We’ve been thinking a lot about Alpina lately. It’s mere months until the long-time BMW tuner is fully absorbed into the Munich mothership, and once that process is complete, we’re not entirely sure what it’ll wind up looking like.
It seems, though, that the days of full-on Alpina-badged models might be coming to an end, and that’s a real shame, because its cars have always been quite spectacularly cool. Going down the route of understated luxury and grand touring prowess rather than the raw handling of BMW’s in-house M models, they’ve long been the ultimate automotive embodiment of ‘if you know, you know’.
Alpina B10 3.2 – rear
And all this reminiscing has, of course, got us looking at the classifieds for anything Alpina-fettled, specifically at the bottom end of the market. For a while, that’s generally meant leggy examples of the E90 3 Series-based turbodiesel D3 – still cool, but a bit predictable. But today, something else caught our eye.
It’s a 1998 Alpina B10 3.2, one of several Alpina models based on the fan-favourite E39 5 Series. The 3.2 used the 2.8-litre straight-six-powered 528i as its basis, but Alpina gave it a thorough going-over. Displacement was increased (to 3.2 litres, obvs), lighter, higher-compression pistons were fitted, the cylinder head and combustion chambers were modified, and the engine management was reprogrammed.
Alpina B10 3.2 – interior detail
The resulting powerplant produced 260bhp and 243lb ft of torque, but better yet, in something of an Alpina rarity, that was all sent to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. Alpina quoted a 0-62mph time of 6.5 seconds and a 162mph top speed. Underneath, it received new dampers and anti-roll bars and an all-round set of vented brake discs, all shared with the more powerful but auto-only B10 V8.
Best of all, it looks as cool as an Alpina should. The pinstriping, the big, many-spoked wheels and the various bits of wood trim are all present and correct. All of this coolness would probably normally be worth more than the £6975 being asked for this car, but there are a couple of very big asterisks.
Alpina B10 3.2 – interior
Mostly, it boils down to the fact that it’s almost driven to the Moon. That’s not an exaggeration – it’s covered just over 233,000 miles. Put another 6000 on it and it’ll have travelled further than Apollo 11 did in 1969. Even for a car designed to cover big, understressed miles, a figure like that obviously comes with a few warnings attached – especially since it’s on a 1990s German luxury car.
Auto Trader’s data also flags that this particular car was imported to the UK (it also says, inexplicably, that it has seating for eight). The sparsely written ad doesn’t give details, but we assume that, since it’s right-hand drive and the country has a big Alpina scene, it’s come from Japan. That’s usually good news in terms of car condition, but obviously means its pre-import history is going to be a bit hazy.
Alpina B10 3.2 – front
The MOT data shows that it started getting tested in the UK in 2022, and in all fairness, while every test since has thrown up an advisory or three, it’s never failed one. Its usage on our horrid, damp, crusty roads appears to have been sparing, too.
If its condition really is as respectable as it seems, then it almost seems like a bargain too good to be true, in spite of its galactic mileage. And if it does go horribly wrong, the seller’s at least throwing in the private plate too, so you could make a few hundred quid back selling that to another B10 owner.
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