The BMW 2002 is another one of those cars that CC had covered extensively since the beginning. Just look at the list of related posts I tagged on to the end of this one: at least 15 distinct entries, including two penned by yours truly, as well as several period reviews. It would take a pretty special find to add to this body of work. Hope this tall glass of OJ will be up to the task.
See, if it had been a rarity, like a Touring hatchback or a Baur drop-top, the question would not even have arisen. But this was a plain late model 2002. The kind of car you wouldn’t notice at a local classic meet. But then I didn’t find this at the local Cars and Green Tea, I just discovered it sitting pretty, and pretty much alone, out in a public car park on a fine June morning.
Fine June mornings are a rarity in their own right in Japan – it’s a rainy time of year, usually. So that was already an auspicious sign.
But then, bathed in sunlight and sticking out like a vintage bright orange sore thumb among a sea of mundane 21st Century white and black appliance-like fingers. OK, not a great metaphor, but you get what I’m saying: that BMW was a sight!
It was impossible not to photograph this thing from all possible angles (except straight from the rear, as there was a pole in the way). It looked like it just came off the Dingolfing factory lot.
I’m more partial to the pre-1974 round taillamp / chrome grille version of the -02, but there was no getting around the fact that this was one of the most gorgeous Bimmers I had ever seen in Japan. The period-perfect colour helped a lot.
The fact that this particular car looked completely stock, at least externally, was also a huge plus point. The temptation to turn these into Turbo lookalikes or to drop the suspension and put on modern rims and low-profile tyres was mercifully resisted.
I have no idea whether this car was sold here when new, or sourced in Germany and shipped over more recently, but it’s certainly not a botox-bumper US model. Another blessing…
The owner even resisted the temptation to put a sexier steering wheel. Hats off to that!
The upholstery is not exactly original, if a nit must be picked. A rather minor blemish to an otherwise meticulous restoration.
The only issue with covering a model that’s been written up many times over, aside from the photos, is to figure out what might be left to write about it. All the technical and historical background has been gone into extensively in prior posts, so there’s practically no meat left on those bones.
How about a little marrow, then? When doing a bit of research on the Neue Klasse, I found this photo of an early prototype without the famous kidney grille motif. I was not aware of this before now; it’s different and I kind of like it!
But let’s be real: the BMW grille, though it has gone through a lot of changes since it first graced the front end of the carmaker’s wares in the early ‘30s, is an iconic design feature that few Bimmers could reasonably do without, especially front-engined ones. They were right to slap it back on the Neue Klasse saloons.
According to some sources, the true paternity of the Neue Klasse and their related -02 cousins was Giovanni Michelotti, with some assistance from the famous Wilhelm “Kinky” Hofmeister. But as noted by our Editor in one of his seminal posts (really, do go and read it), some important aspects of the BMW’s design can be attributed to the Chevrolet Corvair.
The key Corvair features are there in that chromed beltline that goes around the entire body, the clean flanks, as well as the airy and upright glasshouse. But the genius of Michelotti lay in what went under that beltline in the front. The shark-like trapezoidal profile was to influence BMW designs for over two decades. I always liked how the turn signals were tucked on the edges of the fenders, too. Neat and clever.
Regardless, by 1975 the -02’s early ’60s-infused design must have looked rather dated. It was still pretty brisk (0-60mph in 11 seconds – not too shabby for a 100hp car shaped more or less like a brick), remained very well put together and was fairly roomy, both cabin- and boot-wise, for its class.
These came at a price. In the US, that would have been about $5000 in 1975 – our feature car has a few optional extras, such as a radio, A/C and alloys, so it could even be a little more than that. You could buy a Dodge Charger SE for that kind of money, though I doubt many people cross-shopped that and the 2002…
I could not find the 1975 Japanese MRSP for the 2002, but it must have been quite a fistful of Yen. Nowadays, there are a lot of BMWs in the streets here, but back in the mid-‘70s, things were probably different. And a lot more orange.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1972 BMW 2002 Tii – Fifty Years Of Unbeatable Success, by PN
Curbside Classic: 1973 BMW 2002tii – In Need Of Rescue, by Perry Shoar
Curbside Classic: 1976 BMW 2002 – The Ultimate Big-Bumpered Driving Machine, by Tom Klockau
CC Twofer: 1974 BMW 2002 Automatic & 1970 BMW 2002 Ti – Right In The Kidneys, by T87
CC Capsule: BMW 2002 – Why Would You Use A Vintage BMW For A Home Depot Run?, by Jim Grey
CC Capsule: 1972 BMW 2002 Tii – Simplii Extraordinarii, by T87
CC For Sale: 1973 BMW 2002 tii – Beautiful, But Beware!, by Tom Klockau
Vintage Review: 1968 BMW 2002 – Car and Driver’s David E. Davis Picks Favorites, by GN
Road & Track Tested in Europe: 1974 BMW 2002 Turbo – “Watch Out!”, by PN
Vintage Review: BMW 1600 & 2002, by Yohai71
Neighborhood Outtake: BMW 2002 – Evergreen, by PN
Curbside Outtake: 1972 BMW 2002 – A Study in Grüne, by Ed Stembridge
Curbside Outtake: 1971-73 BMW 2002 tii – These Happy Golden Years, by Ed Stembridge
Curbside Outtake: 1975 BMW 2002 – Exactly Like The One Stephanie’s Mom Had, by PN
Cohort Sighting: BMW 2000-02 Touring – The Hatchback Version (and Cabrio) Never Sold In The US
, by PN
COAL: 1974 BMW 2002 – Rust-Bucket Resurrected, by Matt Spencer
COAL: 1976 BMW 2002 – My Real Impulse Buy, by Sam
2002’s usually aren’t my jam, but I must comment on the color of this one… Phenomenal!
