BMW 2002 (1966 - 1977)

The BMW 2002 helped create the company’s reputation for compact, practical sporting sedans. It took the tidy Neue Klasse formula and condensed it into a lighter two-door body, giving buyers a car that could commute during the week and feel genuinely lively on a back road.

The Turbo version added an even more radical chapter, using forced induction at a time when turbocharging was still exotic in European road cars. Whether considered as the everyday 2002 or the aggressive Turbo, the model is central to BMW history because it established the small, driver-focused recipe that later 3 Series cars would build upon.