other Your First Experience With A 2002?

[Jim_75Sahara]

My dad liked to go car shopping. Sometimes he was just looking, other times he was in earnest. It was hard to tell which. He'd worked for his father as a teen at the Ford dealership his dad owned in Papillion, Nebraska, so he knew the car business well.  One weekend in early 1973 my father asks if I want to go look at a car with him. Sure, I liked the sound of that.  He was responding to a want ad in the Cincinnati Enquirer for a 1972 Golf 2002 with low miles. We met the young man at his place in Mt. Adams. (very hilly -- Cincinnati's own San Francisco -- complete with longhaired liberals; shocking for conservative Cincinnati) I had no idea what this screaming yellow car was. I'd never seen a BMW or a roundel before.  I recall sitting in it for the first time. I KNEW it was German by its spartan interior and slightly VW Beetle-ish smell. Well, Gordon dropped the hammer and pealed out. I was surprised at how aggressively he drove it down one hill, up another, making sharp turns at high speeds.  Hmmmm, could this be a boxy sports car?  I was confused.  In fact, I did not "get it" until 1975 when I learned to drive in dad's prized 2002.  YEAH, now I get it.  This is fun.  No Buicks, no Mercurys, no Chevys for me, no thanks!  Anyhow, dad haggled as only he could and purchased it for $3500. 

 

When I bought one in 2003, I had started out wondering: "Are there any 2002's left?"  I hadn't seen one for years and years.  Out of curiosity, I looked on EBayMotors to see if one, maybe two existed somewhere out there.  There must have been 20 that day. Surprise! They were not all that expensive either ..... "Hey Mary!  Do you think maybe I could get one? ...."  It wasn't long before I had bought one for $3500. I was the same age my father had been when he got his.  Meant to be??

[willie002]

My first mode of transportation was a 1958 VW pickup. Top speed was 45 mph and the gas gauge was a stick with makers on it that I would stick in the gas tank to estimated  how much gas there was. My brother and I were bother smitten with the BMW's and we both wanted a 2002. In 1977 my dad helped me buy a 1971 that was in ok shape. BMW weren't that common in the area that I grow up in so the picking were slim. Spent a lot of time working on getting everything fixed and back in shape. I've never looked back on owning 2002's their simply my car of chose. My daily drive now is a 1974 that's in pretty good shape. Let me tell you tough my brother is still mad to this day that I got a 2002 before he did.

[schoir]

In the late sixties, I had been working as a lifeguard for the New York City Department of Parks at Rockaway Beach, New York for a number of years.  There was a lieutenant lifeguard named "Hartley" working there who always had the coolest cars...his father owned Ideal Toy company, and in the summer of '69, he drove a red MGB.  Drove it in the rain, with the top down and swim goggles!  

 

I was driving a 65 Buick Skylark convertible at the time.  The next summer, I show up for the first day at the beach and I see this brand new, square-looking white car outside the lifeguard shack and I go in and inquire whose car it is.  Hartley pipes in and says it's his new car...did I want a ride in it.    I asked why he didn't get a new MG or an Austin Healey 3000 and he said that "this car will blow them away"...did I want a ride in it.  

 

He took me for a ride that I will never forget.  I couldn't believe how this little box accelerated and handled and I had to have one.

 

Fast forward to the following April where I have my money saved and I convince my father to impose on his friend, the ambassador to the U.N. from Morocco to buy a new, agave green 2002, at the special diplomatic price ($2,775).  When I showed up at the beach that summer, it was still sporting the DPL-188 diplomatic plates that were on it for the first year of its life.

 

Still have it to this day and currently restoring it.

 

Regards, Maurice.

Edited December 11, 2013 by schoir

[2002Targa]

First memory of an 02 was when i was 5 in my Dads brand new 72 Golf Tii.  He took me for a "twisty ride" to go camping up in the Sierras at a little place called Dinkey Creek.  I got my first good lesson in "sport" driving and also my first lesson on containing a bad case of motion sickness.  I'd like to think that I picked up fairly well on the first lesson, but failed miserably on the second and projectile spewed all over the dash center console and floorboard.  Needless to say, he wasn't real happy with me.

Been in love with these damn things ever since.

