A body shop in Bulgaria has posted some incredible pictures onto its Facebook page showing 11 essentially never-before-driven 1994 BMW 5 Series (E34s) just sitting there. Alone. Yearning to carve some mountain roads. Here’s a close look.
Posted by Bozhurishte, Bulgaria-based body shop Център за БОРБА с Ръждата, the images and video below show an old factory in Blagoevgrad filled with historic black and red Bavarian sheetmetal with pristine, still plastic-wrapped, interiors.
I spoke with the shop over Facebook messenger, and the representative told me that the owner of the BMW 520is and 525is doesn’t want folks talking about him, so the story of how these E34s—which Център за БОРБА с Ръждата told me are “absolutely new” with between two and five miles on their odometers—wound up here will remain a bit of a mystery for now, though the shop did give a bit of background, and it has to do with tax.
“They bought more than 300 cars from a bankrupted Spanish dealer and they thought that they could [get] good business with [the cars],” the shop rep told me. “But 1995 the VAT appeared in Bulgaria and some other changes were made by the government and it became hard to sell these expensive cars,” the person continued. “Yes they we even thinking of making a [rental] car business, to sell part of them to the government, etc.”
The rust repair shop suspects that the cars were at a Bulgarian BMW dealership outside for a few years prior to being moved, and while the person doesn’t know how long the cars have been wrapped up in this factory, they guess it’s “more than 15 [years].”
A number of folks in the Facebook comments seem keen on getting their hands on these basically-undriven 5 Series sedans (and one wagon), and have apparently even sent the workshop offers. But according to the spokesperson, it’s up to the owner to decide how to proceed, going on to say that there will likely be an auction at some point.
As for when or where that auction will be held, or how much the cars—which have a few exterior blemishes, but appear in excellent shape inside and underneath—will fetch, we just don’t know. Motor1 does cite Bulgarian website Autoclub as saying the expected price will 15,000 euro per car. When asked about this, the Bulgarian auto body shop simply responded with a thumbs up, apparently confirming the figure.
Hopefully we’ll learn more about these amazing, well(ish)-preserved machines in the future. Until then, check out Център за БОРБА с Ръждата for more fascinating images.