Rare retro BMW similar to MK1 Jetta

1 May, 201016 yr

Up for sale is my beloved E21!

1982 316 1.8 petrol. 87,000 miles loads of history. Have got all mot’s to prove mileage.

Don’t really want to sell it, I bought it a couple of months ago as a classic run around for the summer. But my girlfriend doesn’t like it! it’s a bit too retro for her liking and she cant get on with the lack of power steering and auto gearbox. So its up for sale so I can get something a little more modern. :-(

The car is exceptionally clean for its age and has been well looked after. Body work is nearly immaculate with only a handful of tiny scratches. The car has very minimal surface rust, a thin strip on the edge of the sunroof where I think someone’s polished through the paint and a five pence piece size just under the bumper on the passenger side rear quarter. The inside of the boot is immaculate and underneath the tail lights is perfect, both common rot spots. Car comes with original jack and spare wheel. Underneath the car is completely solid.

The engine runs sweet and is really responsive I was really surprised the first time I drove it. The auto box changes smoothly and the kick down works as it should.

It’s little lumpy when starting on cold mornings but hold the throttle for literally a few seconds and the idle smoothes out when its warmed up a bit. I had been using it for the short drive to work, half five every morning through all that snow we had and it never failed me! Could do with a service as it hasn’t had one for around a year. New set of points and plugs and that should sort the idle from cold. It drives really nice for an old car, feels really solid and stable, even at motorway speeds. I drove it back from Leeds when I bought it which is a 150 mile trip for me and it was rush hour, it felt really safe and at home on the motorway, it never missed a beat.

The brakes are extremely good, stops no problem and doesn’t pull to one side. All tyres have loads of tread left.

The interior is clean and straight, the driver seat has the usual bolster wear and for some reason someone’s removed the headrests?? I quite like the low back seat look, makes it more oldskool but it would’ve been nice to have the choice. These could easily be sourced from one of the forums or ebay. The car comes with fake black leather seat covers that fit really well and match the black vinyl door cards and dash. They’re just not to my taste so I took them off, I would rather see bolster wear than have seat covers. Just my opinion.

All electrics on it work perfectly, pretty amazing for a 28 year old car! Car comes with electric door mirrors as standard. Still has what I think is the original radio in it. Its an old 80’s pioneer, works fine and is pretty retro-cool, also come with the manual! I have the original owners handbook for the car.

Overall this is one of the best examples of an e21 I’ve seen, it needs a couple of things to make perfect but what classic doesn’t? if I was keeping it I would give it a full service, two headrests and a new centre section and it would be near perfect!

The Mot and tax run out 31st may 2010, I’ve had a good look round the car and genuinely cant see any reason why it wont sail through its next mot.

These are getting really rare now and will only go up in value if looked after. Since owning this car I’m yet to see another one on the road. I drive over 1000 miles each week and haven’t seen one!! Normally when you buy a car you start seeing them everywhere!!

You may have read on other adverts on the web that the manifold was blowing and the exhaust rattling, these have both been sorted now with a new manifold gasket and one of the mounts needed tightening.