Happy 40th Birthday

[minesapint]

BMW 325i Cabriolet 1986.

On Thursday 20 Aug 2026, I have been the proud owner of my car for the last 40 years.
Having written to BMW Germany in early 1986, I was aware they were about to introduce a RHD version of the 325i Cabriolet later that year. They also said the announcement would be made at the car show on the opening of the GMEX exhibition centre Manchester, which was opened by our late Queen Elizabeth11 Easter 1986, and also they would be sending a LHD 325i cabriolet to the exhibition.
I placed an order in early March with my local dealer, who was totally unaware of all this, but was willing to take my money. So I had my order placed before BMW made the announcement.
My order was for a 325i Cab, zinnobar red with stone leather, the car BMW sent to the show was red but with black leather, it looked stunning so I immediately changed my order to black leather.
My car was made in July 86, it was the 38th off the line when production of RHD Cabs started that week.
I collected the car 20 Aug 86 from my local dealer, it had 35 miles on the clock, those miles were put on by me, as my arrangement with him was a good test drive as obviously there weren’t any to have a test in.
So I am the original and only owner of this car.
I have tried hard over the years to keep the car as original as possible, always been stored in good dry garages and well protected, to this end I think I’ve done a good job. It has never failed an MOT nor ever had an advisory, & it’s next MOT due 1 Oct 26 is hopefully it’s last, as I’ll apply for historic status next April. Hopefully I haven’t jinxed it’s MOT record with what I’ve just said!
I’ll try & post plenty of images of the car & paperwork, I know there’s been some problems with posting images lately, I’ll persevere even if it means spreading them over many posts.
I hope you’ve found this interesting.

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[martauto]

Wow
Absolute credit to you mate


Mart.

[RTTBMW]

Amazing achievement. Not too many one owner cars about.

regards

Richard

[BenHar]

£321.74 for plates? They saw you coming , mate!

Looking forward to more pictures and information.

Ben

[Speedtouch]

Lovely to be able to own such a nice car from new, and keep it that way - well done!

[Speedtouch]

£321.74 for plates? They saw you coming , mate!
Ben

Haha, I thought that too, but I think it's for delivery, floor mats, petrol and number plates...

[minesapint]

Continued

[minesapint]

£321.74 for plates? They saw you coming , mate!

Looking forward to more pictures and information.

Ben

Yeah looking back that does seem a lot, but as Speedtouch says “( )”……. also they’ve been bloody good as those original ones are still on the car, yes those plates are the originals…….. check out the dialling code!

[minesapint]

Well as there hasn’t been any response from my enquiry about how to post multiple images, I’ll have to do it the hard way………a few at a time.

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[minesapint]

Trying a different way.

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