Which BMW should I fix?

[Emm]

I need a car for around town but I only have $2000 to spend. I have two cars that need work but I don’t know which one would be the best to put money into.

My favorite car is a little 1975 BMW with 49,000 miles on it. I found it sitting in the sun in Phoenix, the interior was completely rotted and it needed a new paint job. The engine is in great condition, we can drive it. I got it painted, I have new seats but it needs to be put together, windows need to be put back on, the dashboard is pretty much non existent, etc. I have a lot of new parts just sitting around.

My second car is a 1987 BMW 325, with 250,000 miles on it. It needs a new paint job and I’ve been told it is going to need a new differential sometime in the future. It has been well taken care of and needs things like new window switches and door handles. I think I could spend $2000 on getting things fixed now and then get the differential fixed later on in the year.

So which would be the better choice? Someone gave me a price of over $6000 to put my 1975 car back together.

Topic

[Vic Sorlie]

If you need a daily driver I’d go with the ’87 325. From your post it sounds like the ’75 2002 is a restoration project. A good book recently out is Rob Siegel’s Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic. He wrote a monthly column for BMW Car Club, and has owned/restored dozens of 2002s.

[Author]

Replies