1994 BMW 3 Series E36 TC4 Baur 318i

Said to be the first E36 Baur to arrive in the United States, this super-rare 4-door laundelette is one of 311 cars built by the famous Baur coachbuilders, who offered the conversion through until 1996. Baur had worked with BMW since the 1930s, offering similar services to what Karmann did for Volkswagon, and the Baur name is one associated with very high quality, and the company has been used by many other auto brands to create convertible concepts and production vehicles. See this one here on Ebay USA.

Since BMW had designed their own E36 convertible in-house, Baur was only permitted to produce convertible versions of the 4-door sedan, as BMW worried that allowing them to produce the 2-door would undermine their own offerings. The laundelette was therefore created, retaining the door frames and roof cross-members, which when the roof is closed provided a very near factory look. Unfortunately, and despite the practicality, demand for convertible 4-door sedans was not particularly high, and when combined with the large price increase for the conversion, slow sales resulted. But that's not a bad thing if you own one.

This auction still has time to run, and we expect the price to start to climb well above where it is (at the time of writing, bids are still under $4,000 (USD). The car has fairly reasonable mileage for its age, and it's obviously not been stored away and unused throughout its life. The seller has not mentioned too much about the overall condition, but the images suggest the paint, bodywork and interior are in good used condition. The E36 is a fairly durable car with plenty of parts available second hand should you need to make any repairs, and the car would be a great modern classic, easily useable as a daily drive, and perfect for the Florida weather where it's currently offered.

If you have one of the 311 Baur convertibles, please add yours to the Register. We expect more of these will be brought over to the US in future.

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