BaT: No Reserve: 1974 BMW 3.0CS Auto trans (NMNA)

[boonies]

Another one on the market…

No Reserve: 1974 BMW 3.0CS

Bid for the chance to own a No Reserve: 1974 BMW 3.0CS at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #55,083.

bringatrailer.com

 

[Dick Steinkamp]

I wonder of BaT has stopped accepting E9s with a reserve. 9 out of the last 12 were RNM. Tough for BaT to make money with that kind of sell through rate.

 

[JMinPDX]

I’m always partial to unmolested originality. This car seems to have it. Unfortunately the “Thixo-Tex Rust Stopper” treatment rust through guarantee expired in 1979.

 

[Erik]

Never seen the Thixo-Tex before, but any rust-proofing would be a good thing.

Seems like a survivor-driver for the Mid-West. Decent wood, seats and interior overall.

Has anyone ever seen a '74 fjord bmw that had original, "okay" paint? Not me.

Has obvious rust, but how much more may not matter if you just want to drive it.

Early tool box looks pretty complete, - but does it have a rear sway bar?

 

[m5toureg]

Oh, oh, picture #4 alone says it all to me…… it seems to drive nicely but I
would strongly recommend to ,never’ open both doors all the way
at any time….. (to me) this is a typical ,project‘ car for many year to come
for a handy enthusiast with the right space, tools and patience or alternatively
pay a HUGE down payment to one of the expert shops, to bring back some
stability into the frame structure of this car.
I guess I can expect another (to me) shocking surprise how much ,good money’
someone is prepared to pay/invest for such a demanding (project) car.
-
Let me down easy. My opinion only >> and I will try NOT to place any comments
in the BaT auction.

 

[Michael Kaye]

Oh, oh, picture #4 alone says it all to me…… it seems to drive nicely but I
would strongly recommend to ,never’ open both doors all the way
at any time….. (to me) this is a typical ,project‘ car for many year to come
for a handy enthusiast with the right space, tools and patience or alternatively
pay a HUGE down payment to one of the expert shops, to bring back some
stability into the frame structure of this car.
I guess I can expect another (to me) shocking surprise how much ,good money’
someone is prepared to pay/invest for such a demanding (project) car.
-
Let me down easy. My opinion only >> and I will try NOT to place any comments
in the BaT auction.

Absolutely agree. I'm shocked to see someone posted a comment that the 'for an unrestored driver, it seems to be in great shape'. Not sure how they worked that out. wow.

 

[Wes]

I'm seeing lots of surface rust and general work to do but the rest is just conjecture unless we see the car without sill covers and inside the fenders etc.
Can remember a CSL a couple of people told me to walk away from because you could see rust all over the place. 95% of it turned out to be just red dirt on white paint. The point is until you pictures of the known problems or stick your head in there who knows.

 

[Markos]

I'm seeing lots of surface rust and general work to do but the rest is just conjecture unless we see the car without sill covers and inside the fenders etc.
Can remember a CSL a couple of people told me to walk away from because you could see rust all over the place. 95% of it turned out to be just red dirt on white paint. The point is until you pictures of the known problems or stick your head in there who knows.

Same here. I was told to walk away from my car. It looked very rusty. After I washed it off I saw that it was, well very rusty.

Really though, this car looks like a seemingly original driver with a cheap respray. From what little pics we have I find nothing alarming.

 

[dave v. in nc]

This looks like one that the original owner probably thought he/she did everything to take the best of care...drove it sparingly in the elements (Ohio) in the good times of the year, parked it in the winter, washed it often, garaged it every night, but anyone who has lived in the rust belt knows, it's still the rust belt. If it hadn't had that rust stopper stuff, my guess is this discussion would be different. Exterior rubber looks good, upholstery looks great, even the carpet looks good on the driver's side. Look carefully at the wood...almost no UV bleach, no delamination...says the car never leaked, and was probably parked on lousy days. And the good doctor (I sound like Arde...) drove the family Jeep Wagoneer on those days. When the fenders fell off of it, they bought another one. I think this is a good example of how delicate our Karmann coupes are. And how poor early clearcoat and bmw metallic paint was then....I think its original with some rattlecan touch-up underneath, in the engine bay, etc. by the seller perhaps. Probably some flat black where the sun doesn't shine. Survivor or project?...Probably a bit of both.

 

[Drew Gregg]

Did the 1974 model come with a black 5/10 slat front kidney grill?

 

[Eric V]

Did the 1974 model come with a black 5/10 slat front kidney grill?

Yes. Here’s mine just a few VIN’s away.

 

[HB Chris]

Drew, I believe they were all silver but back then you could buy a black five slat kidney up through the 80s then it went NLA. Some very late 74 and 75 coupes in Europe got the four slat black plastic kidney intended for the 74 e3.