[Kpeters]

We were on the market for a new car and saw a Renault Fuego followed by a very very crappy 2002 a white coupe with one of those foot shaped accelerator pedals. Even though it was terrible I loved it. We ended up buying a Fiat 131 though lol.

[jgerock]

I think we have been around the block on this question - but I enjoy remembering back in the early '80s...

 

Neighbor picks up a square light 2002 for next-to-nothing on a mechanic's lien then repaints it black, adds gold/chrome Gotti wheels with Fulda tires, DCOE Webers, a header and Ansa muffler, etc and proceeds to park it outside for me to wonder "why am I only driving a Bug"?

 

I got some passenger seat time on the long, straight road near our house and vowed that one day I would own such a car.  Unfortunately, the owner was not kind to the 4-speed tranny so it got several transmissions before it was sold. I wasn't able to afford the selling price..

 

August 1983 picture (way before digital).  I needed to cut the grass.

My 66 Bug and Fritz' 2002.  Must have rained enough so I could cut the grass.

[OriginalOwner]

Summer of 1974 I graduate college and go in the Navy, stationed in San Diego.  For the next 5 months I'm either driving my dad's 1970 Chevelle SS 396 or his 1958 Morris Minor.

 

Late October 1974:  several of my classmates (now "cash rich" with Navy pay) have purchased Jensen Healeys, Datsun 260's, one guy even had a Jag XKE.  So I ping a couple of pals, one guy says, "buy a BMW."  I of course say, "what's a BMW ??"  I get the lecture.  I start investigating and looking around several SoCal dealers.

 

Mid-November 1974:  find what ends up being "the car" and buy it.

Mid-December 1974:  I discover that 7 of my classmates (stationed elsewhere) had already purchased a 2002.

 

Fast forward to mid-December 2013:  the car and I are still in SoCal ......

 

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

Edited December 12, 2013 by OriginalOwner

[glemon]

Have been car crazy since adolescence, so I have been aware of 2002s for a long time, but my first cars were Austin Healeys and Triumphs and MGs.  I drove them as daily drivers from 1978 until 1990, when I started to have a little more money and could keep my TR4A as a hobby car and get something a little more modern as a daily driver.  One of the first cars I looked at was a later 2002, I think it was a '76, light blue metallic paint, very nice shape, repainted, rust free, well maintained, the guy wanted $3500.  Although not exactly new at that time, it fit the bill well enough for a more modern car to drive.  I have to admit that I liked the car, but it was not total love at first drive.  My TR4A had the "IRS Delete" option, in other words a solid rear axle suspended by leaf springs, it rode like a truck, but cornered flat and fairly well on a smooth road.  I liked the BMW, but found the character a little soft with the compliant ride and some pretty significant body roll in corners.  But I probably still would have bought it but for one of the other reasons I was retiring the TR4A from year round duty, it had gone from a fairly rust free car to a rust bucket in about 5 years of Nebraska winters.  The 2002 had a very nice rust free body, and I really didn't want to subject it to road salt and see it oxidize away.  I bought an 85 RX-7 (a great car by the way) instead, and like the 2002 one you can still find for very reasonable prices.

 

Fast forward to 2013, I acquired my first 2002 and have greater appreciation for the sophisticated suspension that provides a great ride and handling over all sorts of road surfaces, and in an odd parallel I have a Triumph TR250 as well (basically a TR4A with the later TR6 motor, one year only model) to go with my 2002.

[dbmw2002]

"I was designing at Pininfarina on an internship 6-7 years ago"......is like sayin, "so I was dating Salma Hayek for a few years, and one night we see this 02 ".....lol

 

Did someone mention Selma, reminds me of the interview I read when she said that when she was young and snuck into a church to sprinkle holy water on her chest, boy that will teach you the power of prayer, overnight she qwibed.

 

On the day I picked up my first BMW, a 320, it was a car to me, there was an odd looking project in the shops backyard, an Aguave shell stripped and freshly painted, boy thats an odd duck I thought to myself, the seller thanked me for funding his 2002 project, no clue. Fast forward a year and out at pic-n-pull, thar she sat, a complete calico 2002 I bought for 375 bones, 2 months later she was painted and on the road for 75k miles, nary a problem, have never looked back, my girl called it her little French taxi, no clue 

[Nesset127]

Summer of 1974 I graduate college and go in the Navy, stationed in San Diego. For the next 5 months I'm either driving my dad's 1970 Chevelle SS 396 or his 1958 Morris Minor.

