When someone goes all in on a project car, it’s hard not to have some respect for the effort, even if the car in question is not your cup of tea. Now, in the case of a 1973 BMW Bavaria, this vehicle is in wheelhouse of a motor I wouldn’t be ashamed to own, but I’m afraid the seller has made it too nice for my budgetary limits. This Bavaria has been transformed into a car you could likely use every day, but those of us in the snow and salt belts wouldn’t want to subject that clean body to four-season use. The updated drivetrain and suspension, however, means you very well could use it every day if you chose. Find the updated Bavaria here on eBay for $31,500 or best offer.

This gives you an idea of just how seriously the seller took his build! Now, the challenge here is the asking price – which I’m sure only represents a morsel of what he has into this car from a time and money perspective – is going to be hard to achieve in the Bavaria market. It’s a very cool car and one of BMW’s more successful attempts into weaving its sports sedan DNA into a vehicle segment not often associated with it, but it’s rare to see the top-shelf sedan sell for that kind of money. But heck, he did this work in his garage to get the underside cleaned up and properly sealed with undercoating so perhaps you could drive it in all-weather conditions. It’s hard not to respect that level of effort.

Inside, the cabin was trimmed in fresh blue vinyl upholstery while Recaro seats were installed up front. The color works well, and since the seller acknowledges transforming it from tan to blue, I applaud the transformation. The Recaros show you that this project really hit a point of no return somewhere along the way, which also includes a sharp set of BBS wheels, lowering springs, upgraded dampers, and a complete engine swap with a beefy inline-six from a low-mileage E34 5-Series sedan. I don’t know if this is where the seller intended to end up, but it certainly represents a soup-to-nuts transformation.

Not only that, the engine – which had around 52,000 miles on it when removed, which is nothing on an M30 – got a full head rebuilt and reseal before it was dropped in, along with a conversion to electric-choke Weber downdraft carburetors. The speedometer and tachometer were even swapped out to work with this engine setup. If you wanted to buy a car that’s had everything done the right way, you’d buy this one, but what if you don’t fancy a Bavaria? Well, you’d have to wait until the next best thing came along, whatever that was. The seller’s BMW is certainly done to a high standard, but it may take a while for the right buyer to come along.