Here's Why the BMW 850CSi Was the Best BMW of the 1990s

this is a 1995 bmw 850 csi and it is the coolest bmw of the

1990s

and yes i understand all the implications behind saying that and i also understand that the z8 came out in the year 2000. Today i am going to take you on a tour of the 850 csi and by the end of this video I suspect you will agree that you don't want to own any 90's BMW more than this one. Before I begin my walkthrough, I'll give you a brief overview of the 850 csi. Now the BMW 8 Series was sold in the United States from 1991 to 1997. It was the flagship coupe model, it was the two-door companion to the BMW Series luxury sedan, just as the Mercedes CL was to the Mercedes S Class, Although the 8-Series was sportier, the base model in the 8 Series range was the 840i, later the 840 ci which used a v8 with approximately 300 horsepower.

T

here

was also the 850i, later the 850 ci which used a 5 liter v12 which also had around 300 horsepower but had a lot more torque and then at the top of the lineup was this one, the 850 csi, the model ultra high performance used a 5.6 liter v12 which later formed the basis of the engine that was in the famous mclaren f1, the 850 csi had 375 horsepower and each of the 850 csi had a six speed manual transmission, making it one of the few stick shift v12s today. The 850 csi is incredibly rare. BMW only made about 1500 of these worldwide making this car as rare as a Ferrari F40 or Porsche Carrera GT of those 1500 only 225 were imported to North America and this is one of only 225 when this car was new.

The original window sticker price in 1995 was approximately 105,000, which translates to approximately 175,000 in today's money. and these things are becoming collectible, values ​​are rising and really good examples of these can sell for around a hundred thousand dollars. Today I'm going to take you on a tour of the 850 csi and show you the cool stuff. quirks and interesting features of the most expensive BMW you could buy in the mid-

1990s

, so I'll take this out on the road and see how it drives and then I'll give it an excellent rating and for More of my thoughts on the 850 csi, please do Click the link below to go to autotrader.com oversteer, w

here

I've also compiled a list of some other BMW models currently for sale on Autotrader that are sure to be valuable collectibles soon right now. quarks.

I'm going to start by just going in. The 850 csi has a normal door handle like most BMWs of this era, but the door handle BMW Motorsport says was unique to the 850 CSI. It's one of the few ways you can do it. Tell an 850 csi from a normal 850 from the outside. Now, once you open the door, you are faced with the door panel, which is quite a luxurious affair. It's also a pretty heavy door, since it's a long coupe. A couple of interesting things on the door. Panel one is that there is a small coin holder right next to the window, so when you approach a toll booth you can open the coin holder and stick the coins into the toll booth, which was a typical German innovation from that time, perhaps.

Most interesting is the fact that there is an air vent in the door, which is unusual, but perhaps even more unusual is the fact that there are controls for the air vent in the door next to the vent. You can increase or decrease the flow using this. A little dial next to the vent now, the next thing you notice when you get into this car is the fact that the door sill says m, which of course is BMW's performance brand, except this car doesn't It's a car the 850 csi and not the m8 well that's true the door sale is factory they came from the factory with the m door cell and here's a little piece of automotive geek trivia for all of you bmw vins bmw built in germany, start with wba all.

BMW m sizes start with wbs, the vin of this car, although it is not an m8, starts with wbs, it is the only exception in the entire history of bmw to that rule, it is the same story with bmw engines and cars m and only bmw m cars. they have their internal engine code starting with s, presumably for sports, this car has an internal engine code starting with s, suggesting that perhaps they intended to build this as an m car, the door sill , the vin, the engine code, and yet for some reason, wasn't there some debate about why that didn't happen?

But this car wasn't called the M8, it was called the 850 CSI despite all those markers traditionally associated with a BMW M car and the M elements inside this car go beyond the door. thresholds and the vin code and the engine this car also has m stitching on the steering wheel in the m colors and it has the m colors on the gear lever and of course i already showed you the bmw motorsport door handles there are many theories as to why this car wasn't actually an m car maybe it was too big for the m division they never made it m7 but either way this is kind of a half m half normal bmw but of course the m touches aren't the only things that Note that when you walk in, one of the biggest things you notice the moment you open the door of this car is how many buttons it had, in addition to being a v12 stick shift high performance car, it was also a tremendously luxury car. expensive, so it has everything, one of the first things you'll notice when you get into this car is that everything in this interior is basically oriented towards the driver, everything in the center controls, even the center air vents, are all oriented towards the driver. car and this emphasized that point, in fact that meant that all the strange buttons and switches were turned towards the driver and I'm going to start with the headlight switch which is one of the strangest headlight switches I have ever seen. life, it's not just this little one.

