It's officially a money pit.

[IRON-E]

I enjoy it, therefore it is money well spent for my happyness. as for the resale value of it, i am way upside down, but that was never my plan for the car.

drive your car and enjoy it for what it is.

Many car lovers do what they love, even if it doesn't make sense to anyone else or financially.

Those 2 posts, pretty much sum it up.

[JasonC]

My e30 and Shelby Charger is the only cars ive ever took a big hit on. I knew in my mind i was going into them too deep. All of my other cars ive broke even or made profit. E30's can be a fickle market. But seems they can be money pits and you will lose money on them for the most part.

[shiftbmw]

Meh, a new M3 depreciates by more than you have in your car the second you drive it off the lot.

[Kershaw]

if you're complaining about your car being a moneypit, you're driving the wrong car. buy a japanese commuter, do no maintenance, suck at life.

e30s are hobbies. why are you so concerned about it being a moneypit? it's what you enjoy doing. would you do anything different a second time around? i know i wouldnt.

[Blackout]

WTF is OP talking about?
Bimmers have been money pits since the dawn of time.
There is noting to bitch about. Just learn to like it.
LOL.

[A_Whelan]

Car included about $5700 because I had to ship it 400 miles 3 times now and i'm in the middle of an m50 swap with a lot of fresh parts like all new pads, rotors, control arms, tires (actually rubber, on bottle caps), four struts, etc.

I'm now $1500 in debt paying cc's and it sucks and I just left my job. Now I have to find one after christmas and I'm getting worried.

But during the past year while waiting to get my car working again (broke the m20, swapping m50) there wasn't a day gone by where I didn't think about my car and getting it back.

I'm going home soon and I get 6 days or so to fix a fuel and spark problem to get it to fire. I won't get to drive it because it's winter and I want to keep it covered. I can't wait.

[IminDiegoTriick]

Why are you stressing about the cost, you gotta pay to play!
No one is forcing you to drop more $$$, and if your the only one stressing yourself, then there's the problem ;)

& if your just dropping money into maintenance, then that is money well spent

[750]

if you're complaining about your car being a moneypit, you're driving the wrong car. buy a japanese commuter, do no maintenance, suck at life.

e30s are hobbies. why are you so concerned about it being a moneypit? it's what you enjoy doing. would you do anything different a second time around? i know i wouldnt.

Well said, I would like to add Life Style Choice and Community.

[VinniE30]

I love this thread. e30 FTW. They are worth every penny i've spent on them and more.

[Threehz]

Many wise words said here, I prefer old cars, and particularly good cars (duh). I could have spent 14k to get the lowest end Japanese car new, then drive it off the lot and have it instantly depreciate to 9k-10k, and in a few years drop down to 4k-5k or less.

But why?

I now own an E30, one of my dream cars, I love it, it has character, it's been down a long road, it's definitely got little things (exterior wise) but all the problems just mean more opportunity for me to improve and my car will only get better the longer I have it. A new car will only go downhill from the day you buy it. I also like the fact that I WANT TO DO MAINTENANCE. I love working on my car and doing upgrades, which in fact become future preventive maintenance.

Here's the bottom line, if you have 14,000$ you can buy the lowest end new cars right now, and that would be if you got a good deal. With 14k I could buy an E30 in good shape for 3k-4k and have 10k left. With 10k I feel comfortable saying you can bring an E30 in good shape to much better then factory bought condition with any number of upgrades, and the cheapest E30 new was what, the 318i at like 20k? The real thing is you have a car you love, know inside and out, have a connection to and it's more of a car then any one of those new cars you could have bought will ever be.

Just my 2 cents ;)

[Rsully70sev]

Bring Money Willingly

[rlddlr53]

Bring Money Willingly

http://silverstone.fortunecity.com/mercedes/483/BMWStandFor.htm

some of those are funny

[kjlang]

My e30 sat for 2 years before i got it a few months ago, it needs a heater, radio, window switch, decent front seats, new suspension (the old stuff is shot) and probably a new starter, but i love it despite these things. once its all fixed up i doubt ill get break even, how ever, i used to drive a honda which was a year older. it had comfortable seats, a radio and a heater, it never had issues but it was boring. when i got the e30 and let my brother drive the honda. he crashed it into a tree and totaled it (he's fine, not even a scratch). i couldn't have cared less, other then the fact that i could't get any money out of it to work on my e30 . value is in the eye of the beholder man.

[Wh33lhop]

Shit, I bought my car for $1200 and I've got over $7k into it. I don't know how much I could get for it at the moment but I am planning on keeping it forever, so I don't really bat an eyelash when it comes to spending stupid amounts of money making it fun.

[James Crivellone]

I have, oh 30k into mine overall, and that's just the e30 lol