Posts Tagged ‘german’

Stanced – 1984 BMW 528e with 3.5 Engine

November 13, 2013

It’s hard to decide what to say about this recent subtrend in car modification. On the one hand, the folks who practice stancing often modify older cars with period-correct wheels, and retrofit home-market bumpers when the North Americans got big old diving boards. They’re also spending time and money on keeping up some cars that are less popular with the mainstream, and artistically photographing their work. On the other hand, they’re stretching too-small tires over too-big rims, setting ridiculous camber angles, and lowering the cars over coil-over springs until you can’t even drive over a pencil without it scraping the bottom of the car. There’s also the stereotype of backwards-ball-cap, sagging-jeans-wearing, drum-n-bass-listening kids, but if it’s too loud, you’re too old. So there. Anyway, let’s take a look at an example of this subculture – you can find this 1984 BMW 528e / 535i for sale in Bend, OR for $2300.

1984 BMW 535i right front 2

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Sightseeing – Borgward Isabella Coupe and TS Sedan

November 4, 2013

Some makes and models of older cars are so obscure that the most common way to find them is as a sun-baked hulk in someone’s yard. Such is often the case with Borgward, a Bremen, Germany-based manufacturer of upper-middle-class luxury cars that slotted in the gap between Mercedes and VW/Opel. With a top speed of over 80mph, 4-wheel independent suspension, a hydraulic clutch, and more competitive features, it was quite a nice car in its day, and fairly successful with production of just over 200,000 cars. Unfortunately, the parent company failed to take advantage of economies of scale across its four divisions (Borgward, Hansa, Goliath, and Lloyd), and thanks to this and a slump in demand at home and abroad, went bankrupt in 1961. The current seller of this Borgward Isabella coupe, for sale for $900 in East Los Angeles, CA, will probably also not be clearing a profit on his car.

1958 Borgward Isabella coupe for sale

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Senior Seven – 1980 BMW 733i

October 31, 2013

While we’re on the subject of cars that cover long distances well, or at least did when they were new, the BMW E23 7-series is one of those cars. If you missed the 1984 BMW 745i, or it was beyond your financial or mechanical abilities, rest assured, there are even cheaper alternatives out there, even with a manual transmission. That’s how we get to this grey-market 1980 BMW 733i, for sale in La Crescenta, CA for a mere $1400.

1980 BMW 733 left rear

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