Quentin Willson
on shrewd BMW, MG and VW buying opportunities
Historics’ July sale fielded not one but two ’74 BMW ’02 Baur cabriolets, both in identical and very desirable Golf Yellow but both in vastly different states of preservation. Comparing this rare pair of factory-sanctioned convertibles offered a special insight into buying only the best you can and not falling for a project example that will very probably end up costing significantly more than the immaculate car you thought you couldn’t afford in the first place.
Let me explain the logic – the project ’02 needed everything, was a stock Baur 2002 – one of only 354 right-handdrive cars – and it sold on the day for £7952. Which, on the face of it looked like a cheap entry into the exclusive BMW ’02 Baur club. Until you looked at the other example, that was.
This was a much rarer right-hand-drive, fuel-injected tii version – one of only 93 made – very possibly a special order and the second facelifted Square Light car off the line in ’74. It needed nothing, looked stupendous, had done a modest 50,000 miles and came with recent bills for £12,310. The hammer fell at £23,772. This was an absolute and very rare bargain, doubly so when you factored in that thick sheaf of invoices.
Restoring the project ’02 properly could easily relieve the new owner of anything between £50k and £70k to bring it to near comparable condition, yet it still wouldn’t be the ultra-rare and desirable tii model.
Professional work on the body, paint, trim, mechanics and soft top would bring the total bill for purchase and restoration to at least around £60k – or nearly three times the cost of the £23k immaculate fuel-injected car, not including the time and opportunity cost of all the inevitable restoration running about. Seeing the choice that two different buyers were faced with illustrates how you really must know both your values and your restoration costs before buying. The tii Baur was sensationally cheap while the project ’02 wasn’t, in my humble opinion, even financially viable at seven grand. Forgive me for sounding hard-hearted and unemotional about it but I don’t think anybody wants a classic that ends up standing them at three times its achievable market value. That unhappy situation does nobody any favours at all.
‘This illustrates how you must know both your values and your restoration costs’