Sad, sad car... 67k mile, one owner, Cali... Rusted to shit.

[PKile]

If somebody is willing to pay 5 grand for a 318, I guess my 325iC must have doubled in value since I bought it in May...

[roguetoaster]

If somebody is willing to pay 3 cents for a 325, I guess my 318i must have doubled in value since I bought it 7 years ago...

Makes just as much sense.

Don't be part of the problem, just embrace all* of the styles and flavors of E30. As well as the owners of those respective models and their personal tastes.

*Yes, even the M10s.

[nrubenstein]

Sad to see it rusted like that, but any competent body shop with a good metal worker should be able to easily patch it up. Whenever I see a low mileage car with "cosmetic" issues I always figure it was involved in some sort of incident that tweaked the panel alignment, which snowballs into rust issues, but I don't know if I see that with this car. If it is properly dismantled, and all the rust is repaired, everything documented, and professionally reassembled I don't see that process hurting the car's value at all. Whatever the case, I just hope this car is enjoyed again by its new owner.

I'm not sure that I would classify a full paint job with panel replacements, and patch jobs at seams as "easy."

I mean, yes, you certainly can fix the (visible) damage, and the undercarriage looks nice (probably because all the salt fell on the top), but there's been a lot of salt running inside frame rails and body panels on that car. If by "easily" you mean "stroke a check for $15k," then sure. I'm not really sure how you think that wouldn't impact the value, though. If this was a genuinely clean car, EAG would already have snapped it up and it would be for sale for $29k (like this functionally identical car: http://enthusiastauto.com/qsearch/?i...orm_display=51 ). As it is, you could fix it up, and you'd see some premium for the mileage, but you won't get back anything like the cost of actually fixing that car.

[Stanley Rockafella]

Dat red tape is AMAZING!!!!

:nice:

[TobyB]

Salt, not fog.

That's a car that's been in salt spray.

And one you'd want to approach very, very carefully. There may be whole
parts of it that just aren't there. Or it might be salvageable.

But it's almost pristine compared to an E30 that's done 5 winters in the rust belt...

t

[flyboyx]

I'm not sure that I would classify a full paint job with panel replacements, and patch jobs at seams as "easy."

I mean, yes, you certainly can fix the (visible) damage, and the undercarriage looks nice (probably because all the salt fell on the top), but there's been a lot of salt running inside frame rails and body panels on that car. If by "easily" you mean "stroke a check for $15k," then sure. I'm not really sure how you think that wouldn't impact the value, though. If this was a genuinely clean car, EAG would already have snapped it up and it would be for sale for $29k (like this functionally identical car: http://enthusiastauto.com/qsearch/?i...orm_display=51 ). As it is, you could fix it up, and you'd see some premium for the mileage, but you won't get back anything like the cost of actually fixing that car.

i agree with this x100.

the poor car is coming unglued from the inside out. how many spots like that are there just under the surface that have yet to show themselves? you can fix the 20 or 30 "blemishes", but a couple years down the road there will be 20 or 30 more.

some time ago, there was a guy in hawaii with a drakar yellow e30m3. it was rusted like this or perhaps worse. he got really pissed off at me for pointing out this very fact about the vehicle he was selling. i sure wish i could talk to whomever ended up with that car today to see what kind of train wreck it turned into.

the reality is that whoever buys any car like this is in for an assbang to the wallet (unless they elect to drive it without fixing anything.) its just never going to stop falling apart.

maybe if you get the body acid dipped, it will only have 5 or 10 new rust spots in a few years instead of 20 or 30.

[jeffnhiscars]

I agree that the body is highly likely to be way worse than we can see and I question if it even has the structural integrity to be safe let alone pass an inspection

[KIRIEIW]

Funny, pictures of the car where taken literally 5 blocks from my house, small world.

[Das Delfin]

You want to see rust and rot? Go to new england. That car isn't nearly as bad as half the cars in the salt belt. But you'd have to buy that car with the understanding that you would drive it for a few years but eventually swap the interior over to another car. It'd be a good beater. So to value it, take how much a beater e30 goes for and add the cost of a nice interior, plastic bumpers, basketweaves with caps, body panels that aren't rusted, etc etc, then consider what you would pay for a good 10 footer. I could easily make a case for buying that car.

We're all worried about our cars being dented or dinged in parking lots or while changing ways. With this car you can have a car that looks good, but you don't have to worry about. Best of both worlds. However I wouldn't pay more than 3500.. which is including driving it for a few years, then swapping the good stuff over to a cheaper car and then parting this one out.

[2mAn]

some time ago, there was a guy in hawaii with a drakar yellow e30m3. it was rusted like this or perhaps worse. he got really pissed off at me for pointing out this very fact about the vehicle he was selling. i sure wish i could talk to whomever ended up with that car today to see what kind of train wreck it turned into.

I think this ended up in the PNW, not 100% sure but it sounds familiar

Cant believe the OP car is at $6400 now...

[bangn]

firewall and plenum chamber shot.



Ive pulled a metric shit tonne of doors down on E30s and never have I seen rust in that spot. There are common spots they do rust and just by seeing that I would write the other 4 doors off.

That car needs a lethal injection. Hate to see the sunroof cartridge

[Kershaw]

Yeah it's crazy the amount of unconventional rust spots it has.

[nrubenstein]

You want to see rust and rot? Go to new england. That car isn't nearly as bad as half the cars in the salt belt. But you'd have to buy that car with the understanding that you would drive it for a few years but eventually swap the interior over to another car. It'd be a good beater. So to value it, take how much a beater e30 goes for and add the cost of a nice interior, plastic bumpers, basketweaves with caps, body panels that aren't rusted, etc etc, then consider what you would pay for a good 10 footer. I could easily make a case for buying that car.

We're all worried about our cars being dented or dinged in parking lots or while changing ways. With this car you can have a car that looks good, but you don't have to worry about. Best of both worlds. However I wouldn't pay more than 3500.. which is including driving it for a few years, then swapping the good stuff over to a cheaper car and then parting this one out.

I completely agree that I would pay money for this car. It's got a lot of great parts that I'd be happy to use.

I disagree that it looks good. (I'm very confident that the exterior looks FAR worse in person.)

And yes, there are many worse cars in the salt belt, but that's not really the point. This car has passed the threshold for awful, pervasive rust. It's a parts car, and that's about it. And unfortunately, it's a 318, so the engine isn't that interesting.

[djjerme]

Yeah it's crazy the amount of unconventional rust spots it has.

IKR?

I've had doors sitting outside in the rain for a while and they still didn't show rust like that. I would assume that thing is Swiss cheese.

[Stanley Rockafella]

I wonder how bad this car looked BEFORE the seller cleaned it up to this point?

:crazy: