In Germany, where Good Friday is called Karfreitag, there is a tradition at the Nürburgring to open the season for Touristenfahrten (the public driving sessions) on the Friday before Easter, that is, on Car-Friday. But Karfreitag is also a public holiday in Germany and with nothing to do but stay home I went to the hardware store the day before to stock up on supplies and get a head start on all those home improvement projects my wife has been nagging me about. And boy was I in for a nice surprise when I parked my old Toyota in the hardware store’s parking garage, located on the junction of two major subway lines. The hardware store’s architects had clearly misjudged the need for parking, which left a lot of free space. Space that was rented out to the classic car community!
The market for RWD VWs has become superhot in Germany (and elsewhere). I have lost count on all the T3s in my neighborhood by now. The T2 though is fairly rare here. Even more interesting though to me is the Citroen BX in the background. The Bertone design was turned down by both Reliant and Volvo.
Speaking of Volvo: This 145 is the only one on the streets of Berlin that I know of. It’s hard to believe this design has been around for 54 years. By the end of last century Volvo was still building the basic beautiful versatile brick, even though in the first gen V70 (and 850) it had changed to FWD. I never really cared for any of the less boxy Volvos that came after. Do you?
The only thing this E34 has in common with the 145 is chrome in the wrong places…Still it is a beautiful design, only surpassed by the E32 in my opinion. Judging from the mirrors it should be a post facelift car with the M50 engine. Question to you buffs from the States: Was the 525i with the M20 engine sold there alongside the 535i in the US market? I can’t seem to get any info on that.
This is a very nice choice of vanity plates, don’t you think? The R129 to me is one of the weirdest designs ever. While clearly not elegant, it is also not aging at all. I can’t help but think this is a W140 that some giant sat on for too long. The W126 seems to have French lights!
French yellow seems to be a theme down here though…The left S123 is in much better shape and I would guess the right one is a donor car, by the sheer level of theft protections, even though both are on valid plates (for now, as they won’t be much longer if that fluid keeps a-drippin’… no passing the German bi-yearly inspection if your car loses so much as a drop of oil!!!)
Here is a strange one though: The right one is a US market car AND has yellow French lights. Whaddayasay? This wagon travelled Stuttgart – US – French – Berlin?!
Both cars are 3 litre I-5 turbodiesels, a hugely popular choice of engine in the US at the time, so I read. Less so in Germany, where most people went for the 2.3 litre gas engine or the smaller diesels. My best friend’s parents from grade school drove one and this was my first experience with turbo-lag. In German, turbo-lag is called “Turboloch” – turbo-hole. And boy was it an apt description for this car. No wonder Mercedes only equipped these with the 4-speed auto. It would rev to like 2500 rpm, then release, and the big ship would start to move. In traffic, you had to floor it, then nothing happened for two to three seconds, then a surge of power. Driven at a steady 100 mph it still got around 17 mpg – not bad for its day.
Ford was present as well, with a 2 litre Capri in fairly nice shape.
And the classic German taxi cab from half a century ago – however, in a very nice color.
One of the rarer sights in Berlin’s current RV craze: A Bedford CF, or Opel Bedford Blitz as they were marketed in Germany. Probably not wearing original paint….
To finish off, two veiled beauties to guess. Should not be too hard for the CCommunity….
I was about to pull the curtain on this one when I realized I was under video surveillance. Would probably have been worth it, though!
Happy Easter to all of you (during difficult times when the best thing you can do is write and read about cars it seems)…. !
I really like that Capri – seems that we see the original Capri and the V6 later models semi-regularly, albeit still rarely but almost never one like this, just a mid level one from around the middle of the run.
And yes, the US did get the E34 BMW 525i with a straight six in both sedan and wagon forms, although I’m not up on my BMW engine codes if that was the main part of your question.
I could certainly be tempted by an R129, the shape interests me as well and is aging nicely. There’s a good choice in powerplants as well while still being mostly user-serviceable.
For 1989-90, the US-market 525i used the M20 engine, and then began using an M50 engine (confusingly of the same 2.5-liter displacement).
A 525i with a manual transmission would probably have been my favorite BMW of the era — roomy, comfortably and quick but not as much of a show-off as the 535i. I have no idea what the ratio of US sales were regarding the 525/535.
Below is a 1990 US-market 5-series brochure with a 525i on the cover (and the original salesman’s business card attached, from a multi-line European-car dealership in Gainesville, Florida):
Thanks for the info- and the beautiful brochure!!
525i to 535i ratio would be really really interesting to know !
Judging from the mirrors it should be a post facelift car with the M50 engine Since it’s a 535i, it would have had the old classic M30, right? The M50 didn’t go up to 3.5 L.
Since the 525i wasn’t available in the US for the first 2 years (IIRC), the 535i was more commonly seen overall. But the 525i sold fairly well, once it was introduced. Maybe 50/50?
The badge reads 525i, though.
True that! I didn’t expand the picture on my small device and it looked like a 535 initially.
I think I’d rather have a 145 with fuel injection and dash cluster woes, than a perfectly running 145 with those wheels and tires. But variety is the spice of life, and every car has a story.
That tintop Syncro looks ready for some serious adventures!
It’s also leaking oil probably from the rear main seal. To fix that leak, you’d have to drop the engine. Much easier to just slide the cardboard under there and let it leak.
B-ES 8847 has the original US-market lighting. The outer lights are (or were originally) fully compliant single sealed beam headlights, the inner yellow-bulbed ones were foglights or “driving lights” of some sort, I remember seeing both clear and amber variations back in the day, it must’ve been a running change at some point.
Came to say the same thing. I believe the yellow fog lights were 77-79, switched to clear for 1980+
That Volvo 145 wagon with the whitewalls and fake wire wheel caps is downright scary. Who would do that? It’s the last car in the world that one would expect that. Maybe that’s the point, done in irony?
Would look perfect on a 262C though 🙂
Creative trailer hitch cover on the white T3 bus !, noticeable when you expand photo.
The covered cars look to me like a Citroen DS and an Alfa Giulia.
Agreed. And two of my all time favourite cars.