1974 3.0 CS - questions

[D Calkins]

Good morning, everyone,

I have two question on this car:

1) The odometer reads 42,184 but there is a comment about 142K miles. Where did the extra 100k come from?
2) smoke, is this from oil or coolant? It doesn't seem excessive to me, but I come from an air-cooled background. I would hate to have to replace the head.

1974 BMW 3.0CS

Bid for the chance to own a 1974 BMW 3.0CS at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #242,419.

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Thanks for your input

David

 

[HB Chris]

Five digit odometer, not many could ever claim that low of mileage

 

[D Calkins]

I have tried doing a vin search but found nothing

 

[e9Leveque]

To @HB Chris comment, we are all assuming a rollover of the odometer, but likewise assuming that it's 142K and not 242K or beyond. While the real answer is therefore that these cars are true mileage unknown unless you have service records, be aware that if you are purchasing the car using a loan, many standard car loan companies will not want to provide a loan for a car with more than 100K miles. I ran into this with my car when I wanted to get a very low-interest rate through PenFed. On the phone with the agent when she asked the mileage I said "the odometer shows 24,000 km". She responded "wow, that's low mileage for a 50-year-old car". I should have just said "yep", but instead opened my big mouth and said "well, that's probably actually 124000 km" which meant the request got flagged and denied. Even when I tried to explain that 124K km is less than 100k miles, no dice. So use that 5-digit rather than 6-digit reading to your advantage if needed.

 

[boonies]

Odometer answered above.

The smoke in one of the posted videos looked black to me, so I am thinking it is an issue with carburetor or ignition misfires (although I don’t hear it on the under-hood video). Also possible, if oil related as another of the videos that showed driving in the parking lot showed more smoke, that the valve seals may have perished since the head was last off in 2009.

Nothing I saw in the videos would cause me to turn away as this one has the auto trans that you are looking for.

I did not study the pictures, and always recommend that you have a PPI by someone who knows these cars.