The circular dial rotates like in virtually any other car, instead it is this small dial that moves up and then rotates around the current position of the headlights. Very strange, interestingly, this car also uses that switch for the fog lights on the other side. the gauge cluster then transitions to the steering wheel. I really think what's interesting about the steering wheel is the fact that this is one of the first BMWs with airbags and back then BMW didn't know how to put an airbag in and make their logo colored so it would have the BMW on the steering wheel, but it's just black.

The steering wheel is also interesting. The steering wheel on this car is electrically adjustable, which would have been a big deal in 1995 and is still a big deal today. The memory settings were not only for the seat, but also controlled the position of the steering wheel, which was very progressive, but for over a hundred thousand dollars, it would be better to have moved on to other interesting elements, starting with the head unit. radio. It's from a later BMW, but I always like the fact that these BMW head units say on BMW Business CD for the business person who wants to play a CD.

I don't know, I never really understood what that meant, but everyone said. at that point the next step is the heated seat control of course this car has heated seats it is a luxury car and turning them on is interesting press this little switch next to the transmission lever and it lights up red with these little heating lines or if you want less heat you press the switch down and you only get a little heating line but I like how it lights up of course there is a heated seat for the driver and a heated seat for the the passenger, another interesting element in the central control console of this car.

It was made in the days before screens and especially before touch screens in the center, but it gives you the ability to check all kinds of different vehicle information, such as fuel consumption, outside temperature, average speed, fuel range, you just press these little buttons and those various things light up, but as you can see some pixels are burned out because BMW used these pixel displays on all of their cars in the late 80s and throughout the 90s and today there are burned pixels on each of those screens. I've always found it interesting, this was really a precursor to what later became idrive and all the other infotainment systems that now give you all the information you could ever want to know.

Also interesting in the middle are the climate controls and specifically the climate control. that allows you to change the temperature, they weren't that rare in the '90s and '80s on luxury cars, but they are very strange today, these little dials that you just turn and they get less blue and then more red as you go from cold to hot it is not a screen like in modern cars or small buttons that you press and simply change the temperature another interesting element inside this car lower the sun visor it looks like a normal sun visor open the mirror it looks like a normal er but up the sun visor and the Mirror lighting is not one but two lights so you can look at yourself with amplified lighting.

That's what you got when you paid the equivalent of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars for a car in 1995, two mirror lights in the visor and Speaking of mirrors, now we must discuss one of the strangest interior quirks of this car and that It would be the switch on the interior mirror that turns the dimmer on and off. Now I understand why you would want a switch to turn the dimmer on and off. but why is there this giant dial that you turn? All you have to do is turn it on and off. It may be the smaller switch, but instead it's this huge circle that actually takes away a little bit of your visibility when you're in the car.

It's very strange and then we go down to the center of the center console where you'll find the phone, ah, yeah. , the telephone, because you couldn't have a luxury car in this era and not have a telephone, people who spent this amount of money. in a vehicle it had to be accessible while driving, of course none of these phones still work today which is a shame but there is simply no support for them but I can imagine a time when you are sitting in your 850 csi. Hi Yes. I'm going 150 on the highway, I'll be at the office in five minutes, and then of course you'd pull up your business CD and then move on to a couple of interesting items on the passenger side of the CSI, starting with the glove box.

If you look here, you'll see perhaps one of the most intuitive glove box latches I've ever seen: there's an upper glove box and a lower glove box and there's a keyhole that encompasses both of them, so when you turn the keyhole you lock both. gloves. boxes at a time is a brilliant design, except when this car came out in 1995 it became very clear that luxury car buyers wanted dual airbags, so the upper glove box became an airbag. There is only one lower glove box on this car but they kept the latch so it looks like there is a latch to open the upper glove box but there isn't when you turn that lock it only locks the lower glove box so the lower glove box has a couple very interesting features.

