How much have you spend on your beloved E30?

[jmg]

How much have you spent on your E30? Whether it's a full on restore to concourse or just the minimal to make it drivable?

Note: For you lucky multiple E30 owners, this is for one single E30, maybe the average.

[E30 Wagen]

Across the multiple e30s i've spent money on it's over $30k.

Edit: Including the purchase of the car I'm a little over $10k into the one I want to restore as my daily garage queen.

[lukeADE335i]

Over 9 years I have spent around $12k on it including initial purchase price... but that included a complete suspension and bushings overhaul, a manual swap, M30B35 swap, a set of Alpina reps & tyres, LSD diff, Recaros and paint + a minor amount of chassis straightening after a crash.

If I had left it stock, I probably could halve that cost.

All in all it has been cheap really, although I do all my own wrenching and I bought a well kept car to begin with.

[MrBurgundy]

I'm assuming this is the cost of the car plus everything dumped in afterwards. I'm very happy with the car I have now for what it cost to buy it and the little it needed to get it to the point where I drive the shit out of it. just under 9k



Where's Rob, dude?

[MR E30 325is]

Definitely not concourse material. But it was fully built. Even supercharged for a while.

I totaled up all of my receipts, over 9 years, before I sold my E30 last summer. Just shy of 22k.

I did 99% of the labor as well.

I was out of control as a younger man. Phew.

Second that the Rob option being omitted is a huge let down........

Edit: This does not include gas or insurance or registration costs over 9 years. I didn't keep track of that, which I am glad I didn't.

[MR 325]

Poll fixed.

[flyboyx]

rob bob blob knob slob....kabob

[MrBurgundy]

5 years ago, it would be 90% >5k lol

[estoguy]

I've spent $34,450 in 4 years, 7 months.

However... most of that has been fuel. 65%, which is $22,225... I drive a lot. I've put about 275K km on it since purchase.

Insurance and maintenance makes up the balance. That includes 3 timing belt changes (2 with water pump), full rear subframe refresh, full front suspension refresh, a second trailing arm bushing refresh, 2 sets of brake pads and remanufactured calipers all around. Plus the usual stuff, oil, filters, etc. I've done all the above work except my first set of brake pads and starter replacement.

[ELVA164]

Lock this thread, no good can come of this.

[e30davie]

note all prices AUD.

323i coupe auto unregistered $1700
top end engine rebuild $1500
manual conversion $700
brakes $600
misc $1500

I just bought wheels and seats, first real "mods".....another $1k.

So about 6k as it stands. Reliable fun daily drive that looks cool.

looking at suspension and LSDs now....this could get expensive!

But even still, id like to think by 10k total spend over 2yrs I might have quite fun package. And has kept me busy and entertained on the weekends. That is where the real value is, keeping occupied and having fun.

These cars are supposed to be cheap fun. Each to their own obviously, but spending 40k on one is outrageous. Spend just enough to get them reliable and fun and drive them! mine does around 400km a week and never misses a beat. Racking up the kms? yeah sure, but who cares!

[YosemiteSam]

My friend asked me this the other day, I responded that I had no idea and asked why he asked. He responded that he added up everything that he has spent on his Subi and was shocked how much it was. I responded with a facepalm and the advice to never EVER look at how much you spend on your car.

[Steve L]

I paid too much for my '87 325is. It was offered on eBay by a Miami dealer as "turn key perfect", but was in a sorry state when it arrived off of the trailer. So, I'd spent $12K by the time it rolled up my driveway. But what I had was a one owner, original paint Florida car with a good engine. It was neglected, but very worthy of being refurbished.

Then I spent another $10K in parts to bring it up to a 3+ driver. Weak spots in the original paint kept it from concourse level. That's $22K for a super clean driver with all of the details attended to.

Then my car got sideswiped by a dump truck. The body shop says the damage is $15K. The car is so nice, that I can't bear to send it to the junk yard. Just can't do it.

But that means, I will have an E30 with a bad Car Fax that has $37K in it. I can't believe I'm doing this. There's a pretty little '88 325is in Bring a Trailer that's going for $6K with only one day left of bidding. Someone will have that California car for under $10K.

The economics of the E30 are perplexing. How could such a high quality car that costs so much to rebuild and is so much fun to drive be so undervalued?

[c0rbin9]

Most of what I've put into mine have been maintenance items - hoses, gaskets, etc. - which when you DIY are cheap. For non-moving performance parts like wheels, I buy used, and am very patient when buying. It's not impossible to build a nice car with not much money. I'd say I'm about $7k all-in on mine.

[bradnic]

$7k sounds about right for a DIY good condition driver all sorted.