If you thought my Volkswagen Bus purchase was impulsive, out of left field and wildly irresponsible, then I’m about to one-up that here.
I don’t recall the exact avenue that my friend found out about this car but his acquaintance was selling his 1976 BMW 2002 in Chicago. Said friend, at the time, had a 1982 BMW 320i and it had treated him well. They seemed simple enough on paper – what could go wrong? The BMW 2002 was an immensely enticing car and one that’s been well covered here on CC, all the way to David E. Davis Jr.’s seminal April 1968 review in Car and Driver. I really liked the sportiness of the car, excellent greenhouse/visibility plus simplicity rivaled only by a go-kart. In the years proceeding I had been tracking their rising values and thought I better get one while I could. This one was certainly affordable, turns out I soon learned why.
One of the three pictures we received. Conveniently he did not photograph the other side.
My friend and I decided to head out and take a look – the car was said to have been in running condition and the grainy photos I received appeared to show a car in rough driver condition. I packed a bunch of tools in a messenger bag and we bought tickets to Chicago from Des Moines via Megabus, a low-fare bus service. In maybe an omen from the start, we missed the bus from Des Moines because I couldn’t find the terminal. Thankfully we also knew they stopped in a town about 40 miles east so I pushed the Jetta hard to intercept.
The rest of the journey there was uneventful, sleeping through the night and arriving in downtown Chicago around 6 am. The seller was nice enough to pick us up at that hour, then we spent the next few hours zig zagging around Chicago to find keys to the garage. The seller had the car stored in his neighbor’s garage and it took a bit of effort to track him down to get access. Inside that unassuming alley garage in metro Chicago with the 2002? A 1997 Dodge Viper GTS in the iconic metallic blue with white racing stripes – I did not expect that! Upon seeing the car, it was a bit rougher than I was led on, with serious rust on the driver’s door but solid shock towers and a decent trunk floor. There was also a crusty section under the pedals on the driver’s side floor.
The car started right up but the drive around the block was not very smooth – a bit jerky, actually. I thought maybe it was just from sitting that it needed to free up, maybe an oil change would help. It was a wild idea but I thought we could drive it home. I got an oil change for it and returned to pay the seller, but it still seemed a bit unnerving to drive 6 hours west. When time came to see the title, it was still in the previous owner’s name (whom the seller bought it from) and the seller signed the title but never registered it himself. Great. I explained to him that he needed to register it but he seemed unwilling to do so.
Throughout the afternoon, I stuck around their house and continued to drive the car around the block occasionally. I was getting more and more leery about the prospects of driving the car back home and was thinking I would need to come back with a trailer. The seller was adamant that the car needed to leave their shared garage today. In hindsight, I should have looked into a U-Haul truck and trailer that afternoon but instead, my friend suggested other folks he knew in the area, perhaps I could store the car for the short term there and come back later. Seeing I was getting nowhere with the seller with the title or storage, it was time to move on. My friend and I bought return tickets to Des Moines on the 6 pm bus and we drove the car just a few blocks east to his friend’s storefront. There they had a rear fenced-in area behind the store and the owner graciously allowed me to store the car there temporarily until I could come back with a truck and trailer. I thanked them up and down, my friend and I caught our first meal for the day, and we got to the bus terminal.
Back in Iowa, I immediately formulated a plan to get back to Chicago and grab the 2002. Somehow, another friend found out about my challenges and generously lent his Toyota Tundra to help with the rescue mission and just a few weeks later I was free to do so. This trip was taken alone for whatever reason, maybe because folks were working as I departed mid-day, maybe because I was spending the night at an ex-girlfriend’s place downtown – I do not recall.
The tow rig in downtown Chicago
The next morning the fun began. The U-Haul location was back out in the suburbs and being a Saturday morning, they were busy. Finally, I was able to get checked over and rolling closer to noon – far later than I had hoped. Then the real fun began. Back at the 2002, I should have communicated with the store owner that I was coming. I just assumed they’d be there during business hours – NOPE! They were closed, the gate was locked and they were out of town. Taking stock of the situation, I had a borrowed truck, rented trailer and I was in Chicago, a combo not easily replicated – I was not going home emptyhanded. The storeowner was empathic and said I could cut the lock so I got to work. Over the next few hours, I was very resourceful in achieving my goal and thankfully there was a steady stream of people to leverage as right next door was a popular outdoor-only restaurant. Finally, after a few hours of work and some help from some very generous strangers, I had the non-operational car (battery was dead) out of its cage and on the trailer. It felt like a major accomplishment in my mind I must say!
The 2002 in its cage, getting it out was a real bear.
