Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 1990 BMW 750iL
If you were an American raking in plenty of money during the late 1980s (perhaps you were arranging "dead cows for dead horses" deals at a conveniently deregulated S&L, for example), then it was expected that you would buy a big, powerful European luxury car. Mercedes-Benz offered the W126 S-Class and its mighty V8 engine, Audi responded with the V8 in 1989 (yes, V8 was the model name), and Jaguar sneered down at those eight-banger losers from a showroom full of V12-engined XJ-Ss. BMW introduced the second-generation 7 Series — the E32 — in the United States for the 1988 model year, and it could be purchased with a V12 engine both more modern and more powerful than the one under the Jag's long hood. Here's a once-resplendent 750iL, found in a Northern California boneyard recently.
Cars like this were a lot more expensive (when you adjust for inflation) 33 years ago than they are now. This car's MSRP was an even $70,000, or about $164,577 in 2022 dollars. You'd have to stack gold bars in the trunk of the most expensive new 7 Series today (the i7) to get the price anywhere near that level.
The king of the S-Classes in 1990, the 560 SEC coupe, cost $81,500. That's about $190,450 in 2022 dollars.
I'd show you the engine, but a junkyard shopper bought it before I got here. It was a 5.0-liter V12 rated at 296 horsepower and 332 pound-feet. Mercedes-Benz answered back with a V12 of its own a couple of years later, in the 600 SEL S-Class (renamed the S600 during 1993).
