Last week whilst driving to visit my extended family, I happen to come across a rare 1980s luxury, blasting down the motorway.
Now, I don’t usually weave like that while driving, but I wanted to get as best view as I can with the dash-cam:
License plate has this as a privately imported car, but the “00” at the end suggests it was imported in the early 1990s – hence, this is a remarkably well preserved example of what used to be a painfully expensive luxury sedan back in the day, in Israel. As you’d imagine, not many bought them because of their prices, so they were scarce when new, much less now.
I have to say, I’m still not used to those L shaped rear lights, more than thirty years after the E32’s introduction. But the BMW as a whole looks thoroughly modern compared to other road occupants – and certainly drives as well as any modern cars. At least this one does, as viewed in this movie.
I have no other photos of E32s in my possession. I never thought about these as classics so I never bothered to “archive” them, as it were. Time goes by faster than you (and I) think… So, I’ll include here a link to Brendan Saur’s CC article, plus a vintage road test from Road & Truck published here previously.
Pre-Bangled BMWs, always a favorite, should have stayed with the evolved Neu Klasse look. After 2002, They lost me.
Agreed. He took them from ‘distinct BMW’ to more of a ‘shocking but generic anycar’ look, and they haven’t found their way back home.
While the generation after this one is probably my favorite 7-series, this one marked a major change and really “modernized” the look of BMW’s. These were quite popular in the So Cal area I was living in at the time and I never got tired of seeing them. The wide rear hips and the tail with those L-shaped lights was really attractive as well as the front end with the way tho hood just “clips” the top of the headlights. Heck, I am nowadays even a fan of this particular color on this car! I had completely forgotten that these early ones still had the black door handles, I personally like all the black trim of this era, it sets off the rest of the car nicely.
I even enjoyed the soundtrack for this one, what was that, Sly and the Family Stone?
I never paid these much attention back in the day, but it really is a very clean, timeless design that has aged very well. Time will tell whether I look back at the BMW’s of today the same way in 25 years.
I never even noticed the black door handles either. It’s really something that BMW managed to pull that off, as black door handles that don’t match the body color is something I would expect to see on a low end economy car. But BMW did it to their 7-series and it totally works.
Thanks.
Yep, that’s Sly & the family alright. I started driving with classic Funk on Spotify, it’s good to drive with and the boy likes it…
Horrendously expensive here new but almost worthless now, I got offered one free it had electrical problems and wouldnt run, no thanks. BMW built some nice looking cars back in the day.
My uncle had one and gave up on it in disgust from the electrical issues. At the same time he bought his wife the car she wanted…a Lexus LS400, which was smoother, quieter, (I thought) roomier and more comfortable, and virtually (in fact, almost absolutely) trouble-free. What’s an Ultimate Driving Machine if it’s constantly in the shop instead of being driven?
Looked nice, though!
I remember whilst at high school in the mid 1980s a friend abd were taking about cars.
I mentioned something about BMW, and he said a wealthy uncle had a new or near new one at the time and he was constantly having electrical problems with it.
This was a shock to me as I considered myself to be fairly knowledgeable about cars and had made the erroneous assumption that BMWs were very similar to Mercedes at the time in bring quite bullet proof (although not cheap to buy or repair if something went wrong).
When I was bit older and begin checking out second hand cars, it was a education when experiencing the general tatiness (mechanical and fit and finish) of cars like the 2002tii and the 3.0Si, which at the time were not all that old.
Any half decent imported Japanese car of similar vintage that had a modicum of care imposed on it was almost always in better shape.
And I just remembered that a relative had a 733i circa 1982.. It suddenly disappeared, and he explsined that the previous owners must had driven it through salt water as it had begun to rust like crazy. They don’t put salt on the roads of Sydney, and this example was not a UK import.
He replaced it with a W126 which predictably he kept for quite a few years…
Thanks as always for your comments.
(:
If I wanted to pull the trigger on a Beemer and deal with the problems that came with it, the E32 7-Series would be it. While I would say that the E38 is perhaps the better looking car from a design perspective, there’s something about the classic E32 design details that always makes me think of BMW in a positive light. I’d make mine a 750il for the legroom and I’ve always wanted a V12 engine.
My dad had one of these in 90s as company car. His was 740, first V8 I have come across. Made his 60km commuting to work on empty morning roads very effective. It had some complex computer system and one of the function was speed alarm bell activated once passed set speed.
Only feature that BMW would benefit of, was posi traction or whatever they call it on option list, during winter driving. And better switch for high beams. It used push down/up switch and quite easily the headlights could be switched off completely, as it was common switch for all functions (off/low/high beam) – not good on twisty roads.
These are excellent cars. They feel comfortable and relaxed at 100+MPH and even the 3.5 liter sixes have enough gumption to move the cars at those speeds without much complaint. The problem with these cars is the electrical stuff ages poorly. Lead free solder cracks and you lose whole systems at once. They’re otherwise built like tanks. The E32, particularly with the M30, reminds me of the old inline-8 Packards.
Excellent, excellent cars when performing as they should but that wiring/electronics did not hold very well after a number of years. Even here in Austria, four hours away from the factory, they are practically extinct.
I had a 750il in the early 90s. Incredible combination of speed, comfort and elegance. Not a wasted line, turbine like power, all leather interior (power rear seats!), the first foreign car that I felt approached American luxury cars in features. It was a Town Car with the performance of a Porsche 928. The repair/maintenance bills were as amazing as the performance. Brakes and tires lasted 20-25,000 miles, 8 quarts of Mobil 1 every oil change, it got so that the service lights (three greens, one amber then RED) had me responding like Pavlov’s dog. Fortunately my company was doing high volumes and the service cost got absorbed. However, when the extended warranty expired, so did the car.
I recall when these were new, and I think they were the first cars to have rear park sensors fitted.