Here’s one that I’ve seen on the Chicago CraigsList several times. I would dearly love to have this car; it sounds awesome.
Up for sale is my nicely modified 1983 533i. It has a 5 speed manul transmission in perfect working order. It also sports an M30 engine from a Euro M635csi. This is the high compression 218 BHP “dirty” engine.
The car has 363,xxx miles, but the original engine was replaced at 300,000 miles with the Euro engine. At that time, the Euro engine has 119,000 miles on it so it has a total of 182,000 miles now. The engine runs perfectly, idles smoothly, accelerates flawlessly and is very fast! The transmission shifts smoothly through all gears and the clutch acts and feels just as it should.
(link)
Yeah, 363k on a car sounds like a lot… but on a 25 year old vehicle, that only comes out to under 15k a year, which isn’t too bad for a daily driver in a major metropolitan area. And it sounds like this is truly a daily driver, and has been well maintained. And the guy knows his BMW gear… the original engine was replaced with one from a European 635csi. Then there is the list of modifications…
Condition-wise, the car seems pretty solid. The seller says that while it’s not perfect, he wouldn’t hesitate to hop in & drive it cross-country. He’s provided a link to a Photobucket album with a ton of extra photos (link); from that it looks like he’s being honest about the car’s condition. It doesn’t look like your run-o’-the-mill vehicle from 1983. And a car that’s 363,000 miles looking like this one does has definitely been well cared for, and will very likely go many more miles.
The seller lists a few of the issues with the car… Cruise control does not work, a leak in the A/C somewhere, the driver’s side back window “just stopped working”, and there is the inevitable “some minor spots of rust”. I really hate rust, but from his description and the photos it sounds manageable.
The seller is including with the car, “3 additional rust-free doors, the two original front seats in decent condition, the original TRX wheels with tires (tires aren’t good), a large box of miscellenous parts for the car, and a Bentley repair manual.” All in all, this sounds like a great car for $3,800 or best offer. Given the number of times the ad’s been seen on CL, I’d be willing to bet that he’d go a lot lower than that. The ad says it’ll be available for viewing until the snow flies; then it gets put away. I’d be willing to bet it’ll be back on CL in the spring. Let’s see if I can scrape together $3,500 or so by then.