FS: MTEC II 1990 325iS, 5-speed

[alexd]

$6000? What a clown. The guy's got five times that much invested in it and probably would be hard pressed to let it go for twice your offer. OP, glws but keep in mind money spent on mods are to be considered pretty much gone unless you have the heart to break the car.

A car is only worth what someone is willing to pay. I am not some kid dreaming, I have cash ready to go....you?? Probably not. At least I made an offer, I didn't see you ponying up an offer, all you had to post was a smart comment.

If you price it close to $9000 i am still interested, I have transport fees, which from there to here will easily be $1000.

I will keep an eye on the thread, absolutely stunning car BTW. :D I would love to see interior pics too.

[defaultName]

When are people going to realize that a car is not a bank account. You don't just put money into it and withdraw it when you want to.

[sweetride01]

What a car is worth and what someone put into it are two different things. Just because someone dumps 30k into a car doesn't mean it was a smart decision for resale. If they were keeping it and wanting to know that they had the best of the best, then by all means dump anything you want into it. When you go to sell its not going to bring near that.

I would price the car between $9k - $14k. The higher end of that being someone who REALLY appreciates quality work. But that's just me.

Yea, of course I realise that. Modifications depreciate, just as new cars do. So I'm not expecting 30K, clearly. I was probably thinking something a little above 14K tbh, but yeah, in that ballpark. I'll just see. If I can't get what I think it's worth, I guess I'll just keep it, after all, I could always drive it to visit the motherland then :-D

A car is only worth what someone is willing to pay. I am not some kid dreaming, I have cash ready to go....you?? Probably not. At least I made an offer, I didn't see you ponying up an offer, all you had to post was a smart comment.

If you price it close to $9000 i am still interested, I have transport fees, which from there to here will easily be $1000.

I will keep an eye on the thread, absolutely stunning car BTW. :D I would love to see interior pics too.

Thank you :-) I will post some interior pics by the end of the month...

When are people going to realize that a car is not a bank account. You don't just put money into it and withdraw it when you want to.

Yea, thats what diamonds are for ;-)

[bbiess]

Very interested as well! Please check your PM for additional details.

[nrubenstein]

Do not sell this car. You'll regret it very badly after the effort and money that you've put into it.

[DancinDog]

World Class...

Ok, so do you have a price range yet-I really have no idea what that beauty should go for, but I'm interested!

[sweetride01]

UPDATE:

Ok, sorry about the slow decisions here guys.

I am still 50/50 on whether to sell the car or not. I am going to test drive a Mini Cooper S and Audi A3 2.0 TDI S-Line (170hp) next weekend to see if they take my fancy. If they don't, I will most likely ship my car to the UK. If they do, then I may well sell the e30.
My parents are moving sometime in March so I will have to decide by then.

The provisional price I have in mind right now is $17,500; INCLUDED in this would be ~$1500 of new and used parts (trim, seat, tailights, parts in sig, etc.)
Depending on how much I would rather sell it or not, and based on how much people are interested in the car, this price could shift a bit, but I'll have to see.
Updates in a week or two on what I'm thinking...

Cheers

EDIT 13/2: Price Drop to $16,800

[IDM]

Oh man Oh man what a car. I just sat here and priced a list of what this car has and my conclusion is that there is no way anyone (except a body/mechanic shop owner) can replicate this car for this price. $17,500 may sound high but it is worth every penny. E30's like this are just in another league and you don't see that many, let alone for sale. You cannot compare this to your pimped revltd, e30tech, budget beater after a $3k paint job, this is a fully gone through car it seems. Ok getting a bit excited but it's just that you never see e30's given the open checkbook approach, specially around here. I just love to see cars like this!! Good luck with the sale, make sure you don't give it away, just take it with you as you won't find a rust free e30 sport in the UK!

[sweetride01]

Oh man Oh man what a car. I just sat here and priced a list of what this car has and my conclusion is that there is no way anyone (except a body/mechanic shop owner) can replicate this car for this price. $17,500 may sound high but it is worth every penny. E30's like this are just in another league and you don't see that many, let alone for sale. You cannot compare this to your pimped revltd, e30tech, budget beater after a $3k paint job, this is a fully gone through car it seems. Ok getting a bit excited but it's just that you never see e30's given the open checkbook approach, specially around here. I just love to see cars like this!! Good luck with the sale, make sure you don't give it away, just take it with you as you won't find a rust free e30 sport in the UK!

Why thank you...
Your assertion is pretty much right, down to the T. "Open checkbook" is a good way to describe the car; I have to admit that this car would not have been possible without my dad's generous financing. This car has probably spent a good 2.5 years in the mechanic's and bodyshop since I have had it... I hate to think of the combined labour cost.
I consider this car a project that's 80-85% finished. Probably the weakest part mechanically is the diff, as it has a few miles on it; however, it works perfectly fine/still has quite a bit of life left, I just wouldn't recommend doing too many donuts.

