Is an E30 prestigious?

[FredK]

Newman got me thinking... do people on r3vlimited think that an E30 is prestigious?

Think about the connotations of the word, prestigious, before you blindly vote.

Prestige:

• It is a BMW (Worst. Reason. Evar.)
• You get to drive away from street races in a BMW. After getting spanked by a Honda Odyssey.
• You can even adapt some Volvo parts to it. Volvo is a renowned Swedish auto manufacturer.

Not cool:

• A homeless man with 500 bucks can buy one
• It looks like a 1991 Nissan Sentra
• Out of the box, slow as balls
• Out of the box, handles like shit
• It's old
• It's usually rusty
• Cabins usually smell musty, like Farbin Kaiber after he runs around 400 meters on a hot summer's day in Idaho.

Not salient:

• It's RWD. This has nothing to do with the word prestige.

[Ryan Stewart]

No but some people only see the roundel.

[Jonny Cash]

false. Yer whole post is false.

(except the sentra thing)

I beleive the e30 was prestigous. Until a fwd Taurus SHO won the lemons event.. And next year when an fwd Eldorado wins, everyone will crush their e30's, rendered useless.

[TexasTerp]

I just had to vote for the HS comment, other than that, no, not really.

[newman]

There was a dude on here or maybe r3v that I know who did a whole bunch of ridiculous riced body work to his $500 e30, painted it pink, etc. The whole community made an uproar "why would you do that to an E30, omg, do that to a civic, etc"

It made it pretty clear that people thought it was some sort of fucking gem that he trashed.

In my eyes, an e30 is no cooler than a 240, older camaro, etc
It's only slightly cooler than civics, neons, and cavaliers because it's RWD.

[Jonny Cash]

If they were even somewhat rare that would be one thing. But theres enough shitboxes to go around. That said, lets do an annual E30 demo derby.

[Bimmerman325i]

^ isn't that LeMons?

No, not prestigious, just like how E36s aren't either.

[Jonny Cash]

No, not at all. Lemons race is actually a pretty serious event.

Im talking about a king of the hill, no holds bard type of thing around a circle track, preferably dirt. clipping bumping smashing people, maybe even throw some jumps in there.

[newman]

^ isn't that LeMons?

No, not prestigious, just like how E36s aren't either.

E36s are the worst. E46 M3s still have some clout, but they're getting pretty "played" lol

[chadthestampede]

I think any enthusiast owned car carries with it a bit of prestige, if only to the owner.

I don't, however, think the e30 carries with it any prestige in the traditional sense. Sure, some people may think it was the best car bmw ever built, but other people may think an e28 was, or a 2002.

The snobbiness from e30 owners comes I think partially from the fact that it is a bmw, seriously, no matter how old. There is an automatic positive reaction when people ask me what I drive and I tell them a bmw. Even when I tell them it's not that impressive, they still think of it as a bmw. There is usually an automatic negative reaction when they actually see the car. 'Oh.' is the usual response. Which is why I hate talking to people about my car. There is a stigma attached. An expectation, if you will. An expectation that with my clapped out heap I will likely never meet.

The other part of the 'snobbidity,' so to speak, comes from the fact that as enthusiasts, we usually have an idea of what a car should look like. Generally it is somewhat uniform, but there are people who have a slightly different idea, and that idea is generally accepted. It is when someone violates that idea in an extreme sense, like in newman's story, that the community seems to band together and get angry over a car they really have no business getting angry over. Look at Stanceworks. I happen to dislike that style, and I tend to criticize them, which I have every right to do on a public forum. But there are some people who get unreasonably angry over the stanceworks cars.

Nevertheless, I think it's something you'll find on any enthusiast forum. I've seen threads on other car forums about some crazy camry or civic that doesn't quite conform to the communities idea of what their car should look like. People love to band together, whether it's to praise a car, or to pour on the haterade.

Frankly, for the most part at least, I like to reserve judgment on someone's car until I see what kind of person they are. If they deserve respect in my eyes, they will get it whether or not I like their car.

/rant

[newman]

That's a well thought out response. For that I applaud you.

[BillBrasky]

Do you not have any idea how much poon can be scored with a nice e30 on sportmaxxors doin' one-wheelie-peelies in the parking lot in front of the Ruby Tuesday's at the mall? Shit's hella balla.

[newman]

Lol at RT reference.

[scabzzzz]

All of this will change in 10 ten years, because in 10 years, we'll be looking at e30's simliiar to how we look at 2002's. If you say 2002's don't carry prestigeous weight, you're a fucking idiot. E30 has heritage that 240, camaros, civics, neons, etc just simply dont. When you eat, sleep, breathe E30 like some of the OG's here for 10+ years, I'd imagine it would lose some value in my head too. But then again, I live in an area where E30s are exactly plentiful and i've only been in the E30 game for about 3 years now.

[newman]

All of this will change in 10 ten years, because in 10 years, we'll be looking at e30's simliiar to how we look at 2002's. If you say 2002's don't carry prestigeous weight, you're a fucking idiot. E30 has heritage that 240, camaros, civics, neons, etc just simply dont. When you eat, sleep, breathe E30 like some of the OG's here for 10+ years, I'd imagine it would lose some value in my head too. But then again, I live in an area where E30s are exactly plentiful and i've only been in the E30 game for about 3 years now.

you're insane if you think 240s don't have "heritage". datsun 240Zs are to the 240sx as the 2002 is to the E30, so if you think in 10 years the e30 is going to carry prestige, then I anticipate the 240sx will too (except so many have been drifted into shit, lol).

And the CAMARO doesn't have heritage? It's like the fucking pinacle of "american muscle"... Not my cup of tea, but still, not without some heritage.