BMW E24 Club- 6-series classic

ADS ON TEST #1987-BMW-M635CSi-E24
COST NEW £32,195
PRICE £29,995

Big mileage but with prices for these on the up, Nathan finds out if this one’s worth the risk.

/ #BMW-E24 / #BMW-M635CSi / #BMW-M635CSi-E24 / #BMW-M6-E24 / #BMW-6-Series / #BMW-6-Series-E24 / #BMW-M6 / #M88 / #BMW-M88 /


his year’s big #BMW M635 CSi E24 auction result (£100k) has seen many E24 Sixers hit the scene, all of varying quality. The consistent theme is that you’re looking at north of £50k for a low-mileage example.

This isn’t one of those, but it is up for a smidge under £30,000. It could be one of the last remaining chances to get into one for this money that isn’t already home to livestock in a barn somewhere.

The good news is that this example is a genuine get-in-and-drive car and it holds up to scrutiny. The Salmon Silver Metallic paintwork is largely good, with only a light smattering of stonechips to the front of the car, and a mark on one wheelarch. There is bubbling around the front bumper, and the window chrome has marks and smudges. However, the alloy wheels are absolutely perfect and they wear period-correct Michelin TRX tyres. At around £350 a corner you’ll be glad there’s plenty of tread left.

Inside there’s creasing and marks to the oh-so-comfortable leather chairs, and the headlining has a few minor marks. The driver’s seat bolster is showing a fair amount of wear, but this is discolouration rather than rips or missing thread. The only real sign of major wear is the wellthumbed steering wheel; we like the patina though.

The engine bay is largely clean with no signs of corrosion. All the fluids were up to the maximum marks and none wanted to burrow their way back to Munich. The paperwork file is enormous, and points to diligent, loving care. The book’s stamped up to 185,776 miles at a mixture of BMW main dealers and specialists, with receipts for work done. Recent examples of that fettling include a 2016 service at a cost of £1009, which involved a little welding. Further back, a 2015 going-over cost £4147 including new paint.

Behind the wheel the M635 CSi is a fabulous GT cruiser; a flick of the wrist down the evenly-spaced if slightly long five-speed manual gearbox and a hefty prod of the accelerator elicits a zinging snarl from the M88/1 powerplant. There’s plenty of torque and a deeply addictive howl as you reach the upper echelons of the BMW M1 E26 supercar-derived unit. It handles well too, with plenty of feel and immersive responses to your inputs. This car drove very well, without any drivetrain, steering, brake or suspension faults.

CHOOSE YOUR M635 CSi E24

The M635CSi was launched in 1983 with a modified M88/1 engine, which had first seen life in the M1 E26 supercar. It also received a ZF five-speed gearbox. The M cars have the larger front air dam, rear spoiler, BBS alloys and colour-matched side mirrors.

BMW chose to limit all its cars to 155mph in the late 1980s, but the M635CSi sneaked out before. Its 158mph velocity still makes it the second-fastest BMW after the M1 E26.

Production ended in 1989, with 5859 sold – of which just 524 were right-hand drive.

BMW M635CSi E24
Year #1987
Mileage 185,778
On sale at 4Star Classics 4starclassics.com

TECHNICAL DATA FILE SPECIFICATIONS 1987 BMW M635CSi E24

Engine 3454cc, 6-cyl, DOHC #BMW-M88/1 / #BMW-M88 / #BMW / #M88
Transmission RWD, 5-speed manual
Power 282bhp @ 6500rpm / DIN
Torque 251lb-ft @ 4500rpm / DIN
Weight 1505kg
PERFORMANCE
0-60mph 6.3sec
Top speed 158mph
Economy 29mpg

INSURANCE QUOTE Policy £200, with £250 excess. Legal cover and agreed value included. Quote based on a 39-year-old self-employed male, no points on his licence, living in Peterborough. Car is garaged, 3000 miles per year and with comprehensive cover. Call 0800 085 5000 for your quote.