Once the car was back in Iowa I started to go over the car and dig in (kind of). I’m not sure if it had a short or if it was just from sitting but the battery would frequently drain. I dared only drive it on slow secondary streets in town due to the jerkiness and the title situation. Turns out I needed a new guibo. I placed a decent sized order from Ireland Engineering, a 2002 parts specialist, but the car being on a gravel parking lot of my rental house made me uneasy about the prospects of jacking up and getting under the car to access. I was just generally feeling a lack of ambition about this car. The rust issues, flat tires and title discrepancy all had me feeling a bit too far over my head. With the onset of winter coming I got the ball rolling on the title with our DMV and learned what I could about these cars in an attempt to roll forward.
A bit crusty on the outside. I believe the car had some prior body work, the car was originally Sahara Beige.
Spring came, I still didn’t have the title rectified and I didn’t have much motivation to work on it still. Putting in work on a car that you can’t prove is 100% yours is not enticing. I believe finally by late summer the title was worked out but I still had plenty of other things I’d rather do. In hindsight, I should’ve been more proactive about at least addressing the guibo, that would’ve fixed at least the drivability issues greatly but I was so hindered by the thoughts of the rust. It’s not like one could just find a replacement door easily, these cars are pretty much non-existent in Iowa. Around this time I was starting to catch flak from my landlord about the car in the driveway and was pressured to do something about it. With another winter bearing down and realizing that things are not likely to improve, I listed the car on Craigslist and very quickly had a bite. An enthusiastic father/son team from Wisconsin came down one snowy Saturday to buy it, the plan was to fix it up for his son’s first car.
Looking back on this car, it was a pretty half-baked and wild idea but at least it wasn’t a very expensive venture. Sure I lost money on the whole deal but I like the idea that hopefully the father/son team was able to get the car back on the road and spend some time together.
When I saw this car the first thing that popped into my mind is Jack Lemmon as Jack Godell in “The China Syndrome” when he was trying to outrun those thugs in the Crown Vic as he pulled into the parking lot of the Ventana nuclear power plant.
It sounds like it was quite the adventure to get possession of this car, and that there was a lot of fortuitous help from strangers. Too bad it didn’t work out, but sometimes, that’s the way it goes.
I bought my Westy with a lien on it that the seller promised to clear as soon as he had the money to pay it off. The title sat in limbo for months, and I know exactly what you mean when you wrote about not having the motivation to work on a vehicle you didn’t now 100% was yours.
As I read this, I kept thinking to myself with each paragraph: “Just walk away… it’s not worth it…” I’m glad ultimately that you didn’t take too much of a financial bath on this car.
And I can’t help thinking that maybe blue 2002s are just naturally made to the heartbreakers. When I was a teenager and looking for my first (operable) car, I saw a 2002 at a used car lot near our house. It looked to be in good condition and rather remarkably was in my price range. It was (repainted) blue, just like this one. One evening my reluctant father and I stopped at the dealership after it had closed to look at the car up close. Fortunately, the car was unlocked too. Turns out, that 2002 had more than its share of problems: there was poorly-repaired accident damage, painted-over rust, sogginess in the interior, and a bunch of other stuff, but I stopped paying attention at some point. It was clearly a dud, which if course was why it was so cheap.
Dad got in a good “I told you so” moment, and we moved on.
My brother once bought a Chrysler LHS from a woman who would not sell unless the buyer immediately registered the car. I didn’t really understand why until a friend sold his Oldsmobile and got a letter from an impound lot a month later. Turned out the guy who bought the Olds abandoned it without ever registering it.
As for the 2002, I feel as though I have missed the boat on these. They’re supposedly excellent driving cars, and they look wonderful. But the price keeps climbing, and I have a long-standing BMW project that I have been working on.
In California and probably other states, there is a document called “NOTICE OF TRANSFER AND RELEASE OF LIABILITY” or similar, which is filed with the DMV within days after the transaction. The seller fills it out with the name of the purchaser, license number of the vehicle, Vehicle Identification Number, and odometer reading. It does not transfer ownership, which remains with the seller until the buyer properly files for transfer and pays applicable fees. But it gets the seller off liability for whatever may happen with the vehicle.
@G.POON :
Not quite as it turns out .
I’ve had several California cars and one trailer I never even owned, wind up with the DMV chasing me for back fees or ticket fines….
-Nate
This is a very relatable story. In my case it was a ’74 Midget that had been stored for years. Its condition was similar to the 2002 here, and I was a very optimistic 20 year old. I was in for $1000 in 1987 money, plus the cost of a tow. In the meantime Dad happened to be chatting with one of his cronies and scored a ’75 that had been a motor home “toad” (running and in clean driver condition, needing only a new top) for $500.
