1991 BMW 850Ci

Supplied new to a Cornish luxury car dealer, this 850CI has since travelled to London where it’s seen sporadic servicing and MoTs, indicating that it has spent long periods off the road. That’s kept the mileage way below the average (the odometer shows just 43,908). The good news keeps coming as this car’s shade of red puts it in a very limited run of just 50 similarly hued remaining 8 Series models left on UK roads (according to howmanyleft.com).

Any 8 Series makes for a fantastic luxury machine, but some are more fantastic than others. This one benefits from a lot of nice options including; stability control, electronic damper control, an anti-dazzle rear view mirror, electronic steering column adjustment in addition to all the usual 8 Series creature comforts. This list of goodies means the original owner would have paid north of £73k at the end of 1990! Its last period of inaction saw it off the road from 2006 to 2019, though its current MoT expires way off in August 2022.

That aforementioned paint (Calypso Red metallic in case you were wondering) gleams with a luxury metallic hue. It’s a fabulous shade that truly suits the attention-grabbing looks of this autobahn stormer. You can keep your boring blacks and dark blues thank you very much. Complimenting these characteristics and setting it apart from the crowd is a set of staggered split-rim lattice alloy wheels. We’re pretty sure these are the genuine ‘style 5’ 17-inch BBS split rims that came with the car. Making them another rare and desirable option for the BMW enthusiast.

Though it has spent a lot of its 31 years off the road in storage, there’s still plenty of marks around the body. The nearside bumper to wing trim is hanging off, there’s heavy stone-chips to the front end – the worst of which can be found around the grille. In addition to lots of small, light scratches over several of the panels. There’s a small patch of lacquer peeling off the bonnet, a small dent to the leading edge of the boot lid and a scuff to the offside corner of the rear bumper. The only obvious area of corrosion we could detect was found in the nearside door shut (A post to windscreen). It’s reassuring to note the BMW Heathrow dealer plates front and rear, suggesting that this 8 Series hasn’t had a bump.

Any 8 Series cabin bears a resemblance to the bridge of the star ship Enterprise, though this one even more so than most. There’s a wonderful originality to the myriad of switches, dials and buttons. It was just how luxury cars used to be, the more buttons the merrier. The important ones, worthy of your attention, are those in the centre console controlling the Electronic Dampers. These can shift this 8 Series from a comfy tourer to a stiffened track car (ish) at the flick of a switch. There’s also the on-board trip computer that’s a laugh to play with as you cycle through and remember a time when we were amazed by an outside temperature or live mpg display.

There’s also a smart BMW cassette deck with provision for a CD autochanger (though we couldn’t find one) buttons for turning on of (nearly) off of the ASC (traction control) and that 1990s must-have accessory, the car phone. The leather seats, carpets and dashboard all appear in great shape, with just the usual cracking to the outer bolsters on the driver’s seat. There’s no holes or rips to worry about though the trim on the sunroof panel is peeling away. Lift the boot lid and you’re greeted by a complete tool kit and there’s even a BMW first aid kit – still in its plastic – between the rear seats.

Now up and running once again and driving as it should (according to the vendor) there doesn’t seem to be any mechanical issues to attend to. There is however, plenty of surface corrosion to the underside. The exhaust system and its clamps look overdue a replacement but there are at least still clinging on.

There’s still plenty of factory underseal left, which backs up the history showing long periods of time spent off our salt-strewn roads. There are a few minor signs of leaks up front, but we couldn’t tell if these were still on-going on ancestral. We suspect the latter as we couldn’t see anything dripping.

As mentioned at the top, this car was destined for Kernow. It was delivered new to Lewis Motors in Penryn. It didn’t remain down there for long however, which probably explains why there’s so little visible corrosion. The history records BMW stamps in the book from the South West for ’93 & ’94 (oil services) then an inspection II in ’95, which shows a move up to BMW Heathrow.

As we’ve said already, there’s a long gap in the paperwork, presumably while the car was in its first stay of storage from around 1996 until 2005 when an inspection I pops up. There’s then another long gap until a specialist stamp can be found dated 2019 for another inspection I. The history might be partial but the mileage is fairly low. Oh, and the car also comes with all of its ownership literature and two sets of keys.

It might have been slumbering for a large portion of its 31 years, but this 8 Series has clearly been kept out of the elements during that time. It’s also been back on our highways since 2019, giving plenty of time to work out any bugs and get it running as BMW intended.

There aren’t many classic V12 coupes out there with the performance, build quality and presence to match this uber Beemer, so we’ve little doubt it’ll meet – or even exceed – its £19,000 - £27,000 estimate.

Viewing is always encouraged and as stated this car is located at our Abingdon headquarters; we are open Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm and to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing to make an appointment. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.