Buy This Violet 1993 BMW 316i Touring 5-Speed Before My Editor Does

Wagon-shaped Touring versions of BMW’s classic E30 3-Series are a rare sight in the U.S., but this example’s gorgeous Daytona Violet paint scheme will guarantee it stands out from the crowd.

The E30 Touring was never part of BMW’s model plan, but one enterprising BMW engineer built his own and the suits in Munich liked the idea enough to put it into production. Sadly, the suits in BMW North America didn’t like it enough to add it to their range, so it was never sold new in the U.S.

But where there’s a will, there’s a way, and this Touring currently for sale on Bring-a-Trailer was acquired by the seller in Germany in 2020 then imported to South Dakota. Although the E36 3-Series was launched in 1990, a wagon version was slow to arrive, so BMW continued to offer the older E30 Touring until 1994, a year after this car was built.

To help keep the old timer fresh a dozen years after the E30 had first appeared, BMW came up with Design Edition models featuring special paint and interior trim. Which is why this fairly humble 3-Series ended up wearing the stunning Daytona Violet paint more commonly seen on the E36 M3, E34 M5, and E31 8-Series, and not available to regular versions of the 3-Series Touring.

Related: Dry Ice Cleaning And Detailing A BMW E30 318i Makes It Look As Good As New

https://youtu.be/AqdEB-TLjjE

It appears that only 200 such Tourings were built, each also benefiting from 15-inch BBS cross-spoke alloys and BMW sports seats upholstered with special Design Edition fabric. We’d happily yank that ugly airbag wheel for an earlier three-spoke M-Tech version, but it’s nice to see a crack-free dashboard and digital trip computer.

Also nice to see would be an inline-six under the hood. Sadly, this car is a lowly 316i, meaning it’s powered by a 1.6-liter M40 inline-four that makes just 99 hp (101 PS), and 104 lb-ft (141 Nm) of torque. But that meek motor is at least connected to a five-speed manual transmission. It’s covered 124,000 miles (201,000 km) and the listing explains the seller has added just 1,000 of those miles.

Incredibly, despite its tiny production run, this isn’t the only 1993 Daytona Violet E30 Touring in the U.S. We’ve come across at least two more, including this one tested by YouTuber Tedward last year.

Could you live with a meager 99 horses if it meant owning a cool E30 wagon in the coolest color available (my editor thinks he could)? Leave a comment and let us know.