CAR: #BMW-E24 / #BMW-M635CSi / #BMW-M635CSi-E24 / #BMW-M6-E24 / #BMW-6-Series / #BMW-6-Series-E24 / #BMW-M6 / #M88 / #BMW-M88 /
YEAR: #1988
MILEAGE THIS MONTH: 104
TOTAL MILEAGE: 164,021
ECONOMY THIS MONTH: 24.4
TOTAL COST: £148 (battery)

‘And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain,’ so sung the great Frank Sinatra, and indeed the end has arrived, the M635CSi is no longer with me. I’ve bored you all senseless with the news that I’m going to be leaving the magazine and pursuing a freelance career and one of the most upsetting upshots of this was the realisation that the M6 was going to have to go. Without a fixed monthly income and worries about who is likely to employ someone who know lots about BMWs but not a lot about anything else I just couldn’t justify keeping what was effectively a toy, especially as it was costing the best part of £100 each month just to keep it garaged. The possibility of something going bang in a major way and not having the funds to fix it was not one I wanted to ponder.

I’ve never been all that good at selling cars – I think the bottom line is that I’m too honest and I’m likely to blurt out any known faults on a car. Having heard horror stories recently about people getting ripped off when selling cars and the amount of no shows combined with the inevitable low-ball offers chancers make I decided the best way to achieve a decent amount of money for the car with the least amount of hassle was to put it up for sale at a classic auction. I’ve always been somewhat fascinated with the cars that come up for sale at Anglia Car Auctions and as luck would have it the date of its sale in April dovetailed very well with when I wanted to sell the car.

First things first though… before it would sell I needed to wash it and get it up and running. After dormant months of winter the battery was flat (surprise, surprise) so I whipped the battery off the car and gave it a thorough overnight charge. Popping it back on the car saw the interior lights glowing brightly but when I turned the key there was nothing. A big fat lack of M88 music reverberating around the garage. It felt a bit like when the starter motor had gone bad, but I thought I’d try and jump it from the trusty Passat so I walked home to get the jump leads. Now with the Six being bum in to the garage Halfords’ finest heavy-duty leads wouldn’t reach to the boot in the battery and when the M6 was manufactured #BMW had yet to pop a jump-start point under the bonnet. So I pushed the M6 out, connected everything up and hoorah, a running M6.

I drove it round for half an hour or so and then parked it up at my house so I could go and get the Passat which can’t be left where I’d hastily parked it up… and yes, you guessed it by the time I got back home with the Passat there was no longer enough charge in the M6’s battery to get it going again. So… jump leads out again etc… and a quick call to the ever helpful BM Sport saying I was coming down with the M6 saw me cruising to Bexley with my fingers crossed that I wouldn’t stall it and that the range on the OBC was vaguely correct as I didn’t want to do a splash and dash with a car that would have to be left running on the forecourt. The chaps at BM Sport got it straight in the workshop, wired it up to its battery tester, and yes, the virtually brand new Halfords Yuasa battery was duff.

A quick phone round for some quotes threw up the odd situation that the official BMW battery was actually the cheapest option so one was ordered and fitted and I could be on my way. The cruise up to Kings Lynn where Anglia Auctions are located was very pleasant and I let the M88 off the leash a couple of times before waving a tearful goodbye to ‘POW, POW, as it had become affectionately known. For some reason I had the romantic notion that it would be bought by a like-minded enthusiast, preferably one with some money, who would lovingly bring the M6 back to its former glory. Errr, no. It was purchased by an outfit called Eclipse Car Sales with the hammer falling at £15,500 – about what I thought it would sell for – which means that I got back around £14,500 after commission and fees which means I more or less broke even on the car in the 30 months I owned it. With the buyer’s premium Eclipse paid £16,275 for it… so it was a little bit of a surprise to see it advertised on eBay and its website a scant six days later for £30,000! At least Dick Turpin wore a mask. Personally I don’t think they have a hope in hell of achieving that sort of return on it as there’s just too much work that needs doing, but it has left a rather sour taste in my mouth which is a shame as I really did enjoy owning and driving the car. Such is life, onwards and upwards, live and learn etc…

E24 M635CSi

I think I left things last month on the verge of taking the plunge on buying another shark-nose classic and part of me really wishes I had. The E28 I had my eye on came up on eBay and was being sold by James at JFI Classic Cars who I’ve met on several occasions when we’ve been featuring some of the cars he’s produced. You might remember an E28 Five running an E36 M3 engine or a 2000 Touring which he’d fully restored and having chatted to James he reckoned this E28 would be ideal. It was Dolphin grey with a tan leather sport interior and it really did look rather pretty. We agreed I would sleep on it and I’d get back to him the following day.

