A "gangster" 1990 BMW is being sold in Belarus for crazy money. They say the car is from Japan

Photo: av.by

The seller assures that the car is in museum condition, completely factory-spec, and has a rare Vulkan-Grau color. They are asking 31,900 dollars for the 35-year-old BMW 5 Series in the E34 body.

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Photo: screenshot from av.by website

The ad states that the car arrived here from Japan only a month ago, and the mileage of 52 thousand is original, with all documents supposedly available to confirm it.

A check of the car by the specified VIN number shows that it indeed belongs to this car and that this BMW rolled off the assembly line on October 1, 1990. Despite Japan having left-hand traffic, the steering wheel in this BMW is factory-fitted on the left side, which, though rare for Japan, is not that big of a deal.

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Photo: av.by

Checking the body number leads to the website of a Latvian company specializing in importing youngtimers and classic cars from Japan. The car is listed there in the database of already sold cars.

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Photo: screenshot from youngtimercar.eu website

The Latvian seller's website has photos of this BMW, which show that the car was indeed in Japan, and photos that, apparently, were taken already in Latvia.

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Photos of this car in Japan. Photo: youngtimercar.eu

At the time of sale in that country, the car's mileage was 49,730 kilometers. Therefore, it turns out that the car first went from Japan to Latvia, and from there to Belarus. The customs clearance date in Belarus is November 4, 2025.

The fact that this is indeed the same car is confirmed by a photo from the av.by ad, where license plate frames with the Latvian seller's website are visible, as well as traces of a "535i" sticker, which was decided to be removed in Belarus, as it is, after all, a 525i version with a 2.5-liter gasoline engine under the hood, not a 3.5-liter one.

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Left image from av.by ad, right - from youngtimercar.eu website

As for the configuration, it's a rather common version for a BMW 5 Series of those years. As for the condition, the car looks really good for its age.

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Photo: av.by

Whether such a price is justified is a difficult question, but from the description in the ad, it appears that the seller is also counting on buyers from Russia. "Customs cleared + electronic passport for Russia made" - the description says.

The BMW 5 Series E34 was produced from 1988 to 1996; during this time, 1,333,412 cars in sedan and wagon bodies were manufactured.

In the post-Soviet space, this model was deciphered as BMW ("Boyevaya Mashina Vymogateley" - "Combat Vehicle of Extortionists") due to the popularity of the "five" in criminal circles. Later, the E34 was often used in films about the gangster 90s, such as "Zhmurki" by Alexey Balabanov.

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