Listing snapshot
| Spotted | November 2022 |
| Asking price | Not recorded |
| Location | Richmond, Kentucky |
| Listed on | Craigslist, private seller |
| Status | Ad expired. This page is our archive of the listing. |
We came across this 1982 BMW 320i, the E21 generation, in November 2022, listed by its owner on Craigslist in Richmond, Kentucky. We didn’t record the asking price, and the ad is long gone. We keep the record because original E21s are much rarer than the E30s that replaced them, and every documented example helps.
What this car was
A dark blue two-door sedan photographed in profile on a lawn, with a white house and a picket fence behind it. The paint looks consistent from end to end, the chrome trim strip along the side is intact, and it sits on alloy wheels. The black US-market bumpers are in place front and rear.
We only have the one photo and no detail from the seller beyond the car itself, so we can’t say how it ran or what work it needed. The earlier version of this page filled the gap with a borrowed story about someone else’s slow 320i in Atlanta, which had nothing to do with this car. We’ve removed it.
BMW 3 Series price history
Every BMW 3 Series we’ve spotted for sale, oldest first. These are asking prices, not sale prices.
| Spotted | Car | Asking price | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2022 | 1982 320i E21 (this car) | Not recorded | — |
| Nov 2022 | 1995 325is | $6,500 | 147,000 |
| Jul 2023 | 1992 318i | $7,500 | 50,000 |
Range: $6,500 to $7,500.
A little E21 history
The E21 was the first BMW 3 Series. It replaced the 02 cars, including the 2002, in 1975, and production ran until the E30 took over in the early 1980s. BMW only built it as a two-door sedan, though the coachbuilder Baur made a cabriolet version. In Europe there were four- and six-cylinder models, but the US only got the 320i with a fuel-injected four-cylinder. Federal bumpers and emissions equipment made American cars heavier and slower than their European twins, which is why the E21 earned a reputation as a gentle car here.
That doesn’t take away from what people like about them: a light, upright cabin with thin pillars and great visibility, a driver-focused dash angled toward the driver, and the simple mechanicals of a late-’70s BMW. Rust is the main enemy on any car this age, so a buyer should look closely underneath.
More cars from the archive
- Every BMW 3 Series we’ve spotted, with asking prices
- 1992 BMW 318i, another BMW 3 Series
- 1985 BMW 635CSi, another BMW
- 1984 BMW 633CSi, another BMW
- 1990 BMW 525i, another BMW
