Milestone - reached 10,000 KM

[Guest Anonymous]

Driving to work this morning I knew I was close to 10,000 km (original) and by the time I remembered it the odometer had turned to 10,001! A sure milestone for this low mileage 02. This is the car I bought in Italy while living there a year ago and it had 8,xxx KM on it then. It truly amazes me every time I drive it - it's still totally original and I have to resist the urge to "update", but it's too important from a historical standpoint to do that. It is a 1975 Italian spec "schwarz series" which I bought from the daughter of a man who bought it as a retirement present for himself. He worked for a BMW dealer in Sicily near Mt. Edna. He reportedly treated it as a family member. It was on Italian ebay and was horridly misrepresented as the daughter didn't know English. The ebay write up was done by her nephew who had never seen the car or knew anything about 02's. I was the lucky buyer!

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[wegweiser]

Absolutely...

.....Fantastic!

Paul Wegweiser

[SamAdams]

Wow! Very nice 02. Lots of neat extras.

Congrats and enjoy.

Sam Adams

75 Chamonix sedan

72 Inka tii touring

89 325iX

03 MINI Cooper

[ccr2002]

unbelievable...it looks so sweet. any more pics? what are the Schwartz series details?

ccr

[jgerock]

Congratulations on your milestone and being the owner of a great looking 02. The black/tan combination has always been my favorite ever since my neighbor owned one in the early 80's.

Speaking of milestones, my 73 just passed the 150K mark and I'm rewarding her with a top-end re-do along with other items.

[NickVyse]

Hi David,

what a lucky find! Great looking car - interior shows Lux trim but it's not badged as such - did all late model Italian 02's get this treatment or is that part of the 'Schwarz' series you mention?

Don't think I've ever seen a Euro car with air-con either.

Congrats,

Nick

[Guest Anonymous]

thanks for the comments - reviewing the pictures I posted I realized that the steering wheel was not part of the schwarz series package. This steering wheel was an option on early 02's and I think bavarians, etc. I had to put it on as I've been using this wheel on many other 02's! (there's one on german ebay for sale currently).

The schwarz series was an attempt to boost sales of the 2002's at the end of the production run (though 1502's were produced until 1977). In 1975 the last euro 2002's came out as well as the new 320's so the company decided to produced the schwarz series variant in March of 1975. It came in black (also polaris) without the "L" for lux designation on the rear and had all the lux options (rear arm rest, different driver's side arm rest, chrome window winders, real wood on dash, door panels and gear shift, map pockets on door panels, H4's, and probably other things). The schwarz series had the 13" wheels shown in the pictures that were also produced in 14" size. I've never seen another schwarz series 02 car before and of course the factory did not keep records concerning which cars were part of the schwarz series run.

The 1975 pamphlet advertising the schwarz series showed a black 02 parked next to a black Cadalliac ( Eldorado Biarritz?) of the same vintage - quite a contrast.

Hi Nick - the ac was an option on the Italian cars - It worked fine while I lived in Italy but now back in Colorado it has stopped blowing cold air- Also as far as I can find out at least for 74-75 02's in Italy they did not have a red emergency flasher button on the dash and had had instead 2 dummy green buttons!

Anyone out there have a schwarz sreies or know of them?

happy 02ing!

David

[NickVyse]

Very interesting - I bet the Schwarz 02 is a new one on almost everyone here. Just as an aside - all RHD 02's came with the mirror image door/grab handle on the both doors.

Are you saying your car doesn't have a hazard switch at all? Bizarre - guess they weren't just unnecessary in Italy, but illegal too otherwise you'd imagine they wouldn't have bothered to make a specific Italian loom.

Great car and great piece of history

[Guest Anonymous]

I've seen 2 other italian 02's with no hazard buttons and instead having 2 green buttons... I never understood this - but those were strange times.

As you know every market has it's own peculiarities - My 67 Peugeot 404 that I bought in Milan still wears it's yellow headlights, has the ignition switch on the left, turn signal on the right, locks that you pull up instead of pushing down, and a 2 1/2 foot rod that you stick through the front bumper to the front pulley to crank and start the car if needed!

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[jgerock]

I've never heard of the "schwartz" series. Due to the special edition nomenclature, maybe that's similiar to the M-B C-class "Black" series now being offered.

Or the "Baja", "Denim/Jeans" and "LeGrande" versions of the (original) VW Beetle.

Your car is absolutely beautiful. The Mahle wheels and tan interior really stand-out against the black paint. Gotta love that square light/chrome bumper combination.