between the taillights – other cars seem to just have a painted panel. Missing license plate suggests this car’s been off the road for a period, although it could have just been removed for photos. The rear bumper also looks straight.

Completing the walk-around, the left/driver’s side confirms the overall impression of a clean car with even panel gaps. The only concern here is the dark area on the sill, which could be dirt, a reflection of the ground, shadow, or rust. Of course, you were going to ask the seller about rust on a 1960s BMW anyway, right? Shame there are no pics of the interior or engine, but this is definitely worth a call. It looks much better (read less-faded) than most E09 cars, and is reasonably-priced to boot.

Tags: 2000, BMW, E09, Feature, german, neue klasse

This entry was posted on January 28, 2010 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.