Late October 1974: several of my classmates (now "cash rich" with Navy pay) have purchased Jensen Healeys, Datsun 260's, one guy even had a Jag XKE. So I ping a couple of pals, one guy says, "buy a BMW." I of course say, "what's a BMW ??" I get the lecture. I start investigating and looking around several SoCal dealers.

Mid-November 1974: find what ends up being "the car" and buy it.

Mid-December 1974: I discover that 7 of my classmates (stationed elsewhere) had already purchased a 2002.

Fast forward to mid-December 2013: the car and I are still in SoCal ......

Cheers,

Carl

Every time I see your car I love it. Original and awesome. Do you plan on keeping it as long as you can? I would assume so sense you have had it for 38 years.

[saaron]

It's my friend Rob's fault, mostly.

 

-'83 friend in high school (Dan) - parents had one.  Rode in it a few times.  "This is better than my Celica" I thought.  We're going 80 and it feels like 50.  How is it doing that?

 

-'84 friend in college (Rob) has rusty half-dead schwartz '76.  In high school, he had another 02, a black turbo, and two tiis.  Road tripped a lot in that half-dead '76.  Thinks to self, "if a half dead one drives this well and is this much fun..."

 

-At that point I was in.  I digested everything I could find about them.  I knew more about the minutia then, in pre-internet, than I do now. 

 

-Found mine in '87, summer before Senior year in college.  I didn't want a tii - too complicated and expensive, hard to find people to work on it.  Of course that is what I ended up with.  The purchase process is a whole other story.  Still have the car.  Lots of good memories wrapped around that thing now.

 

Scott

[morfiya]

wow great stories. my first run in with a 02 was in 1973, my parents took our family for our first trip back to JAMAICA. i remember driving in the hills going to grandmas house seeing and old rasta man driving a o2,classic (mom says doint look at dem bad mon dem) now years later, currently on my 3rd o2  1971 m20 swap bertha. thanks mom for the connect with the the car and for the old rasta man  rastafari jah live!!!!

Edited December 13, 2013 by morfiya

[osbourne]

My first experience with the type was at college, in Iowa, in 1967. A friend brought a new 1602 back to school and I was immediately smitten with it. I was driving a 356B S90 Roadster, at the time and my friend had traded a somewhat tired Jag XK150 on his brand-new 1602. He kept the 1602 through the first half of '68, before trading in on a new Polaris 2002, w/sunroof, which he picked-up at the factory in Munich, then toured Europe for the summer with it. Lots of good memories from both cars, but particularly the long-suffering 2002. I don't think it survived to make the trip back to Virginia, from Iowa.

[MikeWooldridge]

It was 1971 and I was soon to be discharged from the U. S. Army in Europe when I was told that I could send a car home from Germany for free. The thought came to mind to buy a 250 Mercedes Coupe. After determining that $5500 was more than I could afford, I settled on a brand new Agave 1971 BMW 2002 for $2900.

I drove it to the port and then was left without a car until I returned to the United States and picked it up in New Orleans. It was a renewed friendship when I drove it back to Arkansas from Louisiana.

After a brief loss of the car due to divorce, I bought it back, and then later sold it to a couple from Louisiana.

I've owned three more since then. Currently the '73 chamonix tii tribute.

[willys]

in 1973 i was in need of a car and living in Boston at the time and I was very aware of the 2002.  I ended up buying a 68 from a priest in Portland Maine, that in itself is a great story.  I did not have the car too long, it was hit twice by two different yound ladies that were both DUI at the time.   Neither were arrested but the second accident was the end of the 02.  She was in great shape and I thoroughly enjoyed her.  After a few Porsches (356 cabriolet, 912 and a 911), a Peugot, vega etc, I found my way back to BMW and over the course of a few years, three E28's - wonderful cars in the 80's.  From there it was Volvos and Suburbans (yuk) as the kids grew up.  About four years ago, I was bit by the 02 bug and now have a 74tii - purchased via a member here.  It has been great fun sorting her out and making her mine. 

 

Jeff