However, in the ensuing 12 hours there were some fairly seismic shifts going on in the background that I’ll be able to tell you about next month, and the upshot was that it would not be financially prudent not to drop several thousands of pounds on a car that I really don’t need, especially as I’d then be pulling it apart and spending several more thousands trying to install a V8 into it. Especially when I’ve still got an M635CSi to look after too. Mrs H is pretty understanding, but it’s best not to push too far!

Truth be told, the M6 has seen very little exercise this month. It’s generally been dark and murky both on my way to and from the office and combined with a fair amount of moisture in the air and the fact that I don’t really like putting the car away in its garage wet it means that it’s been slumbering for most of the month. I did fit a set of Osram bulbs to try and improve the headlights but to be honest the jury’s still out as I’ve yet to take it out of town and on to darker country roads with them fitted.

What I have been doing this month is keeping a keen eye on how much #BMW M635CSis are selling for at auction as this may well be a route that I take in the new year should some additional funding be acquired. What I’ve found to be most interesting is where cars end up after some of these auctions. I’d spotted a black B-reg M6 at Classic Car Auctions’ sale in early December with 117k miles and a large history folder. Being a nosey parker I did a quick check on its MoT history and was somewhat surprised to see that it had failed recently on several counts, mainly corrosion to both the offside and nearside subframe mountings as well as both the offside and nearside front suspension component mountings, along with a few other odds and sods. What was a little odd was that it then passed an MoT a little under a month later with two advisories – an oil leak and ‘underside corrosion’. Maybe the work was done, or maybe a different MoT tester felt the corrosion wasn’t quite so severe but either way it sold for just under £16k including buyer’s premium.

I was somewhat gobsmacked to see the same car back up for sale at a non-franchised dealer two weeks later for £24,995! That’s some profit margin. It’s always been the way I suppose, but to see what could be a really nice car if it had the money lavished on it being sold with glib statements such as ‘you will struggle to find another M635 that represents such good value for money’ does stick in one’s craw somewhat.

Deadlines being what they are this issue was put together before the Christmas break, but I’ll do my best to give the Six some exercise while I’m away from the office.

CAR: #BMW-E24 / #BMW-M635CSi / #BMW-M635CSi-E24 / #BMW-M6-E24 / #BMW-6-Series / #BMW-6-Series-E24 / #BMW-M6 / #M88 / #BMW-M88 /

YEAR: #1988
MILEAGE THIS MONTH: 23
TOTAL MILEAGE: 163,925
ECONOMY THIS MONTH: 23.3
TOTAL COST: £18 (bulbs)

/ #BMW-E24 / #BMW-M635CSi / #BMW-M635CSi-E24 / #BMW-M6 / #BMW-M6-E24 / #BMW-6-Series / #BMW-6-Series-E24 / #M88

CAR: E24 M635CSi
YEAR: #1988
MILEAGE THIS MONTH: 46
TOTAL MILEAGE: 163,247
MPG THIS MONTH: 21.4
TOTAL COST: Nil

Another month goes past without getting much done – tell a lie, without getting anything done – on the M6. Trips to Germany for a visit to AC Schnitzer and then back again for the 24 Hour race at the Nürburgring as well as a holiday in the West Country over the half term break meant that more or less all I’ve done with the Six is drive it to the office and back a couple of times just to keep everything ticking along nicely.

Bar its tendency to run rich at low revs it does seem to be running very sweetly at the moment, pulling sweetly through the rev range and howling its way up to the redline with alacrity. Of course it’s not a quick car by today’s standards and not a desperately refined one either – frameless doors have come on a long way since the E24 was designed – and there is a fair amount of wind noise generated as I whiz down the motorway to the office. There’s also not much in the way of driver conveniences that we tend to take for granted these days and every time I engage reverse gear I also have to remember to engage my brain to remember that this car doesn’t have PDC… it’s an expensive accident that is waiting to happen every time I parallel park.


