'91 M Technic, Red, 5 speed

[reelizmpro]

Well little details like m stripe angle and order. Also they all had silver euroweaves like the spare tire shown in the pics. We r nitpicking but it is a nice looking, rare, manual trans car. Btw, it's at 11.7k already!

[faujijatt]

Well, it's at 14K right now with two days to go. Sheesh... :p

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[*freshm3]

Barry, did you bid on it?

[allen_t]

Went down to 12k

[mr2peak]

Yeah what's up with that? Makes me wonder if there's something wrong with the car that wasn't disclosed in the add.

[reelizmpro]

Bid retraction? No, I'm not bidding on it.

[mr2peak]

Ended at $12,700 didn't break reserve

[Javier h]

Sounds like someone was trying to rig the auction by raising the bids in increments.

Then they pulled out after it sat for $14k.

$14k met the reserve.

It was the right color, right mileage, right options for most. I liked the fact that it didn't seem that butchered.

Javier

[robrez]

the seat cloth not being original may have turned some bidders off. The seller should have been upfront about it.

[Javier h]

Funny, I didnt see it that way. I saw restored seats which was more like a $1500 value. I dont think you can find original seats that are not torn after 25 years and 130k miles on an E30, let alone a convertible. Hunting down the OEM fabric is next to impossible. The power top not being 100% functional was more of an issue for me but the authenticity of the 5 speed made up for it. I would have button up a few issues on the car before listing it. Mtech fitment, OEM stereo, wheel color, and power top. It might not have been that expensive to address relative to what the car could have sold for.

[csermonet47]

Lets just look at the car for a second.

Ebay angel eyes and black kidneys generally are indicators that the car isn't very well taken care of.

The tires are horribly undersized, the wheels are wrong, broken power top, broken gas gauge, the dash is cracked, the engine bay if filthy, the front valence doesn't fit right, and who knows what the steering wheel cover is hiding.

It could be a nice car with some work, but it needs a fair amount of it. Not worth more than what the auction ended for.

[robrez]

Restored seats are a plus, don't get me wrong. But I was referring to the possible reason for the bid going down. The untrained eye may not have noticed that seats were re-done, let alone the slight differences Barry pointed out above. If I realized that after bidding, I'd retract my bid. Seat condition can say a lot about the overall prior care of the car.

I agree original seats are rarity, and that's why they garner a premium. They're like unicorns now, but still out there. There's was a Macau with OG seats for sale a couple years ago that languished at $15k. But the market has improved.

Funny, I didnt see it that way. I saw restored seats which was more like a $1500 value. I dont think you can find original seats that are not torn after 25 years and 130k miles on an E30, let alone a convertible. Hunting down the OEM fabric is next to impossible. The power top not being 100% functional was more of an issue for me but the authenticity of the 5 speed made up for it. I would have button up a few issues on the car before listing it. Mtech fitment, OEM stereo, wheel color, and power top. It might not have been that expensive to address relative to what the car could have sold for.

[mr2peak]

If you look at the retraced bidder's history, it's all over the map. Many, many bids on random items many times per day. Seems like someone who just likes bidding. That's a shame.

Plenty of stuff "wrong" with the car, but it did end at roughy 2x more than a very clean standard stock e30.

[reelizmpro]

Recovering seats on m techs presents a dilemma. You recover them to look new but the material may not be oem or worse the upholsterer doesn't use the correct angle or the stripes don't run the right way. It's only original once but if you recover, do it right. Imo, replica cloth is fine as few can tell the difference or care but how it's installed is critical. Running incorrect angles makes it look "off," to those familiar.

Furthermore, things like lights, grills and wheel color are easily changed and hardly worth mentioning. Very, very few power tops are still functional as well. After much research I decided it wasn't worth fixing as there are so many failure points, so I operate it manually. After 25 years, there are bound to be some changes and this car is pretty close to stock if that's what one is looking for.