Bavarian Motor Works is a 100-year-old car company headquartered in Munich, Germany. You know them as BMW. They started out making airplane engines, but ... just watch this for the background.
If you want to appear like you know cars, don't call a BMW car a Beemer, call it a Bimmer. BMW motorcyles are Beemers. I'm not making this up.
BMW made many cool cars with cool engines over the years, but they're famous for making perfect straight sixes. So I'm of the view that if you're going to get a classic BMW it should have a straight six.
As I said last time, I'm partial to rear-wheel-drive two-seat convertibles like this Z3 with a 2.8L I6 at The Stable in Gladstone, NJ. Forty-five thousand miles, 189 horsepower, a 2844 pound curb weight, three pedals, in Dakar Yellow for $14,500? Yes please!
If you want more power and are willing to pay more money, check out the Z3M which is basically a Z3 with an M3 engine shoehorned underhood and an M3 Evo suspension and brakes. These are fast and they feel faster than they are because they're so small and open. There's one in Estoril Blue (which is a classic and dope BMW color) for $26k at Ryan Friedman Motorcars in Valley Stream, NY.
The M is probably more collectible but I personally would keep the extra twelve grand and get the plain Jane Z3.
And with less than half of what you saved you could buy this 633 CSi in West Orange, NJ! It's for sale by owner, and the owner might be the worst car photographer in the world--he failed to really capture the car's iconic "shark nose" in any of the images and there are no good shots of the "fantastic" interior. Here's what it should look like.
The crispy 633 CSi shown above sold for $6000 on BaT in 2016. Another less crispy one sold last week for $5600. The one on Hemmings is not at all crispy and it's an automatic so that's another demerit. I would gouge the seller down to $4000 or so. Or just keep an eye on BaT. As you can see from their nifty E24 summary page, these lesser E24s come up with some frequency and they are not expensive at all. If you dig the E24's looks (and you should) and want something more collectible and powerful, consider the M6. They're anywhere from $25k to $50k or more, but they're classy as hell and should at a minimum hold their value.
And if money is no object?
I think the Z1 is a really cool car. The doors don't open, they slide down into the body of the car.
The Z1 was never sold in the US and couldn't be imported here until around 2015, so you likely won't see anyone else driving one. In fact I've never seen one in person. This one is available for $92,500 at Autosport Designs in Huntington Station, NY, hometown to zwoman and FOGTB FD. I don't love the gray camo seat inserts but that's 1990 for you.
The BMW 507 is stunning. It might be the most beautiful BMW ever. They're so desirable that I don't think you can get one for under a million dollars no matter the condition. Jerry Seinfeld gave Christoph Waltz a ride in one to get coffee in an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, check it out on Netflix. They're so cool Elvis had one.
The 507 has a V8, not an I6, but it's almost as iconic a BMW as you can find and I would welcome one in my driveway any time.
But for my go-to-hell money, I would get THE iconic BMW. The M1. Mike Ura put 10,000 miles on his in the last 5 years, which is probably unheard of (everyone else just rubs them with a diaper like Cameron Frye's dad's Ferrari) but I reflexively started applauding when he said it.
I don't care what James May says, the M1 is the Bimmer for me.
I could write much much more about BMW. Despite only making one true supercar (the M1) they made tons of awesome driver's cars over the past 50-plus years and you can find a good one at almost any price point.
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