I’ve also been wondering this month whether or not I should really keep the car… I seem to go through this every six months or so, but this month as I was going through my bank statements I couldn’t help but be a little bit stung to see in cold back and white how much the M6’s garage costs were. I can pretty much guarantee that the car isn’t going up by that amount in value every year and given how much I use the E24 it does seem crazy to pay so much to keep it out of harm’s way. Maybe I should sell the Six and buy another BMW classic that is less desirable to thieves and then I could just leave it outside my house? Or do all old cars act as a magnate for car thieves theses days as they’re so much easier to steal than their modern counterparts?

The jury’s still out on what to do with the car but it will certainly be staying for the short term as the weather’s getting better and punting down to the office with the bettersounding stereo blasting the tunes while the M88 does its best to drown it out certainly helps to blow the cobwebs away of a morning.

E24 M635CSi / #BMW-E24 / #BMW-M635CSi / #BMW-M635CSi-E24 / #BMW-M6 / #BMW-M6-E24 / #BMW-6-Series / #BMW-6-Series-E24 / #M88 / #BMW-M88 /

Just a short one from me this month I’m afraid as there’s been very little progress with the Six this month. I’m blaming my youngest who has an unfeasible appetite for sport which has meant that this month I’ve spent the vast majority of my weekends at athletics meetings and cricket matches. And athletics meets and cricket matches seem to take a very long time to reach a conclusion.

At least with a football or hockey match you know you’re only going to have to give up a couple of hours but it appears that summer sports are designed to last a whole day! The sooner they lower the age at which kids can learn to drive the better as far as I’m concerned, but as he’s only 11 I’m betting I’ve got a fair way to go yet.

The upshot is that I have yet to fit the speakers to the M6. I did however have plenty of time to surf the web while waiting for another interminably long sporting event to reach its conclusion and this meant that I ended up buying a new head unit for the E24.

I’ve gone for a Continentalbranded unit which looks pleasantly retro yet is crammed full of the latest technology. Seeing as I ended up being so time poor I opted to take the M6 to BM Sport to install the head unit and the speakers – the head unit fitted fine and works as it should… but the damn front speakers don’t fit – particularly galling given they were sold to me as being a perfect fit for an E24! They’re too deep and the magnet’s too large to fit the ridiculously small aperture that BMW saw fit to equip the E24 with. So, I’m on the hunt for some more speakers! Hopefully I’ll have a resolution next month.

CAR #BMW E24 M635CSi
YEAR: #1988
MILEAGE THIS MONTH: 12
TOTAL MILEAGE: 163,259
MPG THIS MONTH: 17.2
TOTAL COST: My patience

A slightly less frenetic month on the auction floor as far as BMW sales were concerned. We round up those that sold and also highlight a few that failed to find new homes…

/ #1987 / #BMW-E24 / #BMW-M635CSi / #BMW-M635CSi-E24 / #BMW / #BMW-M6 / #BMW-M6-E24 / #BMW-6-Series / #BMW-6-Series-E24 / #M88 / #BMW-M88 /

This left-hand drive Zinnobar red M635CSi had just one owner from new and had covered just 132km (82,500 miles) in its 29 years. It had obviously had plenty of love and attention lavished on it over the years and appeared to be in immaculate order. It was offered for sale with no reserve and carried a pre-sale estimate of €35,000-€45,000 which it exceeded – proof if any were needed that lower mileage, low owner cars sell very well at auction.

SOLD FOR: €47,680

Approx £40,000 Artcurial, Le Mans Classic

/ #1987 / #BMW-E24 / #BMW-M635CSi / #BMW-M635CSi-E24 / #BMW / #BMW-M6 / #BMW-M6-E24 / #BMW-6-Series / #BMW-6-Series-E24 / #M88 / #BMW-M88 / Charterhouse, July sale

While the E24 M6 has been increasing in value over the years it’s perhaps not appreciated quite as fast as its mechanically identical E28 M5 brethren. However, cars with a decent provenance will sell well and this Alpine white machine looked to be a good example of the breed. Mileage might have been on the high side at 124,500 but the car had had just one registered keeper and had recently been recommissioned including the fitment of four new TRX tyres – not a cheap exercise! It sold just shy of its £20k estimate but looked to have been priced about right.

