You may have wondered over the past couple years where RustyButTrusty has been. Lately he didn’t seem so interested in you, or the cars he wrote about so regularly. In spite of the title, which suggests he was in jail for some kind of white collar crime, he was actually taking a break to focus on family and career. Depending on your perspective, good fortune or fate has brought him back to write here again. And so here we have our first feature car in a long time, a 1975 BMW 2002.
Oh, why the title? There’s a fairly recent addition to the fleet. The Lancia Beta Berlina moved along a couple of years back (if you look, you can see the new owner has it listed for sale) and there is now another vehicle which has taken its place: a 1972 BMW 2002 tii. So far, the cars I’ve written about and purchased have been no more than a few thousand dollars and often a little frayed around the edges. While technically the new member of the fleet fulfills a couple of the criteria, I defy anyone to find a running, driving 2002 tii in that price range! Anyway, see the Fleet section in the near future for updates on that.
On to our subject car – a refrigerator white 1975 BMW 2002. Prices for these cars seem to be steadily going up, but if you look around, you can still find some apparent deals. So you can find an unmolested-looking example for $2500 in our state’s lovely capitol, Sacramento, CA.
Looking at the first picture, this car is remarkably clean. On a white car, there is no visible rust under the windshield, although there *might* be something on the leading edge of the hood. The body looks straight, trim is all there, and the car even seems to have the original BMW badge. Those picnic-bench bumpers are very prominent, and show all the others on the street how seriously you take protecting your car from errant Corollas. And if you get boxed in, have no fear – just push the offender out of your way!
Wow, even the interior is pretty tidy. Speakers in the door panels are not ideal, to be sure, but hey, this way you don’t have to do the dirty deed of cutting holes to have some music. Seat fabric looks original, as do the wheel and shift knob.
Ah ha! That’s why this car is not $5000. That said, if this is the only rust, a door is pretty easily replaced. According to the seller, the car runs great, and they have records back to 1990. So this is definitely worth checking out – could be a drive & fix kind of car, which falls squarely in the RustButTrusty category!
Rusty But Trusty 
May 20, 2013 at 1:19 pm |
Nice car. I just picked up a 1972- 2002 that has not run in over 13 years. Body and interior are ok, front floors needed to be replaced.
Now running and ready for some summer fun. Picked it up for a grand, however I would pay another 2 grand if it was a TT.
Dan