FS: 1980 BMW M1 mit 26k miles in Oregon (eBay)

[Tim in N FL]

Don't see this on eBay everyday

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 03047&rd=1

[stuartinmn]

Ooh, pretty. I'd love to have one but they're a little out of my price range.

I like how he says there's no rust in the body...they were made of fiberglass, weren't they?

[Yellow2]

Ive seen that one up on da bay before.

[Velocewest]

They keep relisting it. Apparently they're not seeing the reserve they want. I can't believe someone with the coin to buy an M1 would want to deal on eBay. If it were me, I'd want to go over the car in person, and have it checked out by a good shop before even starting to talk about price.

[mk]

in your opinion what is that M1 worth?

[Matt]

they usually go for 75-80k.

Problem is, no parts, nobody qualified to touch it. What would you do with it ?

[Al Canuck]

[QUOTE="Matt"]they usually go for 75-80k.

Problem is, no parts, nobody qualified to touch it. What would you do with it ? [/QUOTE]

Au Contraire on the "no parts" statement. Almost every part is available from BMW for the M1. Items that have proven difficult to get are water pumps, and until recently, windshields. Beyond that, everything is available, and not terribly expensive for most things, so long as you shop around a bit. I was at Don Dethlefson's shop in Chicago last week, and he had one in there that had been federalised for the US market. Awful 5mph bumpers, and side marker lights. All the correct parts were only a phone call away from the dealer.

A good friend of mine owns a gorgeous, low mile M1. He bought it with 16k km on it a couple summers ago, and it now has 44k km on it. What does he do with it? Drives it....a LOT! It's been mostly troublefree, and relatively easy to work on. He bought a copy of the factory service manual from BMW, and does all of his own work on it. There is another one in town here as well, and Dean has also taken it under his wing. Both cars are regularly seen around Vancouver.

As far as finding people to work on it, well, if you can work on an E28, you can wrench on an M1. It used Kugelfischer mechanical injection, just like the 2002tii used. Suspension and brake stuff isn't rocket science, and lots of the parts are BMW parts bin. Any GOOD BMW tech can work on it.

Al

Here's Dean's M1 parked in my driveway a couple years ago:

[Matt]

Wow.

Ok, so how do i get the USA M5 factory service manual? How is it that E28 parts are going into mobile tradition and lots of things are NLA, but a 450 example car is easy to get parts for ?

[Al Canuck]

Not sure how to get the M5 manual, but there are apparently 6 M1 manuals left in BMW inventory. I'm actually going to order one for myself pretty soon, just to keep in the collection.

Stuff is going NLA for E28's right now, but Mobile Tradition will fix that as the demand rises for certain parts. Going into MT mode is not a bad thing, it's a great thing. I can get just about any part I need for my 2002 from BMW as well, thanks to MT. The reason you can get M1 parts is fairly simple I think. They built 450 or so of them, and enough parts to keep those cars supplied for a reasonable amount of time. Many of them have been crashed, or simply never driven very much. All those parts are still in stock. The supply to demand ratio is quite high.

Al

[bmwbimmer]

Thay M1 was at my work years ago for service and from what I am told is that parts for that car cost tons of money, for example I was told a air filter is about $400 and the oil filter is about $200. Its a way cool car but parts I would not want to own one of those cars.

[alpinajim]

FS on the lot for $85.5...suspect the reserve is high 70's/low 80's

[Kyle in NO]

[QUOTE="bmwbimmer"]Thay M1 was at my work years ago for service and from what I am told is that parts for that car cost tons of money, for example I was told a air filter is about $400 and the oil filter is about $200. Its a way cool car but parts I would not want to own one of those cars.[/QUOTE]

That's just BS. Its rediculous to think that an air or oil filter could cost several hundred dollars each. Shit, Ferrari filters don't even approach $100!!

Somebody was lying to you. Either that or they were just a dumbass.

Kyle in NO

[RonW]

Originally posted by bmwbimmer
Thay M1 was at my work years ago for service and from what I am told is that parts for that car cost tons of money, for example I was told a air filter is about $400 and the oil filter is about $200. Its a way cool car but parts I would not want to own one of those cars.

Isn't the oil filter the same as for a 535i? That'd be $5 or so.

[Edited 8/25/2007 to enable BBCode]

[Tim in N FL]

I corresponded with a fellow in JAX, FL who owns a low miles ///M1 who had bought it as sort of a "nest egg" for retirement. He told me that the market value of the car had been as high as the low 100k range but that it has slipped substantially in the past few years. He was not happy about the downturn and was planning to hold onto the car a bit longer, IIRC.

[Adam W in MN]

Al, that was an interesting writeup about the parts from MT. I, too, was at Don Dethlefson's shop a few weeks ago to have a look around at the impressive cars. The M1 wasn't there though, but I heard about it coming in. It makes sense that nearly all of the parts are still available for the reasons you listed (wrecked M1's, garage queens that don't need parts), but also because the M1 has been the poster-child for BMW's racing and Motorsport history (along with the E30 M3, '02 Turbo, and other cars) so it's in their best interests to keep them running to be shown off.

There's a woman here in Chicago with an orange M1 with 5K original miles on it. I saw it at a car show locally about two years ago.

As far as stuff going into Mobile Tradition, I would agree that it isn't a bad thing at all, but it doesn't mean that they'll keep every part available forever. Some parts on the E12 M535i are becoming unobtainium for any price, such as the rear spoiler. But there's still a decent sized pool of stuff out there if you know where to look (which most of us on these 5-series boards do know where to look! )

Adam Wilson
www.e12m535i.com

[BMWCCA2]

[QUOTE="RonW"]Isn't the oil filter the same as for a 535i? That'd be $5 or so. [/QUOTE]

Nope, it's a big spin-on. We used to service two M1s years ago and I still have the manual, for all it's worth. Little skinny thing. One owner got so fed up with the water pump issue he had his truck fleet manager rebuild the water pump to fit a readily available seal which was the only problem. Seemed to work quite well and we never had to mess with it again.

On the oil filter, we were also a Porsche dealer so we used a period 911 Purolator which was exactly the same as the M1 with the exception that one had a round O-ring seal and the other had a square-section seal. I can't remember which is which, but it works fine. Gordon Medenica, U.S. M1 Register editor, wasn't convinced that our solution was valid so he ordered NOS filters from BMW. While on One Lap years ago he'd just had the BMW NA-owned dealership in White Plains, NY do a service with a NOS filter. Well, at the first track venue (Road America maybe?) the filter blew, trashing the engine. The failure? The twenty-year-old oil filter O-ring! Guess what filter he uses and recommends to all M1 owners today?

I believe he was able to jam the repair costs up the dealer's butt under a parts warranty, which may be the only reason to use a BMW filter! Marcus Glarner in Canada did the rebuild. Sorry to run-on. Seeing this topic brought back the memory and I figure maybe some one can help an M1 owner prevent some damage by using a Porsche filter. I've driven many miles in M1s and still remember them as one of my favorite cars.

-Phil

[Al Canuck]

Phil, IIRC, my friend has a shelf load of Mahle filters for the 911 as well. If you're really willing to do the legwork, owning a car like this is not all bad. However, we've recently discovered that the master cylinder is M1 specific, and not made by ATE, etc. It is a BMW part only, and not inexpensive! I can get wholesale cost at about $900CDN.

Al