WANTED: My father's '76 Malaga 2002. Beige interior. Original NY registration ~October, 1976 in Tarrytown, NY. Sold around 1980... for an E21(!). Any recommendations about how to track down this car? Thanks, Jeff
That seems like a tough one to me, but, nothing I've ever tried to do, either. If you have the serial number, I'd say search out every 2002 owner's group and just throw out the question if anyone might have the car. 35 years is a long time, unless the car was passed only on through enthusiast hands, it seems quite likely it might have gone through a variety of owners, and unless solely a California or southern car the whole time, could have very well succumbed to age & rust, as some areas of 2002's can be rust-prone even in the best of conditions. Google the vin to see if that comes up with anything. If the car was sold to a private party and there's any idea who that was, might be worth trying to trace the succession of owners, but that would only be as successful as finding them all, and if someone's deceased, forgotten whoever they sold it to, or it ended up in a dealer's hands, you might be out of luck. I assume a dealer wouldn't release a record of who they sold a vechicle to for legal confidentiality reasons. That's what comes to mind for me, but others who've actually tried might well have some other suggestions. If you get bit with nostalgia & decide you have to have a 2002, get the nicest car you can afford - just about any kind of restoration work is so expensive & time-consuming, it's a rare day anyone gets their money back out of a project, & there's plenty out there that launched into a car restoration project with unrealistic expectations about the costs involved - very easy to jump into something, rationalize the expenditures up to a point, then hit a point where it's just a whole lot more to keep going and finish it, but already so much money spent there's no chance to sell it and reasonably hope to recoup much of what's been spent already. In that sense, car restoration projects can get to be more about expense-be-damned passion than any kind of realistic practicality. Basket-case cars can be had for virtually nothing, but that's kind of like the old Q: What's the best way to make a million dollars in car racing? A: Start with two million. Yeah, they can be salvageable, but the cost - yikes!