My favorite is the cup holders in this car. It doesn't have cupholders anywhere else, but this time cupholders were also becoming common in luxury cars, so BMW added them to the glove box. They are the least sturdy cupholders ever, but you get two cupholders in this car. I would just do it. I never put anything in them. Another item you will find in the glove box of this car is a flashlight. Virtually every high-end German car of this era had a flashlight in the glove box, including this one, and check it out. it actually works so if you're on the side of the road you're stranded maybe you need to change the tire you have at least some illumination from that flashlight of course this was in the days before phone flashlights cell phones and talking about glove box and storage in this car it's worth noting that there is a kind of hidden storage compartment, the 850 csi, which is in the door panel and it is this leather storage that is underneath, basically, everything else on the door panel, you wouldn't really know is there. unless you're looking for it, but it's a good place to put things if you're mad that BMW took away your second glove box.

Next, we move on to the rear seats of the 850 csi. Yes, this car has back seats even though this was. A sports car with a stick shift v12, it was also a grand touring car, so you were supposed to be able to put people in the back and go on a grand tour. The interesting quirk about getting into the rear seats is that you can move the front seats forward like that, but there is no way to move them forward along the rails, rather the only way to do this is to press the power setting and then wait. , wait and wait until there is enough room to return, which will never happen. really happens, anyway I'll get into the back seats as usual, it's okay, I did it, it's notSurprising that it's very tight back here, for one thing the seats are at a bit of an angle down so when I sit down I naturally fall back into the car which is kind.

The funny thing is that there is enough room for my hips, but when I put the driver's seat back there is basically no room for my knees, which is really a problem because the front seat is all the way forward and doesn't go forward. later so a driver couldn't sit in this car, but would have to be about three foot seven. Now there are a couple of other interesting things about the back seat of this car, one of which is the fact that the back seat belts come from the center, so when you get in this car don't go over your left shoulder to put on The seat belt, if you are sitting on the driver's side, goes over your right shoulder because the seat belts come out of the middle.

Another interesting element coming out of the middle is a center armrest to increase your comfort when sitting in the back seat. I'm sure it helps tremendously inside the center armrest. You will find the first aid kit in this car. Now that I opened this first aid kit. Probably for the first time since this car was sold new over 20 years ago and I discovered some first aid supplies that were probably past their expiration date along with the 1992 CPR guidelines. So if you want to know how they performed CPR 25 years ago just get in the back of an 8 series also interesting in the back of this car is the fact that there are no rear window switches the rear windows on this car roll down but The back seat passengers can't lower them, there's no way, but if I were sitting back here, I just had to ask.

It is also interesting that the driver lowers the rear windows to breathe. Also interesting is the fact that the rear seats fold down, no, they don't fold down to allow you to put cargo in the trunk and have it go to the passenger compartment. Simply fold down to reveal carpet instead of leather. I guess the theory was that you could put cargo in here instead of people, which, frankly, is probably a more practical way to use the back seats anyway. Next, I'll move on to the exterior and I want to start by talking about those rear windows.

Check it out. All the windows are down in this car right now and it's just a giant open space. Virtually every other modern car has a pillar between the front and rear windows as a structure and it's cheaper and easier. build it that way and it's obviously much more common, but this is really cool. BMW never made a convertible version of this car, but with the windows open it feels like the interior is open to the world. I love it and I love how it looks. With the windows down there are now a couple of other interesting exterior quirks and features on this car.

I'm going to start with the mirrors which are very unusual, they look like normal mirrors, especially when you are sitting inside the car but from the outside. They look like they are backwards, they don't flow along the lines of the car, in fact they flow in the opposite direction to the lines of the car. I don't know why BMW designed the mirrors to look like that. but this was the mirror of the 850 csi which was next in the same general vicinity, another very interesting peculiarity. Now it seems that this was the first BMW designed entirely with cad and if you look closely at the wiper you can see that there is a small scuff mark and that is, the wiper hits the underside of the hood, the owner, if this car is convinced that this was BMW's only cad mistake and the beautiful design of this car, they ruined the location of that small area and so every time the wiper goes up to clean the windshield, it scrapes the hood a little, in fact the owner tells me which if you look at other 8 series models pretty much every time you see one you will also see a small scratch on the wiper in that area and speaking of hood let's discuss the hood opening procedure which on this car is quite unusual.