I’m pretty sure you’ve been asked this before, but my brain isn’t remembering- What is the purpose of that pop-up device that’s deployed under this car? I’ve seen that under a number of the vehicles you’ve featured here, but have never encountered one in real life.
Yes, that seems to perplex a lot of CCommentors.
It’s a pay-as-you-go parking space. You park your car, the flap goes up automatically. This secures the car, but also traps it. You have to pay to get the flap down and retrieve the car.
Similar systems exist for bikes and motorcycles, too.
Ah. That’s sorta what I was thinking, but it wasn’t quite adding up. It looks like it wouldn’t be too hard to defeat if you had a vehicle with a little more ground clearance.
Thanks for the confirmation.
Wow – kind of like an “exit fare” on some public transportation systems, like Washington DC’s Metro.
Agree with T.A. Cowan that the color of this 2002 is great.
That prototype front end is very like the revised Triumph ‘Ajax’ (Toledo/1500/Dolomite); a distinct Michelotti look to it.
Honda 1300 sedan, Morris Marina……
Gorgeous in orange! Is that the factory shade of Inka? My favorite color for the later models – so period correct! Would still love to have another one of these someday, what a lovely greenhouse.
I think the logic behind the prototype’s front treatment is that each grille half, incorporating the headlights, is a “kidney” in itself. Much better resolved imo than using the kidneys as a tacked-on element that disrupts the front styling as they did for decades from the Neue Klasse until the early ’90s. The downside is that they’d have been accused of copying Pontiac. With that no longer an issue, BMW should consider incorporating the headlights in wider rather than deeper kidneys in their current line, which would be more attractive than the beaver tooth/Punisher skull look they seem to be going for.
The other thing I notice is that prototype doesn’t seem to have any turn signals at all. The production car’s always struck me as facing the wrong way, as in the primary mass of their length “should” be facing forward with a very slight wrapover to the side rather than the other way around.
The front turn signal incorporates the side marker light—clever.
This car doesn’t have side marker lights. US-spec cars had a second, smaller bulb behind the turn signal bulb, to provide the side marker light function.
Agreed about the prortotypes grille, looks way better than what they actually produced, integrated instead of being tacked on. Imagine how much better all subsequent bimmers would have looked had they followed this design language instead of the one they did.
Perhaps they were planning (or failing to plan) to wind up with a Volvo 164-type setup!
The production front turn signals on the 2002 are lousy. Too small, too dim, and with an insufficient viewing angle inboard of straight-ahead. The US-spec setup is somewhat better, with its enlarged lenses to provide more frontal area.
What a nice car. My dad had a US ’74 tii, and I remember washing and waxing it with him. Apart from bumpers, grill, and taillights, one other difference was that the front turn signals were no longer flush with the body but protruded out to line up with the chrome belt line. I wonder if that was a US-specific thing?
Yes; see just above.
The small bumpers and the lack of rear fender marker lights really cleans things up. The telltale that this is a very carefully maintained car is the wheels. They are very clean, and the exposed edges of the steel rims, outboard of the bead where the rubber meets the steel, are detailed and in perfect shape. No scuffs, dirt lodged in hard-to-get-at places, and no evidence of old wheel weights or other things going on.
The US type rear licence plate lighting and the rear reflectors suggest it was a JDM model from birth. LHD was considered prestiges on imports including British cars!.
Great colour compared tp the sea of white,grey and black cars of today.
Yep, those round rear reflectors are a Japan-market indicium, as described here. The car also has an interesting mix of European-type front turn signals and US-type headlamp fixtures filled with 7″ round Cibié left-traffic H4 headlamps.
This post takes me back to the 70s. My grandmother had this exact car, although she had the tii model. I went to visit her in Germany one summer. Driving to my grandmother’s home from the airport in Frankfurt, she nailed it on the autobahn. This was the first time I remember riding in a car going over 100 mph.
I need to find some good info on just how exactly the Neue Klasse design evolved, from Michelotti’s initial proposals to the final version. Did Michelotti do more than submit the initial concepts he drew, or was that the extent of it? I’ve yet to read a good description of that process.
This is a fine example, but yes, that upholstery is far from stock, especially the way the rear seat is bolstered.
Beautiful car. Excellent photos.
“our feature car has a few optional extras, such as a radio, A/C and alloys”
The feature car has silver-painted steel wheels
Note the car is precisely positioned to maximize door opening space both for it (left side) and the adjacent car (right side), assuming the adjacent car is a typical RHD JDM car.
No apologies needed for another 2002 post when it’s this gorgeous colour. You can post an orange anything, anytime! 🙂
Love the ‘2002’ worked into the rear seat upholstery. I’m assuming that’s not original, but how cool!
1st car Ever owned, I was 17 growing up in southwest Iowa. 1975 jade green 2002 BMW
Nice example, rare model here and from the era of good looking BMWs sadly that only lasted a couple more generations.
Interesting video – Misha Charoudin taking an electrified 2002 (Tesla motor, BMW i3 battery) around the Nurburgring. He seems to feel it retains some of its original essence.
The conversion was done by a guy who worked for BMW for some years – clearly done thoughtfully.