What type of person buys a BMW 2002? As BMW CCA members know, all types of people buy 2002s, and we are overjoyed when we see one in a good home with an owner who appreciates and knows how to take care of it.
One such case involves nuclear engineer Ferman Wardell of Charlotte, North Carolina, who admits that he has “always been a BMW kind of guy.”
As he recounted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Ferman “lusted over BMW 2002s for years,” and finally arrived at the BMW party in 2008. His 1976 2002 was a California car when he bought it for $8,500—not a bad price as 2002 values have steadily climbed since then—and had it transported to North Carolina.
Ferman’s granddaughter thought the Inka Orange Bimmer was the same color as a duck’s feet, so the 2002’s official Wardell family name became Duck Feet.
This particular BMW 2002 is a 1976 model, the last of its breed and the immediate predecessor of the BMW 3 Series, which, 40 years later, is now in its sixth generation. The last three years of 2002 production for the U.S. market saw the car arrive with its giant front and rear bumpers and bulging front turn signals. To make matters worse for the 2002 purists, in 1974 BMW had discarded the original round taillights for bigger, “safer,” square ones.
As the total number of BMW 2002s gradually but inexorably diminish—there are many more 2002s registered in the U.S. today than there are in Germany—even the round-taillight crowd should be happy to see a well-maintained example like Mr. Wardell’s on the road.
As is the case with many of his fellow 2002 owners, Ferman is a BMW Car Club of America member and displays his loyalty to the Club with a grill badge. Like so many other BMW CCA members, he also does all the work on his 2002. “I can do everything myself,” he says. “Spark plug changes, tune-ups, carburetor adjustments....” Probably not all that hard to figure out for a nuclear engineer.
The 2002 may not have been the first sport sedan, but for many BMW and non-BMW owners alike, it defined the genre. U.S. sales of 2002s from 1968 onward established the BMW brand in this country, while the passion of new 2002 owners was the catalyst for creating the first local BMW clubs, and then the BMW Car Club of America.
Those early 2002 adopters discovered what Mr. Wardell now knows, that the car is not only a “blast” to drive, but with a big trunk and four seats, has great utility and is “very uncomplicated.”
There are generally two types of BMW 2002 owners: those who own one now, and those who wished they still owned one. Those of us in the second category can appreciate Mr. Wardell’s enthusiasm for being in the first.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of the Wall Street Journal/April Greer.]