I did eventually get the ’74 sorted, rust repaired, painted, replaced the top, carpet, belts, hoses, seals, exhaust, tires, etc. and it proved to be a better driver than the more smog choked single carb ’75. By that point I was in it for well over $4500. Mind you, Midgets could be had in decent condition for $2500 in the late 80’s.
Lesson learned.
I’m one to talk, but you should have seen the lack of driver-side photo as a red flag.
I’ve noticed many car ads avoid showing the outside edge of the driver’s seatback or hide it with the seatbelt.
A real heartbreaker. My experience is that clear title is a figment of the imagination (if you’re lucky enough to have a hard copy). Having the owners’ name and their signature is a real plus. My current project with my son falls into this category. A true barn find, the title was MIA. Parked 32 years ago we were able to track down the last owner and made several requests by mail to NJ and MD to get it. No dice. Two days before the last owner was set to go in person, our friend who had the car in his barn found the NJ title, signed by him in 1989! When things calm down (3 hour wait at DMV just to see if they had a record -they didn’t-before he found it) I’m sure I will be able to flip it to my name with a small late fee attached.
Well said. I never bother with those “no title” classified ads. If the title isn’t present, the seller doesn’t own the vehicle, and has no business selling it. In the eyes of the law, possession isn’t ownership.
I have bought vehicles where the seller’s name isn’t on the title provided, typically estate sales where the owner has passed away. In my province, so long as the paperwork has a seller’s signature ( a simple bill of sale helps) , there’s no leins and nothing is stolen, ownership transfer is easy.
I’m not sure if there are still any in business but there used to be a number of lost title services for cars of a certain age or older. Some states don’t or at least didn’t issue titles for cars of a certain age. All that is legally required is a notarized bill of sale. So you go to your local notary public and have them stamp your bill of sale to the company and send it to them. They in turn register the vehicle in their state and send you back a set of plates and another notarized bill of sale accompanied by a letter that says they are a no title state. You take that to your state and boom you’ve got a title in your name in your state. Of course the company runs the VIN through the various data bases to see if it shows as stolen before they will process the order.
You got a fine story and a great learning experience from this quest. COAL tales about old wrecks, where everything goes wrong are the most interesting.
In retrospect, these car problems perhaps wouldn’t be too difficult to fix. The journey, the fixing, the project becomes the product. If one doesn’t enjoy this aspect of the hobby then frustration and regret is the order of the day.
That being said, true happiness is a comfortable, well equipped workshop. Working in a rented gravel driveway is pretty miserable, so it was probably for the best you passed the car on to others who would enjoy it.
I’m looking forward to your next great story.
Lots of nice people from the restaurant next door eagerly assisted you in what, from their perspective, should have appeared to be breaking & entering and larceny? “Oh, so you’re just hacking through this lock to get that car out of there? I’m just waiting for the server to bring the check anyway, so sure I’ll help!” This is a great story.
Lots of lessons learned here and lots of temptations that most of us have probably faced.
I’ve been tempted by the 2002, briefly anyway until I saw what they sold for on Bring a Trailer and remembered that Dad didn’t want me to be a mechanic and therefore didn’t teach me anything.
When my youngest brother was getting his first car my father was in charge of the process. Matt had his heart set on a BMW, but any BMW in the right price range was going to be a problem. They found one, and Dad had serious misgivings because it was really rusty, but my brother was in love with it.
Dad insisted it go into a BMW dealership to be checked out. While it was out in the shop, some other guy who was really into old BMWs was having a car worked on, and went into one of those “Wow, did you see that rusty one out there? I don’t know who would even think of owning an old BMW with that kind of rust. That thing will be a disaster for someone” speeches. My brother was crestfallen, while Dad was laughing inside. They eventually got a really clean late 80s LeSabre.
So, almost the same thing then.
When I was a kid, my dad somehow acquired one of these for a short while. It was the early 80’s so it was only a few years old. That car left is stranded so many times it went away permanently pretty quickly.
The first BMW I remember riding in was a square taillight, big bumper 2002. I recall it being a much lighter shade of metallic blue than this one, almost a blue-washed silver. It belonged to a friend of my mother’s; a woman named Tiki, or Kiki, or Mimi, or Kaki, or something similar. The car couldn’t have been very old, as she replaced it with one of the very first Rabbit Diesels in the country a year or two later. Her husband already had a W123 240D. Anyway, one thing I remember about the 2002 was that it looked nice except for a five-inch-diameter scabby rust-hole right in the middle of the passenger’s door.
Like the song says “you got to know when to hold ’em; know when to fold ’em”. You made the right choice when many of us would have thrown lots of money into that hole..