SOLD FOR: £19,800

/ #1985 / E24 M635CSi / NOT SOLD / #BMW-E24 / #BMW-M635CSi / #BMW-M635CSi-E24 / #BMW / #BMW-M6 / #BMW-M6-E24 / #BMW-6-Series / #BMW-6-Series-E24 / #M88 / #BMW-M88 / H&H, Chateau Impney

It’s a sad fact that in this country we seem to have an obsession over low mileage and we imagine that’s the reason this fine-looking M635CSi failed to sell at H&H’s sale. With 217k miles on the clock it was likely this car was going to struggle despite its excellent provenance – full history and a recent timing chain and brake overhaul. It even had a nigh-on perfect MoT history with the only advisories over the past eight years pointing to light bulbs and a cracked tyre – not a mention of rust from the MoT testers – very rare for an E24! Despite this it failed to sell against a pre-sale estimate of £16,000-£18,000.

LONGTERMERS
The editor finally gets some sounds sorted for his M635CSi, the M3 track car has a frustrating time at the ’Ring and the E36 318iS is no more…

E24 M635CSi

I’ve had a little look in the Guinness Book of Records but there doesn’t seem to be a category for ‘longest amount of time it takes to fit a stereo to a BMW 6 Series’. If there was one, I’d have won it, hands down. But here I am, only four months or so after I said I was going to fix the stereo with four new speakers and a head unit all nicely installed. I dealt with fitting the new rear speakers a couple of months back and I’m still pleased with the way these turned out, but I’m afraid that was the extent of my hands-on involvement in the installation, unless you count manic Googling to find suitable speakers.

I think I left it last month with the new head unit installed and a set of front speakers that didn’t fit but it occurs to me that I didn’t actually say very much about the head unit I’ve installed. While the previous Blaupunkt item was okay I felt it looked a little bling and while it was hooked up to a CD autochanger I did find that I never got around to swapping over the CDs so I became very bored with the music. For better or worse everything is digital these days so I ideally wanted a retrolooking head unit with iPod or memory stick connectivity and in an ideal world, Bluetooth audio streaming. I’ve got so used to this in my Passat company car that anything else just seems a bit old-fashioned these days. It also means that you can literally listen to just about anything you care to mention from internet radio to the Archer’s podcast.

Amazingly I seem to have found a unit that does all that, a Continental-TR7412UB-OR . I, like most folk, generally associate Continental with tyres but if you look a little more closely you’ll find it has its finger in several different pies. As far as I can work out these are actually rebranded VDO units – they’re marketed as VDO in Australia – and Continental do several of these from the basic version I’ve opted to buy right up to far more advanced versions with CD players and DAB. Now it’s installed and I’ve had the opportunity to play with it for a few days I must say I’m pleased as punch. It paired seamlessly with my phone and plays everything I want it to, the radio seems pretty good and it even still has LW for listening to the test match when you’ve got no 3G or 4G reception! As it has Bluetooth audio streaming it’s also hooked up to a microphone for handsfree calling which is a handy bonus, too. All in, including VAT and delivery, it cost £105 which I thought was a bit of a bargain.

It was the front speakers that caused the most amount of grief as modern units have significantly larger magnets than those with which 1970s speakers were equipped. Space for the footwell speakers in the Six is very tight, not only due to the small hole within which the magnet needs to fit, but also because the actual aperture is very shallow. And after endless internet searching one thing became very clear: it’s very hard to discover the exact measurements for speakers!

Eventually I settled on a set of Pioneer three-way 6x4-inch speakers (TS-A4633i) that looked like they might do the job and once I’d dropped them off with the everhelpful Jags at BM Sport (020 8304 9797, www.bmsport.com) I was mightily relieved to get the call a few hours later to say they were fitted!

