There’s a lot of déjà vu in looking at this low-mileage 1969 BMW 2002 for sale on Facebook Marketplace in Anaheim, California. I owned several just like it, back in the late 1970s when $500 bought fairly decent examples. I paid $100 for one fairly tidy ’69 2002 with a blown differential. Remember, the 2002 was initially seen as an economy car. And when they started rusting, nobody wanted them. The cult came later.

The asking price of $25,000 is based on the car’s Achilles Heel—an automatic transmission. There are just 63,029 miles on this 2002, and they look to have been fairly easy on the car—which looks very original and rust-free.

The owner tells us the BMW’s title is clear, and that it has its original engine and interior. It’s resplendent in beige with very nice brownish-tan seating.  “A true survivor!” The car has the manual sunroof that was offered on these early cars. A chrome handle winds it out. They can leak, but this one doesn’t show signs of that. In fact, there’s nothing that needs to be done immediately with this car. Maybe wash it. Some folks even like the automatic.

This car is from near the start of 2002 production. The genesis is like this: BMW was known for oddities like the Isetta microcar and Glas GT, plus luxury models like the 503 in the 1950s. The company had built the V-8-powered 507 sports model, one of the most beautiful cars ever built, but it was too expensive to sell well. Elvis had one when he was stationed in Germany. The 1600/2002 was the company’s first big hit.

The somewhat ungainly Neu Klasse sedans entered production in 1962, powered by a 1.5-liter version of the single-overhead-cam four-cylinder engine that would be code-named M10. The prettier 2000C and 2000CS coupes got Italian styling and two-liter versions of the engine when they appeared in 1965.

The smaller, lighter, and cheaper 1.6-liter 1602 (sold in the U.S. as the 1600) was first shown at the Geneva Auto Salon in 1966. It’s the car that became the 2002 after a pair of BMW executives shoehorned two-liter versions of the M10 into their 1602s.

Their case was persuasive, and the 2002 (named for the displacement, not the year) went into production in 1968 and stayed around until 1975, when it was replaced by the E21. The square taillights that nobody likes these days were introduced for the 1974 model, which had many other updates.

There were Ti twin-carburetor versions of the 2002, and the Tii with Kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection. A very rare Turbo, too. In total, nearly 400,000 2002s were built.

The average sale for a 2002 today is $32,671, Classic.com reports. Considering how nice this one is, it’s being docked for the automatic transmission. Aardvarc Racing sells a kit to convert your automatic 2002 to a five-speed Getrag 245. It comes with everything you need (but not the transmission itself) for $1,395. So this could get spendy if the trans needs a rebuild. But the resulting car would go like stink, and this example here is certainly ripe for such a conversion. Thanks to Gunter Kramer for this find.