As a used car, the E21 BMW 3-series has suffered from being neither fish nor fowl. It wasn’t as pure of a sports sedan as its famous predecessor, and hadn’t yet evolved into the significantly more successful E30 3-series. Part of this was by design at BMW, since they needed a more luxurious entry-level car for the evolving yuppie class to aspire to, and because they needed to accommodate modern safety standards. But part of it was by circumstance – the emissions and safety laws, which had already defaced the later square-light 2002, also had their way with the first 3-series. So what if the 2002 market has slipped from your grasp, but you’re not into the complexity of luxury bits required by moving further into the 1980s E30? Well, you could certainly do worse than buying an E21 that’s had some of the DOT and EPA mess undone. Check out this 1983 BMW 320is for sale for $3500 in Portland, OR.
Rusty But Trusty 