I’m sure a more serious hi-fi buff would have come up with a more innovative and better-sounding solution to a 6 Series stereo install but I really didn’t want it to look too non-standard or start cutting into the leather door trim panels to fit some kicking bass bins or whatever the youth do these days! All-in-all though I’m very pleased with the way it’s come out – it didn’t break the bank either which was quite important as when I return from holiday it’ll be going back into BM Sport for a full inspection service and investigation into the running rich.

In an attempt to rectify that I decided to run some of BMW’s petrol additive through the car to see if it made any difference. After nigh-on 30 years I wouldn’t be surprised if the fuel system and valves are a bit gummed up so spending £13 on some fuel additive seemed like a good idea. I’m about halfway through the tank of fuel since adding the additive and it may well be my imagination but it does seem to be pulling a little bit cleaner through the rev range… although it’s still running very rich in traffic. To such an extent I almost feel like I should be handing out face masks to those unfortunate enough to be stuck behind me in a queue of stationary traffic on the south circular! The bottom line is that the additive certainly won’t do any harm, and I may well try another one through it just to see if it does clean some dirty deposits off the injectors – after all, after 163k miles their spray patterns probably aren’t quite what they were when the car was new. Hopefully new plugs, filters and a proper check of the valve clearances will sort F570 out, but knowing my luck I’ll probably need a new airflow meter! Let’s hope the summer holiday isn’t too wallet-wilting… oh, wait, I’m going to Europe and the pound’s just tanked against the euro!

CAR: E24 #M635CSi / #BMW-E24 / #BMW-M635CSi / #BMW-M635CSi-E24 / #BMW / #BMW-M6 / #BMW-M6-E24 / #BMW-6-Series / #BMW-6-Series-E24 / #M88 / #BMW-M88 / #Continental-TR7412UB-OR / #Continental /
YEAR: #1988
MILEAGE THIS MONTH: 46
TOTAL MILEAGE: 163,305
MPG THIS MONTH: 19.3
TOTAL COST: £225

E24 M635CSi

Not an awful lot to report this month I’m afraid, other than the fact that I’ve used the Six a fair amount as the weather has been pretty decent. Nothing’s fallen off, nothing’s broken and no other gremlins of any note have reared their ugly heads.

Perhaps the highlight of the month was attending Munich Legends’ ‘Legends in the Fall’ meeting which was held one Wednesday evening in September. It was well attended with a selection of mouth-watering metal descending on the company’s Sussex HQ and taking over the pub next door’s substantial car park.

The M6 performed faultlessly on the way there and back but, despite me having given it a quick clean beforehand, it did look a little bit like the poor relation when compared to the other E24s that attended! It did get me thinking that maybe I should get the bodywork attended to sooner rather than later.

A wonderful Royal blue 635CSi Highline really caught my eye but chatting to the owner it was obvious that it had taken a lot of hard work to make it that way. There was also a lovely M6 Motorsport car in Misano red in attendance and this was a car that I knew quite well in its formative years as when it was new, back at the tail-end of the 1980s, it used to come to the dealership that I worked in for its servicing requirements!

All in all it was a great evening and it was great to be able to have a look around the M1 that Munich Legends has recently restored for BMW UK. The guys there have done a wonderful job on the car and it is a tribute to what can be achieved with these older cars.

The news on the way home was less good as my 1980s super coupé was comprehensively out-dragged by a new Ford Fiesta ST. I know these are quick little things but it was slightly sobering that the M6 was so comprehensively out-gunned and I went to sleep that night dreaming of more horsepower. Regular readers may remember an E24 we featured back in 2007 that had been enhanced by the fitment of an S62 V8 from an E39 M5… and I’ve been having evil thoughts about recreating that car!

Back in the real world the MoT is due next month and I was planning an Inspection service and some investigation into the car’s rough running and overfuelling. However, thoughts of having the bodywork done soon means that I might leave the servicing until after that. Decisions, decisions.

CAR: #BMW-E24 / #BMW-M635CSi / #BMW-M635CSi-E24 / #BMW / #BMW-M6 / #BMW-M6-E24 / #BMW-6-Series / #BMW-6-Series-E24 / #M88 / #BMW-M88

YEAR: #1988
MILEAGE THIS MONTH: 292
TOTAL MILEAGE: 163,689
MPG THIS MONTH: 22.1
TOTAL COST: Nil