Now start in the normal way. There is a latch under the steering column. The driver's foot pulls it and the hood lifts up from there. Things get strange. There is not just one. A single latch under the hood that you pull and then you can lift the hood. Instead, there are two little tabs, individual tabs, a latch on each side and you don't pull them out, you push them in, you have to push them in basically the same way. time they open and then you can open the hood now, when the hood went up a second ago, you probably saw it, perhaps the most well-known design element of the 850 csi is the pop-up headlights and I wouldn't want to deprive you of that. from the experience of not seeing them in action, so here you go, probably the most interesting quirk of the pop-up headlights is the fact that they are not located in the corner of the hood on most other cars with pop-up headlights.

They placed the headlights in the corner of the hood, so the hood was designed to go around it, which would have been cheaper than what BMW did, which was to seal holes in each hood to account for the pop-up headlights, but that's it. the situation on this car because the headlights have to be fixed per government regulation they stay solid when the hood is open and that's why there are just these giant holes in the hood when you open a couple other interesting things under the hood of this car, take a look These hood hinges are unnecessarily complicated.

I don't really know what to say about them except for the fact that they seem over the top, but they were the Germans and that was their thing, another interesting thing under the hood, unlike any other car. This car has two washer fluid reservoirs, one is for normal washer fluid and the other is for intensive fluid. Pull the washer fluid lever on the steering column towards you for normal fluid or push it out if your windshield is especially dirty and requires a more serious fix and then we move on to the trunk there are a couple of interesting things in the trunk Of this car, one of which is simply the way you open it, there is no obvious latch or even a keyhole on the outside of the car.

All of that is hidden under the BMW logo, above the license plate. When you open the trunk, you're rewarded with a surprisingly spacious and well-carpeted cargo area, befitting a grand tourer like the 8 Series. I also like this little tray underneath most BMWs. trunks, you open it and it includes all the tools so you can stay here and work on your tools, they're right at eye level and perfectly parallel, you can just open this thing, you take out your tire iron, you take out your screwdriver, whatever you need to work on your 850 csi on the side of the road, another cool feature on that tray, how about the cool graphic printed on the plastic showing an old serial from 1987 to demonstrate how to use the emergency warning triangle.

It is also interesting in the trunk, the eight. The series has two batteries. You can see one is required here because it was filled with what were considered complicated electronic components at the time. The other battery is on the other side of the trunk to distribute the weight. They are connected in parallel. This warning label reminds you. You know that disconnecting them is more dangerous than a normal car battery and those are the quirks and features of the 850 csi, the flagship of the eight series, BMW's flagship in the 1990s, now it's time to take it out to road. and find out how good the 850 csi drives by driving the 850 csi manual v12, that's something special, there aren't many of those, you know, it's funny, the cars of this era just didn't sound like modern cars, man, modern cars, the exhaust note is such an important component of why people buy cars, these older cars, it was almost like they were trying to mute it to keep it as a luxury car, keep it subtle, here we go, wow, it really is shocking how fast What is this car and it is. smooth power this is this is this car makes power like an old, you know, like an s600 or something, I mean, you know, when you drive a sports car, the s2000 is probably as fast as this car and when it gets to seven Eight thousand nine thousand rpm is shaking and you know you have upshifts.

I looked down when I was at the red line and didn't even notice, which is surprising. I love the fact that I can throttle a downshift on a v12. the coolest feeling in the world because you know I drive some V-12's but I never stick shift and when it's stick shifts it's Ferraris with closed shifters and you're nervous and you're not really in the door it makes it difficult but on this one car BMW shifters and transmissions are very easy to operate, the clutch is buttery smooth in this car and changing gears is insanely easy, I mean it feels like it honestly feels like you are driving a 318 e3318i.

It's that simple until you step on it, the other thing that's really cool about this car is that not only is everything completely original, but everything is good, everything looks good, that's just how it was. I feel like I'm having the 1995 experience man, just drop the hammer and go and of course it's tremendously comfortable too. I mean, this seat is just this luxurious leather. It is a surprisingly soft leather. A soft seat cushion. I mean, this is the kind of car. It's fun to step on it and feel it. The v12 pulls and is for changing gears, but I feel like I could shift into 6th and just sit on the highway at 90 or 100 all day.

