The E39 generation BMW 540i Touring is already one of the greatest family haulers ever built, and when you add the M Sport package, Sienarot red metallic paint, and a proper V8 up front, you end up with a wagon that accidentally outperforms half the sports cars at Cars and Coffee. BMW built only 27 […]
The E46 generation BMW 3-series is a late-model luxury sports car that is fun to drive and available with a variety of configurations, powertrains, and gearboxes. Reliability is mixed — it ends up somewhere between a Honda and Puegeot on the ole reliability scale…closer to the Honda if my experience is true. Parts are expensive, […]
The word Avanti means different things to different people. To Italians, Avanti means “go ahead” or “forward”. To the average American, Avanti means “what?” But to car guys, Avanti means “a strange blend of Studebaker, Ford, Chevrolet, and WTF”. Today’s Avanti is the strangest flavor of Avanti, the 4-door sedan Avanti of which only 90 […]
The E46 generation BMW 3-series was not that different from the previous generation (E36), but it took the same basic formula and just up the goodness factor. More power, a more refined ride, and a better interior are only some of the benefits of the E46 generation, but one of the biggest changes was that […]
This next car comes as a tip from PA Cyclist who writes: I know nothing about this individual car, but please allow me to take a moment to extol the virtues of the Honda Accord Touring. Conceived to compete with the Toyota Avalon (the next class above), the Touring trim introduced several features which would […]
This next car comes from instagram, which is a strange place to find a car for sale, but our friend Randy from Carchaeology put this car up for sale in an instagram and I figured…why not?! You can probably fix anything that goes wrong with a wrench and a hammer, just don’t get upset when […]
The past few years had been tough on folks looking for a sub $1k car. First, the cash-for-clunkers debacle of 2009 took $3B worth of junky cars off the road and essentially chopped the knees off the cheap running car market. A decade later the COVID thing and related panic caused global supply chain issues […]
If you are not a total BMW fanboy goober, you might not understand this next car. But I hope to transform you into a BMW fanboy goober by the end of this article, so that might be moot point. Hang on, lemme back up. The E39 generation BMW 5-series could be had in 540i V8 6-speed version or a wicked wagon called a Touring Sports Wagon…but you couldn’t get a V8, 6-speed, and wagon from the factory for whatever reason. Today’s example fixes that by shoving the 6-speed from a sedan into the wagon body, but the seller, alarmingly, says it needs “quite a bit of work”. Not sure what that means…but I think it merits a second look. Find this 2000 BMW 540i Touring 6-Speed offered for $8,500 in Hopewell, NJ via craigslist. Tip from Cory.
BMW’s 1994 launch of the E36/5 generation 318ti was the first hatchback on a BMW since the classic 2002 Touring was sent to the glue factory in 1974. Styling response was hit & miss the normal folks, but BMW fanboys love the classic 318ti truncated trunk and the fact that it rode on E30 semi-trailing arm suspension borrowed from leftover bits of the previous generation 3-series parts (also used on the Z3). But that didn’t phase BMW planners, because they were aiming to sell cars to a younger demographic and didn’t care of well todo executives didn’t want their little 4-cylinder powered import fighter. Find this 1998 BMW 318ti E36/5 offered for $7000 in Grantham, NH via craigslist. Tip from Cory.
This next car checks the all boxes; manual gearbox, check. Wagon, check. Inline-6, check. Rear-wheel-drive, check. Headliner…errr…that’s missing….and the miles are high, so you will need to do some tidying before you let the wife drive it…but manual transmission rear-drive wagons don’t grow on trees. Find this 1992 BMW 525iT offered for $6500 in Long Beach, […]