What would you buy? Hi Mileage Manual or Low Mileage Auto

[Dakotademon7]

Mine's auto, its honestly not that bad. I am collecting for a 5 speed swap though (only small bits left to collect!)

I landed my e30 for $1k and I couldn't be happier. Buy a clean e30 with auto over a junker with a manual.

I see your point but I still feel a manuel would be a lot more fun to drive.

[george graves]

If you're planning on modifying everything, then mileage doesn't matter. Interiors are so easy to swap out, so that doesn't really matter.

I've replaced/modded about everything in my car. It wouldn't have matter the mileage really.

The only thing is paint. Nothing like good clean original paint. But these cars are getting so old, you're hard pressed to find a affordable garage queen.

Plus at some magical point(just using some numbers as an example).......a 100k mile car has maintenance that needs to be done....where as a 150k mile car has already had it done. So there's that too.

[Dakotademon7]

I'm a little shocked over the prices I'm seeing for e30's of any model. That's good and bad in my opinion. It's good because I feel like I got a super deal on my 325es. The bad is that I want to get a 318is but may not be able to afford one now with prices jumping up.

[george graves]

I see e30 on CL all the time for $2k. But, if you throw some cheap springs and ebay wheels on your car, somehow it becomes worth $5k.

[ncsubowen]

Honestly, there's the driver factor too. I bought mine as an auto that WAS a garage queen and WAS driven by someone's mom. Not to throw around owner stereotypes but you don't see many auto drivers out there thrashing their cars around.

So, assuming you have one with regular maintenance (receipts/etc) and it's about $500 and a weekend's work to get it to be a manual (not to mention you can then choose all the fun stuff you want and make sure you're getting bang for your buck), I think it's a very viable option.

[Sea Aych]

Being in Ontario, buy whichever one has less rust.

This.
Everything (almost everything) else is fixable. I bought mine in auto at 255xxx km and swapped it to manual. That being said, if it's all original at 75k then you may be in for a treat replacing a TON of stuff that's normal maintenance at mid-mileage.

[Tsx-kineticz]

I ended up buying an 87 325e 4-door manual but was rotten from engine to interior. I decided to sell it and got a 91 325i auto with less miles for the same price. sometimes you get lucky finding good autos that require less work. regardless of what mileage you will have to replace things due to the age of the vehicle

[Andy.B]

I don't know how you guys can say an e30 with an auto isn't that bad. Driving it is essentially like starting in 2nd gear and shifting at 4k rpm.

It is impossible to accelerate from a standstill with anything resembling speed, and it shifts before the engine gets up into its powerband. I made it about a week of driving mine with an auto before I started stockpiling parts for the manual swap.

Fortunately the parts are easy to come but, and even with all new wear items, should still come out to under 1k in parts, so I would still but am clean auto vs a rough manual, bit only with the intent of immediately converting it.