 

[m5toureg]

No Reserve: 1974 BMW 3.0CS

Bid for the chance to own a No Reserve: 1974 BMW 3.0CS at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #55,083.

bringatrailer.com

-
SOLD FOR $40,200 ON 9/12/21
= I simply don’t get it, should I feel sorry for the buyer…..?

 

[HB Chris]

Don’t feel sorry for the buyer, it’s Paul Cain! He loves Fjord so I guess it was inevitable that he would find another one to put his signature on.

 

[HonaloochieBoogie]

Don’t feel sorry for the buyer, it’s Paul Cain! He loves Fjord so I guess it was inevitable that he would find another one to put his signature on.

Can’t wait to see what he makes of it.

 

[teahead]

Car what I can see is not scary.

Sheer lack of pictures of critical areas (whole underside and trunk are missing) is what's scary.

But if that all looks good, don't think $40k is too bad.

Add $10k for bumpers and 5 spd however.

Minor compared to rust repair

 

[Markos]

No Reserve: 1974 BMW 3.0CS

Bid for the chance to own a No Reserve: 1974 BMW 3.0CS at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #55,083.

bringatrailer.com

-
SOLD FOR $40,200 ON 9/12/21
= I simply don’t get it, should I feel sorry for the buyer…..?

I don’t get what you don’t get. Should people stop buying e9’s? When does the “existing e9 owner shocked at market values” become cliche? I’ve been reading the same sentiment on here for 6 years now…

 

[m5toureg]

I don’t get what you don’t get. Should people stop buying e9’s? When does the “existing e9 owner shocked at market values” become cliche? I’ve been reading the same sentiment on here for 6 years now…

@Markos - it is a free world, so = in the end, so what…..should I care….??
= to answer your question > what I do NOT get is that (lately?) good money is thrown at ,what in many
cases would appear’ to be a VERY demanding (cash and skill) ,project’.
Market values and related comments during the times and years > comments made by people
are always placed, based on personal experience, E9 ownership and various back grounds (location,
society child etc.)
I have seen a LOT during my 38 years of E9 ownership and I do understand that people have
different attitudes towards cars in general and the BMW E9 specifically.
Good money invested into good cars, I get. How much, is always a personal choice.
So is = good money for a wreck resp. questionable project = but THAT is what I do not get….
-
…..then there is the old say
””Lot’s of people talking, few of them know”” (Dazed and confused / Led Zeppelin)
= meaning, I understand that ,many‘ of the bidders on BaT simply are out and ,fishing’,
not knowing what they get themselves into…..
-
@Markos - nothing personal, of course, take care !! I know, that you know !!

 

[Markos]

Well no matter what your opinion is on e9’s, you won’t offend me @m5toureg.

I don’t see anything alarming about the coupe that was listed, and neither did the extremely knowledgeable buyer.

I see two patterns:

1. Forum members having elevated concern on otherwise respectable starter projects. Maybe it is a 1974 thing but we saw it with this car purchased by resident expert @paul cain and the mintgrun purchased by @halboyles. Surface rust and structural rust two different animals. You can have one without the other, and many of the “nice” cars on BaT still have structural rust.

2. The market is steadily going up. What does $40K buy you? Not much. You can spend $40K on a polished turd, or drop that money on a seemingly original car with seemingly good bones. I guess the simple question is, what is the alternative? Why do people buy stock that is priced 3X higher than the previous year? Why don’t they wait for it to go down, or buy something else?

If your point is that there may be better options in Europe, I can understand the sentiment. I buy almost all of my used and most of my new e9 parts from Europe. Given that we have container ships jammed up in ports or anchored at sea, that isn’t the most comforting choice for already hesitant buyers.

People are reluctant to import euro cars even when the global supply chain isn’t broken. Why would anyone buy a US e28 for $12K? The conversion rate isn’t good, shipping and importing is expensive, you could get burned, or the car could get hung up in transit.

 

[JFENG]

I’m late to the discussion:

This is one of the most original E9’s I’ve seen in a long long time. IMHO that makes it a great starting point for a partial or full restoration because you are starting from the factory configuration that matches what you find in the blue book manuals. No hacked wiring, no kludges on the mechanicals and trim, no hidden body damage, etc. even the emissions system is there, for Pete’s sake! I do not think the auto trans is a huge liability for owners who want the whole family to be able to drive it, or who just want to cruise around in an iconic BMW. In point of fact, all my DD’s are automatics, and I really enjoy the convenience. A repaint and deep clean would make this a reference for what rolled off the ship in NJ 47 years ago.

And despite the lack of photos, what I see suggests the rust is minimal. I think it was a smart/excellent buy at $40k.

I think a full-on resto will not be cheap, but less than many in the BAT peanut gallery say. I think you could do the whole car, without drivetrain upgrades, for a very reasonable outlay.

my only niggle is the pics all have terrible depth of field so only a small portion of each pic was useful. It’s almost as if someone used a DSLR in aperature-priority mode and set the F-Stop for portraiture work. A smart phone would have been much better.

(Paul is a smart buyer)

john