BMW Z1 review

It was £36k new all those decades ago. Used prices dropped below £20k for a while, then crept back up towards the new sticker. Now it's upwards of £75k for a borderline-boxfresh one, and slightly more tired examples are below £40k. Look after it and your asset won't depreciate, but the Z1 isn't yet on the crazy-money trajectory that has sent Z8 prices into the £300k orbit.

BMW built 8,000, most of them delivered new to Germany. All were LHD, so the easiest way to tell a UK or American car is the imperial instruments.

You won't find rust in the structure (unless it's a botched crash repair) or the panels. Instead the panels can get brittle and start to crack, especially around the door closure where there's big stress. Tired doors will squeak as they move, and scratch the trim if out of adjustment.

The interior leather is scuff-prone, especially along the sills where repeated swung-over legs leave their mark. If it's one with the Nubuck trim option, that's impossible to keep looking new. Dark leather colours quickly faded in the sun.

The principal mechanical entrails and the switchgear are from various vanilla BMWs and reasonably sortable or replaceable. Make sure the engine gets a cambelt change at £50k miles or so. If it needs a sump, you're looking for the one from a LHD 325iX.

There are so few gadgets, not even air-conditioning, so that reduces the potential for grief.

With such a mild engine, an unmodified one won't be expensive to insure on a classic policy.