Junkyard Find: 1987 BMW 325iS
Back in the first half of the 2000s, BMW E30s were as plentiful in California car graveyards as are E46s and E90s today, maybe even more so. They still show up occasionally at the Golden State yards with "Pick" and/or "Pull" in their names today, despite what Internet Car Experts may say, and you can even find the quicker non-orthodontist-spec models if you look for them. Say, this first-year 325iS at the same East Bay Pick-n-Pull that now has five first-gen Nissan Leafs in stock.
I shared a discarded Colorado 325es in this series in 2023, and some commenters grumbled that the low-revving "eta" engine delivered insufficient horsepower. That car was a 1986 model, the final year for new US-market E30s that were all limited to 121 or fewer horses under their forward-hinged hoods.
For 1987, the 325, 325e and 325es remained in the lineup, but American BMW shoppers with a bit more money could purchase a 325i or 325iS with 168 horsepower.
The build tag says this is a real 325iS, or at least it began its life that way (there's a great deal of parts swapping in the E30 world).
If this is the original engine, it's a 2.5-liter SOHC M20 rated at 47 more horsepower than the same-year 2.7 eta motor… and six fewer foot-pounds.
The MSRP of the 325i/325iS for '87 was $26,990, or about $77,104 in 2025 dollars. If you got the 325i four-door instead of the 325iS two-door, you accepted a weight penalty of 37 pounds (2,850 versus 2,813 pounds).
Those curb weights are about 800-900 pounds lighter than the current BMW 3 Series, though the '25s boast between 255 and 523 horsepower. In fact, you can get a new M3 sedan with a 473hp straight-six for $76,700, which is cheaper after inflation than today's Junkyard Find was when new.
The emissions sticker seems to indicate that BMW didn't make separate California/49-state models in 1987.
The body is battered but not rusty, while the interior must have been nice enough to have been mostly stripped out before I arrived. I'm willing to wager that the ECU was the very first part to be purchased, if it was even in the car when it got here.
The red-tag warning from nearby Union City suggests that this car was parked somewhere it shouldn't have been (e.g., months spent in the same guest parking spot at an apartment building) and got towed away.
Better than 200,000 miles show on the odometer, which is excellent by 1980s BMW standards. In the Murilee Martin Junkyard Odometer Hall of Fame, only a single BMW (an E23 7 Series) has surpassed the 300k-mile mark so far.
Nearby was a much rarer machine from West Germany: a Volkswagen Rabbit Pickup aka Caddy that was too stripped to be worth a complete photo set.
The latest expression of our seven-decade passion for driving.
I think BMW should have hired the JDM crew that created the brilliant Super Corona commercials for Toyota, because BMW's US-market E30 television advertising suffered from a distinct shortage of tire screech and engine roar.
The jab in this commercial at the "talking cars" of the era probably didn't throw much of a scare into Nissan or Chrysler. Still, the threat was there: buy a 325i or endure the hollow feeling of having settled for less!
1987 BMW E30 in California junkyard.
1987 BMW E30 in California junkyard.
1987 BMW E30 in California junkyard.
1987 BMW E30 in California junkyard.
1987 BMW E30 in California junkyard.
1987 BMW E30 in California junkyard.
1987 BMW E30 in California junkyard.
1987 BMW E30 in California junkyard.
1987 BMW E30 in California junkyard.
1987 BMW E30 in California junkyard.
[Images: The Author]
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Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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These were REALLY sweet rides back in the day...that six and the manual were just awesome together.
When I was active in the BMW club in the '90s, E28s and E30s with intergalactic mileages were pretty normal. It was believed that these would run as long as you were willing to change the rubber bands every 6 years or 62K miles, IIRC. I think they had a reputation for frail speedometer cables or odometers though.