The BMW E9 coupe remains one of the prettier cars made by the German marque, and when equipped with three pedals and the 3.0L engine, it’s still a fairly pricey acquisition. While prices have begun to tumble a bit for the examples equipped with an automatic transmission and/or the smaller 2.8L engine – the E9 market definitely got frothy during the COVID price surge – the manual transmission 3.0L cars have stayed hot all the way through. This 1974 model is described as being partially restored and is listed here on craigslist f0r $60,000.
A good friend of mine has an unrestored version of this exact same car, and we were just recently discussing whether he should have sold it three years ago. He doesn’t use it much, but he also isn’t overly inclined to sell it. However, he wonders if the market for an unrestored E9 has softened to the point that he should just hold onto it and pick away at making some improvements, as the potential buyer for a car like this is either going to pay peanuts for a project or is going to be willing through the nose for the best example he can find. This E9 is somewhere in between, likely closer to being a restored driver than a project.
My first answer was that yes, if he wasn’t going to use it as in intended, he should have sold it a few years ago. He likely would have made out like a bandit relative to what he paid for it and how little he’s put into the car over the years as he does all of his own maintenance (so, just the cost of his time and parts, which were still pretty reasonable when he did some basic mechanical sorting several years ago.) However, at this point, he should just hold onto it and enjoy it, as I don’t think the current market will give him quite the windfall he would have gotten in 2021 for an unrestored car. This particular E9 has been sorted to a reasonable degree, with what looks like a freshly reupholstered interior and an exterior respray, according to the listing.
The biggest impact on value for these svelte E9s is the presence of rust. I witnessed a car similar to this one sell for well under $30,000 due to buyers being spooked by the presence of rust. Mind you, the rust was absolutely meaningless compared to a truly rusty E9, but it’s such a slippery slope with these cars. Chances are, it already has rust in places you won’t see until it’s fully disassembled, so buying one like this that shows no signs of major corrosion, outside or in, is the way to go. Mechanically, their inline-six powerplant is quite stout, so you can roll the dice on a non-running car with a good body or you can simply pony up and buy one like this. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Scott for the find.
One of my favorites, for $60k I hope it has none of the rust problems these cars are notorious for.
Since it is advertised in BC, it’s really only 44K U.S. Not sure if that makes a big difference – I have no idea if that makes it a deal or not.
It looks fab! And at $60K Canadian it is attractive! But with no pictures of the underside, and being in BC’s climate, I’d agree that rust is likely pervasive.
Not 1 picture of the engine bay?
Bellissima! (because the German language doesn’t have a word that sounds that good).
Ausgezeichnet!
Wunderbar!!??🤣
The ORANGE interior is a major negative that really hurts the value. Not an OE color and if you’re going to spend a nice chunk of change on restoring the interior of an E9 it’s smart to stay with the factor colors. This car has been for sale for a while, it’s been on craigslist and it was a no sale over a month ago. As with real estate, if it’s been on the market a while and there are no bites then the price is too high. It’s also a “big bumper” car and these are not as sought after as earlier cars with smaller bumpers. Certainly a nice car, but the market on E9’s is soft right now and it takes a correct restoration to bring in big bucks. If the price really is $44k in US dollars it’s not price crazy, but the seller is a dealer and he’s a bit high on price IMHO.
A few years ago when at the Monterey Historic Races. I bumped into one of these beautiful cars and it’s owner. He was fun to talk to and was proud of the over 300,000 miles he had on the original engine and most of the other mechanicals. When I asked how many head gaskets he had replaced, he hung his head and said 4. Each time he had the head checked for flatness and once they had to make a,very slight cut. He then just decided to change the head gasket every other valve adjustment. And retorque the head at the other valve adjustment time. That way it wouldn’t fail him on the road somewhere. Very beautiful cars and very nice to drive. These cars and the “6” series cars are also hard on suspension and steering components. Even without all the new technology crap, still high maintenance.
I passed up a Baikal Blue ’73 for 11 grand back in the mid nineties..California car…still kicking myself because I was too cheap
One of the most beautiful cars ever made minus the FED bumpers on the ‘. .74 IMHO