Myth Busting Euros - Revcounter 461
Some days you should ignore the legends
You may recall that a few issues back (456) we did a giant Euro car values guide – one of our annual party pieces. And in that mag we had a deep dive into BMW E30 series. We had a bit of everything: M3, an uber-rare 333, an Alpina special, essentially a herd of assorted hot models through to a base unit.
The sheer size of the fleet – seven cars – meant we had every staffer we could lay our hands on out there helping shuffle cars around for the shoot. Actually, we only have two full-time staff, so there’s a fair bit of smoke and mirrors going on. But I digress...
Back to the cars. Higgo and I were discussing this the other day and we had quite seperately come to same conclusion about the sweetest drive out of the pack. No, it wasn’t one of the horsepower hounds, but the comparitively humble 318iS. This was a late car in the E30 series and was a manual.
While some of the others were seriously quick cars, the humble 318, which might normally be overlooked in this company, was just a nicely-balanced gem that provided loads of feedback and still had enough go to make it interesting.
Our guest driver for the day, young Clive Massel, summed it up this way: "It isn’t particularly fast, but they’re a beautifully-balanced car to drive. It’s only an 1800, but its little twin-cam four offers plenty of torque. You can drive it in third in traffic and, when you get it on full song, it has that beautiful sound between 4000 and 6000rpm.
"The driving position, the braking and the handling all work. BMW’s marketing slogan at the time was ‘sheer driving pleasure’, and that’s exactly what it is." Yep.
So there’s one myth busted: Bigger and more powerful is better. One drive was enough to leave that theory in tatters.
Another is that Euro cars have to be expensive, if not to buy then certainly to maintain. Well, owners of very tidy-looking late E30 318s are asking up to high twenties.
There are currently four Euro cars in our shed – three of them BMWs – and I have to say they’ve been relatively little grief. With one big proviso: That you keep up the maintenance.
Here’s the thing, that 318 is no more complex than a Ford or Holden of the period. It’s before the era of mind-boggling electronics, while the engineering is actually very conventional, so really any competent mechanic can look after it.
There can be the odd occasion when a Euro car bite you on the wallet, but it’s surprisngly rare.
Without doubt my favourite example of misconceptions and myths working in your favour is the Benz land yacht currently filling one of our sheds. It’s a 1989 300SEL, so the long-wheelbase S-class. We bought it two years ago for $8000 and have since used it as our primary long-distance car because it’s ridiculously comfortable.
So far, all it’s needed is normal oil changes and the like, oh, and a new muffler that was readily available out of the USA. It’s a fabulous myth-buster. Have you got one?
From Unique Cars #461, Jan 2022
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