Junkyard Find: Toasty 1965 BMW 700

by Murilee Martin

Published: April 29th, 2012

It’s pretty rare that I’m completely stumped by an old car in a self-service junkyard, but at first glance this car looked like some sort of mutant Renault Caravelle, or maybe a member of the Glas family. Then I saw the (somewhat melted) air-cooled boxer twin in the back and knew that those crazy Bavarians must have had something to do with building this car.

Sure enough, it’s a BMW 700, which occupies a place in the BMW family tree somewhere between the not-really-cars Isettas and the high-admission-price Neue Klasse machines.

It’s weird to imagine BMW competing head-to-head with the Type 1 VW Beetle and the Renault Dauphine, but that’s what the 700 was for.

There can’t be many usable parts left on this charred hulk.

Maybe the front suspension and brakes are salvageable. If you’re restoring a 700, any parts car is a treasure trove.

#1960s #1965 #1965BMW700 #BMW #BMW700 #Denver #DownOnTheJunkyard #Junkyard #JunkyardFind

Murilee Martin

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, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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Snakebit on Aug 04, 2012

I see a BMW 700, and I remember how close BMW came in the 1960's to folding their tent. If this car were in showroom condition, and in a museum, it would have a narration placard explaining, this is the car that almost killed BMW. It would be next to an '02' BMW (1602,1802, 2002) whose placard would read, this is the car that saved BMW. Save for a handful of loyal 700 fans, there is nothing to me redeeming about the 700. CJinSD posted, "Only rear engined, air cooled Porsche prices are crazier than BMW 700 prices." Honestly, with all respect due to CJinSD, that situation is truly 'crazy' if it's true. And yes,BMW cars and I go back a ways. Out of high school, I worked for a dealership that was one of the first to sell BMW 1600 coupes and 2000CS coupes. In college in the early 1970's, two of my mates and I drove 2002's, one being a tii(not mine-sad to say), I still have my first 3-Series, a '87 325iS, and my current DD is a 328Ci, each one better than the last, and the first one was outstanding to begin with.

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- CJinSD on Aug 05, 2012
  
  BMW sold 23,000 of their 'big' cars between 1952 and 1965. That includes all 501s, 502s, 503s, 2600s, 3200s, 507s, and 3200CSs. They weren't competing on an equal footing with VW or Mercedes. The 700 was a sales-friendly version of the 600, which evolved from the Isetta. There were fewer than 35,000 600s sold over three years before the 700, and BMW was at death's door when the 700 was released in 1959. BMW received 25,000 orders for 700s when it was revealed at the 1959 Frankfurt Motor Show, which is what kept them from being absorbed by Daimler-Benz and funded development of the 1500.
  
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-Nate on Jan 01, 2013

I've not seem one of these in 30 + years , also at a Pick-A-Part but in near perfect sahpe it was at the time , sadly no one wanted it & it was crushed for scrap . -Nate

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