Advice on 2002 - reliable daily driver?

[Dr Firefly]

Was looking through ended ebay auctions yesterday and my girlfriend looked over my shoulder and saw a nice old 2002. She fell in love with it (thought it was really cute).

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1974-N-reg-BMW-20 ... dZViewItem

Thinking of getting her one as a daily driver in a year or so, and I was wondering how practical they are to use as a general car? Would be garaged obviously, but is it a similar level of maintenance to an E30, or much more? Would be buying a decent example that had been looked after, but I was just wondering if there were any words of advice on here?

What are they like to use as a modern car? Brakes, handling, useability etc? Wondering if Old_Skook_2002 or the guy with the 2002 cartoon in his avator could shed any light?

Cheers, Ian

[Dr Firefly]

Plus it might stop her hankering after a Loads Of Trouble Usually Serious 1967 Elan! Really don't want to have to be maintaining one of those deathtraps

[gareth]

i'd love one. parts availability (when did you last see one in a breakers?) and rust must cause problems with having one as a daily drive. that said, buy a cheap turd to use as / when the 2002 conks out / needs parts sourcing and use the 2002 as a 'second' car. eg, a main car but with a cheap reliable mundane car lurking as a backup.

when i was running an anglia, i kept a 1.4 diesel pug 106 lurking. very handy to tow it home with! though the anglia did tow the 106 home once!

[old_skool]

Hmmm...

That looks like a nice one. Well, I can tell you the obvious that it is a Model 73 car with square rear lights. The engine will be the excellent M10 with a solex 40pdsit carb.

Spares are usually cheap. The best place for new spares is the same as with us and the E30, even GSF still get things like front strut inserts etc. On the whole, most arts are available through main dealer and if not then the excellent Jaymic or Linwar have huge amounts of new, used and upgrade parts.

The only real difference in the E30 and the 2002 is the braking system. The 2002 actually has four pot front calipers! It also has dual brake servos which, can be expensive to replce. A recon set can be had for around £300.00. There are loads of upgrade parts available for the car too. Ireland Engineering www.bmw2002.com make upgraded everything! I have a set of Ireland Engineering 19/22mm roll bars on mine with a polybushed front end and radius arms etc.

That car in the Ad has also got nice coveted supersprint wheels. These are worth a few quid on there own.

Obviously the biggest worry with any car of this age is rust. They are not all buckets of septic poo (to quote Pete), Mine is a 1971 model, built in 1970, which has a few minor plates on the floorpan and is sound. Biggest rust headache areas are rear subframe mounting areas in my view, although they can rust pretty much anywhere dependant on the life they have had.

I'll dig out some pics......

[old_skool]

Ok, here's some pics.












To answer your question, they are very reliable. I would jump in my '02 now and drive round Europe, no worries.

The first thing I would do is replace all the rubber cooling hoses and the radiator cap. Also treat the cooling system to a flush and some new antifreeze/inhibitor. Maybe convert it to electronic ignition if it hasn't already been done.

There is a book written by Mike McCartney under the same Label as Andy Everetts E30 Bible, Brooklands books. I think it's called the BMW 2002 restoration guide. This book tells you everything you need about buying and living with the '02 with great descriptions and diagrams.

Having looked at that Ad again I noticed the rear arches are shot. These can be bought as repair panels quite cheaply. If it needs new rear quarters then these are £600 each, genuine. BMW are still pressing them, even now. The other thing worthy of mention is that it has a vinyl roof. They were never specified with a vinyl roof nor where they available from the dealer. I have heard that a lot were done in the late seventies to compete in sales against the escorts and such that had vinyl roofs.

I would check that the vinyl isn't being used to cover up anything nasty as a precaution.

Still worth £2000 all day though.

[Rosc0PColtrane]

Same as any car, so long as it's well maintained, it'll be fine. Although this is an old car and must be treated accordingly.

I love these old barges, they're gorgous!!

Can be money pits though!

[Dr Firefly]

Cheers Old_Skool, that's some great information there. Thanks for the time it took, I'm copying that into a Word document to save for when I start searching for a decent one. How long did it take you to get that one into such beautiful condition? And where are you based? When I get round to it (will be a while cos I've got a fair bit on at the mo) would be good to have your opinion when I'm looking at them...

Ps I really like the design of the rear light cluster - quirky.

[Rosc0PColtrane]

I know a guy with an '02 Baur (a pic of the light cluster hangs on my wall!!). He spent in excessof 20k over 10 years and there's still things to be done. Although he has won a few show awards with it!

[Dr Firefly]

I know a guy with an '02 Baur (a pic of the light cluster hangs on my wall!!). He spent in excessof 20k over 10 years and there's still things to be done. Although he has won a few show awards with it!

£2k a year's not too bad is it? That's a new VW polo every 3 and a bit years - give me an '02 anyday

Have you wired up the light cluster into your lightswitch? Make a great talking point...

[old_skool]

Those round light clusters are only on the "pre '71" and "model 73" cars. In '74 they changed over to square rear lights. These were disturbingly known as "model '73" cars

You'd be amazed at how similar they are to E30's underneath, the trailing arm setup is very similar, as is the axle and the way it mounts the chassis.

The best 2002 to buy is the 2002Tii, it is the same a a regular '02 but with a few bits of added trim, the same M10 engine but fitted with a kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection system. They also had larger front struts and bigger brakes (see an E30 pattern emerging here). They had 130 bhp as standard.

Finding a good Tii is next to impossible. To restore a bad Tii professionally at Jaymic would cost £30-£40k.

Forget the Turbo (my sig pic), only 1600 were ever made, all in LHD form and mostly chamonix white - they go for a minimum of £20k now.

I do a little bit of work on mine every now and again. Just to keeps things together. I recently embarked on a full front end rebuild including rebuilding the struts and brakes, radius arms, bushes, new servos, master cylinder, brake pipes etc. I couldn't get the genuine roll bar links so I fitted uprated IE bars and mountings. Thankfully everything's done now. That's all they need, regular care. As far as running costs are concerned it'll do 30mpg all day long, costs £89 a year fully comp and is tax free!

[Conan]

Id try and get a pre '71 with those lovely round lights if i were you.

[Ant]

I looooove these too !

there's a pic of me in a Tii on here somewhere, I rocked the lakeside meet a few years back in it

I shall hunt one down and get cracking as soon as summers gone( is it here ?? )

[pacerpete]

I'd rather have bum cancer !

[Dr Firefly]

I'd rather have bum cancer !

No you wouldn't. I'd choose any car over bum cancer.

[E30BeemerLad]

isn't this just the sex

[DaveD]

there is another for sale on the bay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-2002-SILVER-1 ... dZViewItem

and i found a turbo as well

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1974-BMW-2002-TUR ... dZViewItem
and there is one for sale for £3k on the trader
they look nice but i don't know if i would use one as a daily driver

[Rosc0PColtrane]

isn't this just the sex

Absoultely!! A car that the 15" BBS actually suits!!