What were you driving when you graduated to a 2002?

[Schnellvintage]

I bought my first BMW 2002 when I was 17, still in high school.  1976 Jade Grun for $2350.  I have owned one ever since.  I was driving my Grandma's '65 Ford Falcon with a 170ci six cylinder.  I wanted a P-car 356, but glad the insurance company wouldn't insure a 17 year old kid...LOL..it was meant to be.

 

Cheers,

Matt

[Dick R]

I had posted in this topic much earlier about the car I replaced in 1973 when I bought my 69 2002 in 1969.  Well I realized that I could post again since I acquired my current 71 2002 about 5 years ago.  Prior to that acquisition, I had this 73 Saab Sonett for 10 years when somebody at a Cars & Coffee asked if I would sell it to him.  Away it went to be quickly replaced by my current BMW.  Somewhat ironically, the car I had before buying my first 2002 in 1969 was also a Saab (a 93F, not a Sonett). 

[auggiemize]

My guess is that many younger 02ers just went to Googleland to find Sonett...

Concurrent with one of my 02's, I had a 95 (5 cylinder wing-ding) and a 96 (V-4 designed and never used by Ford in US, with 4 on the tree), the gateway drugs to a Sonett. Yours looks beautiful, and I'm sure that you miss it...Transmission will last longer on an 02 tho.

[Dick R]

The paint on this car was all original and amazingly show room fresh.  The interior nearly as good. I was told by multiple Corvette owners that paint doesn't hold up well on fiberglass bodies like the Sonett.  The fiberglass flexes enough to create lots of small cracks all over the place.  Not one on this car.  It was a low mileage car (less than 30K when I got it and less than 40K when I sold it), so that's one big reason.  One thing I miss for sure is winning trophies at car shows (not big time events).  This was always the only one entered, so it got plenty of attention in the "foreign car" type class in both NJ and CA.  My 2002 would be an also-ran in any BMW show.  I'd be embarrassed to enter it.

 

One thing I don't miss about the Sonett was how difficult it was getting to find pretty normal parts.  How refreshing it was to discover the relative ease of sourcing parts for my 2002.  I once went to a Saab dealer to try to get a key blank.  Every salesman and mechanic in the place came out to see my Sonett because they had never seen or for most of them, even heard of it. 

[MYBMWHabit]

I bought my first 2002 in June of this year... It's a 76 Inka that needs a lot of TLC. Then I bought a 75 parts car, for a dashboard and a few other goodies, then picked up a 75 Pastelblau Automatic from Seattle that's in pretty nice shape.  Once we evaluate the floor panel in the parts car to see just how rusty it is, will determine whether I make two cars from three or have a third 2002 on a really long trajectory.

We'll see, but wow I really like these little cars! Still have a few E30s, an E21, and an E23 that are a blast. But the planets lined up to get into the 2002. Really excited.

 

[gsshack]

'66 911

[rstclark]

I was driving a 1973 Datsun 240Z  before moving to a 1974 2002 Tii 

The 240Z was rock solid at high speed like 120 mph but the Tii was a much more enjoyable car all around 

[Lorin]

Bump

 

[John76]

I was just a kid...

 

[Lorin]

That’s a sweet ride ! Did it have an engine?

[Greg Mierz]

Ok, I tell my story. 1974 Fullerton California. My only new car a 1966 VW 1300. I drove a friend's 2002 through Laguna Beach canyon and I was mainlined forever. I bought 1663328 for my birthday in 1974. I have put all but 68k of over 440K miles on it. I fell into the Puget Sound BMW club after moving back up to Seattle after the car has never again been stock. I drove it as a daily driver until 2003 when I bought my 86 325es/is. The 2002 has never been a garage queen, it has seen many a track day and many autocrosses. I love driving it still, the sound of Webers at song is truly addicitive. I've put over 30 years on the latest motor, Tisa Webers since the 80's , high compression pistons, Schrick 288 M30 cam ground onto hard overlay M10 shaft, basically a 292 with the higher lift of the 304. A great street cam. I still love tinkering with it, just redid my custom airbox so 50mm stacks can fit. I love the better breathing. But that another story. Ps the lovely lady with my 2002 is still with me also wife of 49 years.

[Lorin]

Great story Greg, thanks. 
 

[02Les]

Not sure how I missed this topic.

Any road up..........I had several Sunbeam Rapiers prior to the '02. A series II, a series III convertible and lastly a series IV.

This last one was an odd ball for sure; it was series IV badged but had the series V 1725 motor. I would visit Rootes for parts and they said my chassis number didn't exist in their system. Eventually I found out that Sunbeam had taken a few series IV cars at the end of production and basically made them series V with a special chassis number. There were a little over 300 cars like that.

This last one took me (for work) all over Germany/Austria where I would get overtaken on the autobahn by these little BMWs. Naturally, I bought an '02 in Germany and sold the Sunbeam.

 

Pic is not of mine, but is same model/colour.

 

 

[Lorin]

Bump

[Dug Nichols]

We were freshly married and bought our first house having moved out of the city (SF) down the peninsula. My wife had a '66 Mustang as her daily and I had a '71 squareback as my daily. But then we found a much newer car, the Mintgrun '76 2002, and made the very practical decision to keep the coupes and ditch the wagon, despite a bun in the oven (who came home from the delivery hospital in the 02 :)
 

Photo 1: the squareback we bought from the bass player in 4 non blondes.
Photo 2: wife's daily '66 mustang with the newly acquired newest vehicle in the fam right behind it

And all this happened in the span of a few months in 2002.