Rusty But Trusty

For all the E12 five-series means to BMW, it’s largely ignored by many car enthusiasts. Outperformed by its E28 successor, and lumbered with big impact bumpers and underdeveloped emissions equipment, it can be developed into a very competent driver by looking to the aftermarket and parts from BMW’s own later cars. So if you take a bigger fuel-injected six and its transmission from a later car, and add some suspension and brake upgrades, you can have a lot of fun for relatively short money, together with the arguably more attractive 1970s styling. But for every conversion, you need a blank canvas, and for that you could look at this 1976 BMW 530i for sale for $4000 in San Luis Obispo, CA.

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There are certainly many popular models of BMW among lovers of older cars – the 2002, E9 coupes, and E28 5-series for starters. What’s funny is, quite a few of the BMWs of the late 1970s to early 1980s cars have yet to find a true cult following in the way some of these cars have, or even some of the less-popular models like the E9 sedans. For North American enthusiasts, some of those issues are rooted in the reactions to emissions and safety regulations in that period, so everything from 1974 onwards got mega-bumpers to take out pedestrians at the knees, as well as a not-so-cool device with an awesome sounding name – thermal reactors. On top of that, NA-market cars lost power to run cleaner. With that in mind, let’s take a look at this 1977 BMW 530i for sale for $3000 in West Eaton, PA.

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