Hey guys, now that the S52 car is done (well kinda, it put down 233 at the wheels then promtply popped the headgasket, should have that rectified in the next few weeks) I want to get another E30 as a DD. Looking for a clean, rust free, well maintained car. Little rough around the edges is OK, but I want a solid car I can pick up and drive for a few years and not have to worry about much. My ideal E30 would be a '91 318is. But will consider others, 2dr and 5spd only. Might consider a 'Vert or early model if the right DEAL came along. Cars in the New Jersey area and cheap are even better as I'm looking at having GutenParts in Maplewood, NJ put together a car for me. However, I am willing to fly anywhere in the 48 states and drive the car back to Tulsa. $4000-4500 is the budget, let me know if you have anything or know of anything.
You don't want a Jersey car- it'd be all rusty. Find one here in Charlottesville, and I'll look it over for you. You should be able to find a mint car for your budget.
Thank you for the kind offer! It appears as though I have stumbled upon a clean '91 318is. We are very close to having a deal worked out. Will update later, I'm excited to be getting the "poor mans M3" as my new DD.
Holy crap, $4000 for an E30??? Please don't tell me you're actually gonna pay anything close to that...
I'm pretty sure Grant cited this site (ha, that sounds funny) in another thread, and I was fishing around and found some healthy-looking E30s (and a gorgeous E39 540i manual...WANT) for good prices. Check it out: http://www.bmwwholesale.net/
Nice site - they have a red high mileage e30, but you still have him beat Botond - only 319,000 on theirs.
A clean, well maintained, tastefully modded E30 with reasonable miles is easily worth that much. I gave $4200 for my Bronzit car, had SSRs new tires, clutch and underhood maintenance, Dinan chip and exhaust, Eibach sways/GC coilovers.
This will shock you - I've looked at a couple in northern New England that were in the $7 and $8's. BUT they were exceptional, low mileage, transplanted from the south never winter driven, never rusted, low mileage - 40 or 60k, great service records and everything freshly done, etc. Yes, it sounds like a lot of money, but, you would have an exceptional car, with character, probably pretty dependable. It would be unlike most cars on the road, for the price of a well used late model civic. (Not that there's anything wrong with civics!)
It seems like you've built the ultimate E30. I am curious why you're not thinking of it as a DD? So what are your first impressions of a 318i? (....you're not thinking about putting a V12 in it are you???)
Just rolled over 335k, and this is just what I know of. Well, a very well maintained E30 with records to prove is always worth more. But, for $4200, I'd expect it to be ultra special, and I hope you don't take it the wrong way, but Bronzit definitely ain't $4k special. And for that price it had better be rust free. Would be nice to have a rust-free car myself, but it just isn't possible here where I live. Ah, see for $7-8k, I'd expect an S5x engine hiding in there somewhere. You can find something just as nice, but a lot newer, for the same price. There is a point where no matter how old a car is, its value just shouldn't exceed a certain amount, even with unbelieveable quality and mileage. The exception is collector's cars, of course, but an E30 definitely isn't a collector's car unless it's an M3. You guys may think that a pristine E30 with low mileage is worth that much, but in the real world that just doesn't make sense. But, as enthusiasts, we tend to be biased. Gawd, I just heard some rice... err, I mean, a Civic... blow by my house sounding like it was about to explode.
"The exception is collector's cars, of course, but an E30 definitely isn't a collector's car unless it's an M3. You guys may think that a pristine E30 with low mileage is worth that much, but in the real world that just doesn't make sense." Yea Botond, that's the rub right there. For me it's a balance to have something solid and clean, but not over the line that I don't dare enjoy it and drive it. Though I might love to have a collectible, I need to enjoy it.
HEAR, HEAR!!! My thoughts exactly. What good is a car if you can't appreciate and enjoy the way it drives on a daily basis?! That said, I'm going nuts not having Snowflake here with me at school...mreh...
Build your S5x car on a clean, rust free shell (the right way, not half assed) and then sell it to me for $7k. No offense, but you sound like all the 19 year olds on R3V who haven't actually built one of these up, so you don't know what it ACTUALLY costs to do so. My friends and I did all the work ourselves, I got a smoking deal on the S52 and just in the motor portion of the swap (I also refreshed the suspension) was around $5k. I'd have to add up to see exactly. Now throw in coilovers, E36 rack, new control arms, M3 CABs, new tie rods, new fuel pump, etc etc etc. BrianA, because I ended up making the suspension setup a bit too geared toward fun use. 550/750 spring rates on the coilovers, big brake kit up front (did add like 100whp), pulled the AC and power steering. The 318is will remain mostly stock (it's already on coilovers, with Euro smilies HIDs, Euro grills, and some other goodies) with the exception of putting a nice set of wheels on it and driving it. I'll also probably swap my black sport interior from the S52 car into it.
HA! who said I was listening to the darn school?! That's my own policy--don't want my rims getting boosted or my top torn off over here in Philly...but it's wild to see how many other people my age have pretty much every generation of 3-Series around campus. Especially jealous of that chick with the black E46 M3 cabrio <drools> I would definitely look for a sturdy E30 coupe at some point in the future, just for commuting-to-co-op purposes for the next two summers...keep my cabrio safe with my parents in the 'burbs, eventually mod the sanity out of the coupe
[read the following paragraph as though I'm saying it sarcastically, not PO'd, though I am a little of that]: I'm sorry if it doesn't take me "only" a couple of weeks to actually have mine built, but I've been ordering parts as funds allowed over the course of MONTHS, so EXCUSE ME if I didn't actually dump a lump sum of cash on everything at once, because I just cannot afford that. Please do not tell me that I don't know what it actually costs because I've been spending every free dime I've had (after bills have been paid) on this swap for these past months. So once again, I'm sorry that it doesn't seem that I know how much it costs just because I haven't bought everything at once, and I'm sorry that I'm putting it in a mildly rusty chassis despite the fact that there ARE NO RUST-FREE E30'S IN MY AREA that haven't been ABUSED. And I'm sorry if I'm not willing to travel to find one because it just isn't worth my time, money, or effort to go out, search for one, pay a fortune for it, and come back, only to have to pay someone to swap all this stuff into the new chassis. I'm not building my car as a keeper; I'm building it as something that I can "live with" until my insurance rates go down, after which point it's bye-bye E30 and hello M3. So you know it's expensive. And I should know better, because I have to throw 2 grand on top of that for installation. [/quote] Sounds like an excellent daily driver. I wasn't saying $4k is expensive because it's a lot for an E30, I was saying it was expensive for a stock car. But, looking over the old posts I must have missed the one where you said it has coilovers, something that costs over a grand to begin with, so nevermind on that front. If it was stock though, that would sound steep...
