1983 BMW 733i 5 Speed

The E23 was the first BMW to be called a 7 Series. It replaced the E3 (2500 / 2800 / Bavaria) in BMW's lineup. It took me awhile to get used to it. The E3 has a delicate, sporty, almost Italian look to it. The E23 looks big and purposeful, in the typical German luxury car way.

This E23 is a fairly rare US spec car with a 5 speed manual transmission. Being an uber-luxury car in its day, most E23s came through with automatics, as that seems to be what most US luxury car buyer wanted.

This is a 3 owner car. The original owner kept it until 2008. The seller bought it last year.

This is not a great ad. The seller doesn't mention how many miles are on the car. A picture of the instrument cluster in his Photobucket album seems to show 166,000. He also doesn't mention the year of the car. At the end of his ad he calls it a 29 year old car, so I'm assuming it's an '83.

All-in-all, this car is in nice shape. It seems to have been well maintained. The only real downside is some minor rust. Unless it's taken care of right away, it will become major rust. Rust looks especially horrible on white cars. (That is coming from personal experience, by the way.)

The asking price is $6000.00. At first glance that seems high. But, it is a 5 speed manual. Combine that with the overall condition of the car and the price starts to look fairly reasonable. The seller is open to offers.

Located in Montclair, NJ, click here to see the Craigslist ad.

A big thanks to Dan for sending me the link to this car!