Start with what the BMW 501 is: a sedan (car) / 4-door sedan/saloon / Cabriolet (automobile) / 2-door cabriolet / coupé / 2-door coupé with 1971 , built from 1952 to 1962, at the height of the post-war boom. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Peter Szymanowski.
Where it came from
The BMW 501 was a luxury car manufactured by BMW from 1952 to 1958. Introduced at the first Frankfurt Motor Show in 1951, the 501 was the first BMW model to be manufactured and sold after the Second World War, and the first BMW automobile actually built in Bavaria.
The 501 and its derivatives, including the V8 powered BMW 502, were nicknamed “Baroque Angels” for their graceful if dated styling by the German public. The BMW 502 was the first postwar German car to be manufactured with a V8 engine. While the 501 and 502 model numbers were discontinued in 1958, variations of the model, with the same platform and body, were continued until 1963.
Under the skin
The engine is 1971 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1340 kg or more. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2835 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the Bmw line-up the BMW 501 has a clear place: it replaced the BMW 326; it handed the line to the BMW 2500 / 2800 ‘New Six’. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Cadillac Eldorado, the Toyota Land Cruiser, the Chevrolet Corvette. Nearby in the Bmw catalogue sit the BMW 116 and the BMW 269.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the BMW 501 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.