Somebody is going to get a great deal – if the price stays low. While it’s perhaps common knowledge I’m a fan of older BMWs, anyone who is handy with a wrench should keep an eye on this genuine Buy One / Get One offering of two classic BMW coupes. This 1985 BMW 635CSI here on eBay was a daily driver up until a few years ago when the owner fell ill; he also bought an accident-victim 635CSI to either restore or rebuild. There’s no reserve and bidding starts at just 99 cents.
Sadly, I think the only future for these two is as parts cars. Although it bothers me to encourage such behavior, there’s little financial upside to bringing these great highway cruisers back to life. Factor in the fact that they’re both automatics and the odds become even more unfavorable for returning to road-going condition. Fortunately, they are located in California and appear to be rust-free. The black car is the formerly daily-driven example, and although the sun has made a mess of the paint, there’s still lots of good parts left.
The interior holds a good deal of value, as does the drivetrain if its sound. The factory sport seats are quite desirable, along with the coarse-spline M-Tech sport steering wheel. The cars appear largely original despite their worn-down cosmetics, which helps reinforce that they were the projects of an older owner who simply enjoyed driving BMW’s big coupe. The M30 engine is one of the best motors BMW ever built, known for reaching 300,000 miles (or more) with relative ease and smart upkeep.
The bronze car is definitely not returning to the roads any time soon, which is made more of shame as I believe this is a rare Bahama Beige car. Most tan BMWs were painted an unloved color known as Bronzit, but Bahama Beige is far more pleasing to the eye and much more difficult to find. This particular 6er was likely bought as a parts car, but perhaps its passionate owner knew the color scheme was an unusual one and had grand plans to bring it back to road-going condition.
As you can see, it took a very hard hit to the rear quarter panel, and I’m guessing this one was definitely totaled out. In California, it doesn’t take much for the state to rid itself of an older vehicle. The seller says these cars were the highlight of the sickly owner’s day, which is a nice story if it holds water. Unfortunately, the seller knows nothing about the cars and he claims he’s never seen them in person – he’s just here to manage the eBay listing. You’re traveling at your own risk with a sale like this, but if the price stays low enough, I think the potential to make a few bucks is good.
The interior of the beige car is definitely in need of a cleaning, and I can’t discern if it, too, has sport seats. Fun fact – those seat covers, if OEM BMW, are quite prized by us BMW nerds. The complete tool kits – with the rare tool kit cloth – are also near impossible to find in a boneyard 6-Series. So, if BMWs are your thing and transport isn’t an issue, you could make some other owners happy by salvaging the good parts and putting them up for sale. But I have to admit, the thought of breaking down an owner’s former pride and joy stings just a little bit. What would do with them?
Hey. I had a bronzit e28 with tobacco brown leather and 4-speed. I like the combination. :)
The 630/633/635 were expensive cars when new and even as used cars 25 years ago. I had an ’81 633 5 speed manual that I bought back in ’89 that I paid $11,500 for (had the orig invoice that showed it cost over $40K new) I sold it 3 years later for $8500 after putting a bumch of miles on it. Anyhow for some reason in recent years the bottom dropped out, especially if equipped with automatic transmission. I’ve seen perfectly nice examples go begging for $2500. Too bad, because they are a nice looking and driving car
Definitely agree with Rick. But as much as I like the design and the driving dynamics of these sharks (when they have the 5-speed transmission) I wonder whether these two might end up as parts cars. They are expensive to fix, and the automatic transmission is a negative for those BMW fans who haven’t owned one yet, but want one. And the good car has 200K miles, which will probably make anyone who isn’t a BMW tech think twice about buying this pair.
You don’t often see opening bids of 99 cents for any car, let alone these, but the bidding is coming and it’s over 100 bucks now. I hope that whatever happens to them, at least one of them survives as a driver. The body design and driving dynamics are so terrific we need to have them around for years to come.
BMW 635 goin’ smooth at 90 feelin’ good to be alive….
I still want one but with less work than these.
Not a cool shark, but my 95 525i feels the same at 90 mph, smooth. Owned it 13 years and will keep it many years more. :)
While some of the best cars of their era they are also some of the most expensive and complex. The bodies are highly prone to rust and while they are relatively easy to convert to manual transmissions a full restoration of just the interior would break most people. If you do purchase them do it right and do a full restoration nut and bolt and you will end up with some of the most beautiful looking and driving cars ever made. The dollars and cents will tell you it was a bad idea but where are you going to find something that beautiful from BMW today or any other manufacturer.
These are in the stage that old Auburns and Packards were in back in the 1960’s and now that there are far fewer we can see what we missed. As expensive as it would be now I would say restore both of them for the reasons noted and let people know you have both wealth and elegant enough to know a masterpiece when you see one.
And if you do decide to restore, move heaven and earth to make certain that they do not start to rust because that is their only real weakness.
Love these coupes. Could never afford one. And with that thought, when you have a passion, there is never any financial sense. Hopefully a BMW enthusiast will come to the rescue.
Somebody got a steal-of-a-deal at $1,025 for the pair.
Well-bought!!
Cost $1500 to ship to Texas. Black car is running. Usual stuf when getting a neglected car. Changed oil, coolant, fuel filter. No start was a security system. Will be posting on forums some pics. Incredible the amount of wiring that was spliced in under the dash. Hot wired past missing starter relay and it lives. Still some work but overall condition is much better than expected. Gold/brown car is parts. Hit very hard in rear quarter plus many generations of made a home throughout the car. Not to mention another crazy security system.