At $12,500, Might You Be Open To This 1984 BMW 320i Baur Convertible?
Today’s Nice Price or No Dice 320i was given its open-air top by Karosserie Baur, the same coachbuilder responsible for building BMW’s legendary M1. Let’s see if this car’s price makes it almost as memorable.
It’s So Long To Steve’s BMW G 310 GS
When it comes to muscle trucks—pickups with performance—it seems that off-road is where it’s at. The Ford Raptor, Ram Rampage, and Chevy Silverado ZR2 all fit this mold, leaving trucks like yesterday’s 2000 Dodge Dakota R/T to fend for themselves on the street. With its supercharged engine, yesterday’s Dakota probably could still handle most comers. Unfortunately for its seller, though, most of you considered the $22,000 asking price to be supercharged as well, kicking it to the curb in an 87 percent No Dice loss.
Well, if a street truck wasn’t your cup of tea, maybe a BMW E30 with a party-trick top will be. This 1984 BMW 320i is one of a select few chosen to get re-engineered by Karroserie Baur to have its roof chopped off and a tidy targa top installed in its place. This car is a TC2 (Top Cabrio 2: This Time It’s Personal) of which Baur built about 11,000 on the E30 chassis.
The Baur conversion was factory sanctioned, however, neither the coachbuilder nor BMW ever officially imported any of the cars to the U.S. Additionally, BMW never gave us (us meaning the U.S.) a six-cylinder E30 320i.
That means this one is a grey market car. It’s also a grey car. That paint looks decent in the pictures but is marred by a nasty dent on the corner of the boot lid. Other aesthetic issues on the exterior include missing trim around the windscreen and a goofy radio antenna on the front fender. On the plus side, the folding portion of the top is claimed to be new, and the car wears a handsome set of bottle caps that look clean and unmarred.
The interior is a mixed bag. This being a Euro model, it comes across as a bit poverty spec. That means cloth non-sport seats and Armstrong window winders. The dash is happily crack-free, and most all of the rest of the cabin trim seems likewise to be perfectly serviceable. The only major issue is the upholstery on the driver’s seat, which looks like it has suffered one fart too many and is shredded in the center.
Being a 320i means this E30 sports the 1990 cc, 127-bhp/128 lb-ft edition of the M20 straight six. A Getrag five-speed backs that up. According to the ad, the engine benefits from new fuel pumps, belts, and a water pump. There are 116,200 miles on the clock, but keep in mind that, this car having originally lived outside the U.S., that’s been calculated based on the odometer’s reading in kilometers. The title is clean and, based on the added-on side marker lamps, some semblance of federalization may have taken place. To make a sale, the seller asks for “Cash or reputable cashiers check only, serious buyers only.” The price is $12,500.
What’s your take on this E30 and that asking? Does that seem fair considering the car’s rarity compared to its condition? Or, is that just too much to Baur?
You decide!
Denver, Colorado, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Don R. for the hookup!
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