Re: BMW 3.0cs on Ebay (archive)

I flew out to CA from TX with the intent to buy this car a few months back. As I remember, the interior is nicely done vinyl. I had been told it was leather. When pressed the owner said, "Oh yeah, the previous owner had it reupholstered in vinyl." Why didn't he tell me that before I flew 2,000 miles to see it? I had specifically asked if it was the original leather.

Only the driver's side door window worked when I drove it. The rear seat window switches had been upholstered over and the rear seat side armrests were not attached. It's missing a carpet section in the rear, so it needs all new carpeting because you'll never match the faded carpet.

The paint is pretty good, and I didn't see any rust. The color had been changed, so when you really looked, you could tell. I was suspicious of the rocker panels that were crudely pop riveted on. There may be rust under there.

I ran a compression test on the engine, I don't recall the numbers but cylinders 1 through 5 were all within 1 or 2 PSI. On the 6th cylinder, oil and gunk from around the spark plug holes clogged my hose an I couldn't get a reading but it's probably the same at the others.

The car has a low speed stumble when you drive. May be std on california models of that vintage. The radio was non original and didn't work, the wood had been crudely revarnished an needed to be redone. There was a later model steering wheel, all four hubcaps were there, but they needed new roundels. The exhaust was complete, but old. No rust in the trunk.

The AC is there, but doesn't work. It could use a complete seat of weather-stripping, otherwise it's as loud as my Porsche 911SC Targa on the freway. Probably even louder because the exhaust may be louder than my SC.

The clutch and tranny worked well. The tranny had been replaced with a used one 10 years or so back.

In summary, it's really not a bad car, it's just not as good as I wanted. I think it would make a good starter car if you just wanted a fun driver. I don't need a concours car, but I needed a nicer one that this and, quite frankly I was pissed off that I flew out and so many things had not been answered honestly.

Regards,

Jerry Kroeger

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