If I (and my father) were inclined to continue to throw money at it, this is what I would do:
M3 front seats
New Mtec 1 Wheel
One of Massive Lee's front brake kits
Supersprint exhaust, w/high flow cat.
Alpha-N intake & engine management
Quick ratio steering rack
Revert to new 3.73LSD (4.10 is too short for highway cruising IMO)
Better stereo amp
Maybe new carpet if I wanted it show quality
Possibly a set of BBS RS (or similar) wheels as I feel the more modern design might suit the Mtec 2 kit better.

And, well, that would take it to about 100% "finished" as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately, that's probably another $9000 for all of the above, and I feel bad about continually throwing money at a car when I know there's more important things in life... nevertheless, the car would make a great continued project/show car.

I'll keep you all updated on what I decide to do... I'm just weighing up the cost of shipping/ $7.50/gal. fuel/ insurance/ mods like rear fogs, vs getting a newer more efficient car with lower maintenance (hopefully!)...

Thanks

[sweetride01]

Ok, so I drove a Mini Cooper S (2009) today... it's not an E30, but it was quite fun to drive.

For reasons of practicality (e30 is LHD, and fuel in UK is nearly $8/gallon), not to mention the cost of shipping ($1500) and other things like fitting rear fogs, and possibly not getting the non-washing xenon headlights (it's mandatory for HIDs to have cleaning here) past customs, I am (with some sadness and regret) willing to offer the car for sale.

The price will be $17,500, including parts listed above (see last post).

I consider this reasonable considering the condition of and investment in this car. It would not take much further investment to get this car to the point you could win a Concours d'elegance. If you need further justification, I think the fact that the trim, bodykit, and paintjob (all done in the past year) cost well over $10,000 (and clearly, if you want an e30 like this, you'd either have to buy a cheaper one and spend the $10K+ yourself, or, you could just buy this one) should be reason enough. I believe I have been fastidious in the upgrading of this car and I believe it speaks for itself; it is simply one of the best non-M e30s in the US.

The only cosmetic problems with the car: there are 2 SMALL (1cm or so) cracks in the dash, possibly due to the car sitting in the hot sun everyday while at the bodyshop for a year. Also, there is a hairline crack in the PAINT (NOT plastic) of the front valence, which occurred, ironically, while pulling out of Reeves BMW, scraping the front valence lightly. It is not noticable at more than 2ft or so, and is not that bad. The car is going to the bodyshop in the next few weeks to be properly detailed and have any paint defects sorted, as this has not been done yet (car only had paintjob 5 months ago); as a result, this crack may be taken out then.

Please let me know if you are seriously interested and would like more pics/details.

I have pretty much all the service records for the past 20 years.

Cheers

[sweetride01]

More pics, taken at Christmas:

[sweetride01]

bump

[Kato]

Beautiful car. One of a kind. Do not give it away. Hopefully you will find a buyer who is not a broke, unrealistic, lowballing kid and is willing to pay you even a fraction of what you have invested! I feel your pain having been there a few times myself but I think that you are being fair and realistic. Good luck with the sale and congrats on a wonderfully executed vehicle so far! Be patient and your buyer will surface...

[sweetride01]

Beautiful car. One of a kind. Do not give it away. Hopefully you will find a buyer who is not a broke, unrealistic, lowballing kid and is willing to pay you even a fraction of what you have invested! I feel your pain having been there a few times myself but I think that you are being fair and realistic. Good luck with the sale and congrats on a wonderfully executed vehicle so far! Be patient and your buyer will surface...

Thanks for that :-)

I know that this car is too expensive for 98% of r3vers, but there is that 2% out there who have the money and know this is just what they've been looking for... hopefully they find this soon! But, if I can't sell it for a decent price, I will just ship it over, it's not worth taking too big of a hit on...


I see you're working on an Mtec 2 vert? How's it coming along? Mtec 2 verts are so sexy...

[Kato]

Yes, I'm not in as deep as you but I'm in pretty deep... I'll post up a thread soon once it's at a point that I consider close to "done" (or at least as far as I'll take it with the big stuff). I did a 5 speed swap, full black interior, custom, manual, heated vaders, 17" style 5's (2 piece BBS filled, re-drilled and refinished), EVERY suspension item new, all bushings, full coilover setup, blah, blah, blah... It looks awesome so far with freshly painted front valance, bumper, hood, blacked out grills, smilies, HID low and fogs (yellow), fresh dash, etc... I can't even remember everything at this point but I'm having fun driving her! Need to fix the top (tonneau motor issue).

On yours, see what kind of legit offers you get. Maybe drop a bit to move yours but not too far! You'll get the best value by keeping it and using it which is why I've started driving mine as much as I can!