'It's lovely - but I was 25 when I ordered it...'
The folks at the BMW Welt showroom-cum-museum recently handed over an effectively brand-new 3.0-litre BMW coupe to a happy customer.
Ordinarily, this would not really be news - BMW must do this tens of thousands of times a year - except that this car was a 1972 BMW 3.0 and the first to be restored to original showroom condition by the BMW Classic Customer Workshop, part of the BMW Classic Centre.
If you're going to get your classic car restored, it's always best to get it done by professionals, we suppose - and who could be more professional than BMW itself?
"We have the theoretical knowledge of the vehicles, the technical expertise, original BMW Parts, and the requisite infrastructure to systematically link it all up," says Ralf Vierlein, BMW Group Classic's boss of sales and aftersales, with some magnificent German understatement.
As well as a complete overhaul of the car - including substantial bodywork repairs - the owner wanted to swap the four-speed manual for an auto, something that had previously been done only with two prototypes of the BMW 3.0 CSi.
BMW isn't mentioning how much the whole shebang cost its customer, but we would imagine more than a couple of euros will have changed hands in return for the restoration...