You know, one of the things I really like about this car is that it's The look is so nice, it's a subtle look on the outside, there's no crazy big wing, there's no way to tell it's like this ultra special v12 . I mean, this was an era where if you wanted to make a special car, you could. subtle and it blended in and the nice thing was having a dream that no one knew you were in a special car one of the things I like about driving German cars sir especially the really nice ones like this one everything feels really solid driving here. normal street normal speeds buying a hyundai going 20 the thing feels very good it feels very smooth the ride is very smooth I suspect the result of that is that it probably doesn't handle like a sports car and this is not one of those clutches where you You get into traffic and you're like, oh damn, the clutch is pretty easy, it's easy to operate, it doesn't have one of those weird things, seriously, it handles, it looks like it's great, but I get the feeling.

Driving 20 minutes like I am now, I feel like this car was designed for high speed, bruising, high speed passing, I mean I could sit here and do this and drop my foot and go from 60 to 90 to pass , someone slows down. First of all, matching downshift is easy, I know, I feel like I've driven this car for hundreds of years, uh, I just got in it though because it makes it so easy, it's so easy to press the accelerator does exactly what you would do I hope It accelerates very quickly, especially for the V-12, and I'm surprised that the clutch and shifter are very easy to operate, but there is some slackness in the center, there is some body roll.

I'm surprised that the turn-in just isn't uh, it's just not that precise, I mean, that's what it was, although I've never driven a car from this era where it was like, oh my gosh, it's so precise, that's really something that has only happened in the last four or five years. They've really figured out how to eliminate all that vagueness associated with when you start turning, you go through that curve. This car is

best

on long straights, but also, in wide sweeping corners, you can drop the hammer and just push your way. comes out of a corner and feels great so that's the 1995 bmw 850 csi one of the most memorable bmw models most people consider the bmw 8 series to be a failure it was a big heavy bmw which never sold so well and bmw. it never completely replaced the 8 series although they supposedly planned it too soon but the 850 csi was the shining star with its v12 and its stick shift and its bmw m wagon and i strongly suspect the values ​​of these will only continue to rise and now is the time Give it a dig score starting with the weekend categories and the 8 series' styling was considered bloated when it came out, but as the cars have gotten bigger it now looks sleek and svelte and gets eight out of ten acceleration : Does 0-60 in 5.9 seconds, giving it a 4 out of 10.

Next up is the handling, it's okay but it's not exactly a stylish sports car designed for twisty roads, it's a great cruiser and gets a 5 out of 10. The cool factor is high, this is a big deal if I know what it is and that brings it down to a 7 out of 10. In terms of importance, it's a special BMW and in fact the coolest BMW of the 1990s, and obtains a 7 out of 10, which raises the total score of theweekend at 31 out of 50. Next up are the daily categories, starting with features. The 850 csi had everything for 19.95 but of course over time things have moved on and it now gets a 4 out of 10.

Comfort is next and the 850 csi is surprisingly comfortable and spacious as long as we are up front. , gets a 7 out of 10. The next step is quality and I think the interior is magnificent, very nice materials and very solid, much better than new BMWs, but I wouldn't necessarily want to be responsible for maintaining one that is now 25 years old upon release, it gets a 6 out of 10. In practical terms, it has a decent trunk but small rear seats and only 2 doors, giving it a 4 out of 10. Finally, there is a value, it's hard to assign. This car, as it involves predicting the future, are expensive at the moment, but I suspect their values ​​will increase and I give it a 7 out of 10.

Which brings the total daily score to 28 out of 50. Add it all up and the total score of Doug is 59 out of 100, which is decent for a car of this era. Perhaps more interesting is a comparison of the 850 csi with some similar cars, some older BMWs and the Porsche 928 GTS. The 850 CSI outperforms most of these competitors. it scores behind the e46 m3 and 928 gts in the weekend categories, but beats them in daily scoring, which makes sense given the 8 series' grand tourer capabilities, but the e39 m5 beats it in everything, which which is not surprising, since it is one of the great and complete ones.