Should I buy or not

[Henning]

17 hours ago, Matador said:

I live in Istanbul Turkey I may buy this car tomorrow and have no experinece in 2002.

 

Seller is asking about 11k usd. Because of taxation car prices are double or triple over here so think about this as 5k car in USA.

 

Seller says it is real 2002 but there is no chrome side molding. Is there a 2002 without side moldings?

Car looks rusty yes... but what should be a deal breaker rust area ?

Should I buy it even if it is not 2002?  maybe 1802.. 

Let me know anything you see that is starange for a 2002 car

 

Well, if I were the investigator here: this car is old anyway and since the belt trim is deleted it may have been resprayed in a different color than from factory. So the color says nothing. Same with the steering wheel and the squarie seats.

But I see a 2-piece dash and a 71-72 heater control. No slider fan switch. I guess nobody would put a earlier dash and harness in a later car.

The door panels are from a squarie and do have the kink underneath the triangle windows what 1502 panels don't have. But these panels are way easier to replace  than a dash.

No BMW roundel in the center of the trunk lid but holes in the tail panel where roundies have it. And a chapa underlay. All these could be remnants of a roundie tail panel.

AFAI can tell from the pics: no genuine BMW front fender. So nose incl fender(s) may be not the first ones.

Concerning the general condition of the car: Several years ago I chose three points to decide if an 02 is salvageable or not. The rear wheel arches have to be ok, the rear subframe mounts and the front frame rails. If these are solid, the rest is doable. These few rust bubbles are just worth a low laugh these days.

 

henn

[BMW 1600-2]

I wouldn’t touch this car.  Besides the rust potential, I think that it is an earlier car that has been updated.  Note that the there is only a temperature control slider o. The dash and no blower slider.  Also, the trim between the tail lights is from a roundie cut to fit.  I think that this is a Pandora’s box of issues.  I saw many updated cars while living in Europe.  It is much more common than in the US.  Some were done well, others weren’t.

[Conserv]

If you believe you will make money buying, restoring, and reselling this car, I’d say it’s unlikely.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

[BarneyT]

10 hours ago, Matador said:

 

Goal is fixing it up mechanicly first than get the body work done eventually. First floor and nose. Of course some areas needs attention immediatly in this car.  Restored ones are 45k-55k usd over here. I would want a drievers condition 2002 for myself but also value of the car is important.

 

It is a rare car over here does not come up for sale everyday this could be a oppotunity or may be not. To be honost I am looking at it as an asset too even if I may not be able to fix body work right away, because of hiper inflation in the coutry I keep the car as some kind of an asset.

For the conditions you describe in turkey if gotten at a fair price in your market/country it’s a perfect car that’s easy to maintain and will probably hold its value as a basic car.

 

too many of the above answers reflect your being in the United States… The Turkish people are known for their metal work so rust repair would seem to be very straight forward there…

[uai]

58 minutes ago, BarneyT said:

too many of the above answers reflect your being in the United States… The Turkish people are known for their metal work so rust repair would seem to be very straight forward there…

I don't know what the import taxes in turkey are. But there are lots of better cars to have in southern europe. Even if you invest 40k in that car it isn't worth 40k

[rjd2]

the older I get, the more squirrely the question "should I buy this car" becomes. I don't think it's a sensible question to ask for the following reasons:

 

1-nobody knows your life plan

2-nobodys knows your wrenchability

3-nobody knows how this fits into your financial picture

4-nobody knows what how geographical location plays into your candidate

 

It's gonna be easy for americans to look at this car and say" don't buy it", cause the cars arent the rarest thing in the world here.

 

I think a better question to ask is this: "what am I maybe NOT seeing here?", and then give the most complete data you can. body pics don't really get me in the door. I would want to see the bottom of the car and the engine bay. another question that's fair to ask is "how far am I from a driver, and then a show car, and the a concourse car?". the body rust doesnt freak me out, personally. where the floor pan area meets the "frame rail" area is what I'd want to see, and how complete the motor is. 

Edited May 6 by rjd2

[Georges]

Normally rust is a deal-killer for me but he is in Turkey. Labor is cheap so even structural metal can be fixed at a reasonable price. VAT may be a killer but he can drive over to Eastern Europe from Istanbul and "access" parts. I say go for it (after I see a few more pictures). 

Edited May 6 by Georges

[Matador]

55 minutes ago, Georges said:

Normally rust is a deal-killer for me but he is in Turkey. Labor is cheap so even structural metal can be fixed at a reasonable price. VAT may be a killer but he can drive over to Eastern Europe from Istanbul and "access" parts. I say go for it (after I see a few more pictures). 

Probably still less expencive than USA but labor is not that cheap anymore because of recent hyper inflation (around %80 to %120 a year) and it is "normally" not allowed to bring parts from eastern Europe in a car. It is getting harder and harder to get parts. These makes me concern so I will probably keep looking for a more decent example. 

[popovm]

18 minutes ago, Matador said:

Probably still less expencive than USA but labor is not that cheap anymore because of recent hyper inflation (around %80 to %120 a year) and it is "normally" not allowed to bring parts from eastern Europe in a car. It is getting harder and harder to get parts. These makes me concern so I will probably keep looking for a more decent example. 

 

Are you allowed to buy a car from another country and drive it into Turkey? Maybe something from Greece? 

[Matador]

49 minutes ago, popovm said:

 

Are you allowed to buy a car from another country and drive it into Turkey? Maybe something from Greece? 

No not me but person with a european citizenship can bring a car from Europe (Greece included) to Turkey but same car has to come out I think in 2 years time. 

[Matador]

 

I decided not to buy this one. Thank you guys for giving me all of your information and sharring experiences.

 

Body condition questions are the main cocern for me.

In the old days of Turkey almost no cars were going to crusher especially German and American cars so all of them were getting repaired no matter what was the damage. Because of parts scarcity and low economic power, taleted steal worker bodyshop guys were making panels of cars to keep cars going therefore many made up panels and patches are possibility.  When a car has many body repaires over here they look decent from some angels but all measurements will be off and shocking problems may surface in the future. Even thoug, I am not looking for a perfect 2002 example I would want the car close to right measurements. If the car is way off in many areas, getting the body right could be a expencive nightmare or may be not even worthed.

 

Especially unibody cars like this may require endless work when it was touched several times by old bodyshop guys 20 years ago. I look for a little less untouched better example... 

Edited May 6 by Matador

[Matador]

8 hours ago, TobyB said:

It's a gamble- I can't tell from the pictures how good or how bad it is,

and without knowing what climate it's been in, it's almost impossible to predict.

If it was a runner, with half- decent compression and a working drivetrain,

from a dry climate but with a plugged sunroof drain,

5k around here would be a fair deal, especially with the non- Federal bumpers.

 

If the thing lived next to the sea its whole life, it's as bad as uai thinks it is.

 

Didya buyit?

 

t

 

No I didn't and it is actually just next to Istanbul bosphorus bridge area right next to the sea. 🙃

[TobyB]

See?  Sea!  No buy!

 

hee

 

t

 

[Tommy]

Damn, now we will never know what it really is. Maybe you should still go to see the VIN for us 😜

[TobyB]

Tommy, you're closer than I am-

fancy a trip this weekend?

 

heh

 

t