e30 M3 pricing

[YAN-3]

ok guys and girls, ive been on the forum for a lil over a year now and been in the e30 scene for a good 4 years now. i am ready to get an M3 finally but was wondering how much to spend for one to start with. I was thinking under 10 k, with decent milage no more than 150ish. I need to hear all the input i can get. and PLEASE dont tell me not to buy one. the OG M3 has been my dream since like high school so please good info and figures. I need to know what you guys know. how much should i be expecting to pay for a decent-good e30 M3. I have a rough estimate and i follow autotrader and cars.com but your input is more valuable, since thats what most of us are intune with. Thanks

[Jarvis]

I'm pretty sure the $15K rule still applies...

Occasionally someone will get lucky and find a seller who doesn't know what he/she has, and gets a "good" M3 for $8-10K, but I wouldn't count on finding something like that.

Besides what I'm personally looking for, I try to stay up to date with the E30 market in general including M3s. It seems like the $15K rule is turning into the $17-18K rule - but that's if you want a car that needs absolutely nothing, and with high miles has had at least one engine rebuild in its life.

[UNHCLL]

I'm pretty sure the $15K rule still applies...

Occasionally someone will get lucky and find a seller who doesn't know what he/she has, and gets a "good" M3 for $8-10K, but I wouldn't count on finding something like that.

Besides what I'm personally looking for, I try to stay up to date with the E30 market in general including M3s. It seems like the $15K rule is turning into the $17-18K rule - but that's if you want a car that needs absolutely nothing, and with high miles has had at least one engine rebuild in its life.

$15k is more like 18k now, as stated.

A car with 150k is looking for an S14 rebuild in the near future.. these cars arent like M20's. (8-12k for a rebuild)

www.s14.net go read there.
read, lots
archives
top topics
all of it
then post...

Good luck. :)

[nando]

don't you live in germany? I would think the pricing and quality of M3s there would be significantly different from the states.

[Court M3]

expect to pay around $17-18k and that's one with around 150k miles and a rebuild that needs nothing.

Mine only has 75k on it and needs nothing at the money and a guy just offered me $19.5k.

[Il Duce]

as said by Ryan G. in the infamous armeN thread... come to think of it, why dont you just buy a neon?

Peice of shit? NO
Unreliable? YES
I love the S14. I have had several opertunities to swap it out for another newer/different motor, but the sound/feel of the S14 is something I didn't want to give up in the process.
I had my share of engine problems and in turn I spent a lot of time/money on repairs to them. An S14 is a 100k mile motor. After that you are just using bandaids to slow down the inevitable break-down of the engine. The timing chain guides are worn past usable stages after 100k miles, thats why the chain gets noisy on cold starts. Then you add an E36 tensioner which stresses them even more but makes them quiet so you think you did good to the motor but you just stressed it even more. Its a never ending battle until you stop and spend $5k+ for a rebuild (stock, or 8k+ for something more fun.). Thats all I have to say for now.

couldnt have said it better, so i didnt.

[vlad]

s14.net is a very good place to do the search... just go thru the archives and you will find a lot of good info. Also, if you are in Germany - www.s14.de
;)

[bimmer8604]

Yan, you planning on moving back and shipping the car over, or just something to have in Germany? I would consider buying one there, and shipping it over, but it would cost a lot of $$$. I think they are becoming a bit more scarce here in the states, and you should probably beable to buy one over there, mod it up or fix it up a bit, and then ship it over here than to buy one here and do everything to it.

s14.net is a very good place to do the search... just go thru the archives and you will find a lot of good info. Also, if you are in Germany - www.s14.de
;)

Vlad, I LOVE YOUR RSR!!! I'm totally getting one when I become filthy rich....

Kyle

[Marvin_Hecht]

BTW there are many different versions of the E30 M3:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~mjjackso/versions.html

Perhaps if you are in Europe you could pick up a more
unique one.

This site talks about importing--to Canada it only needs
to be 15 years old but to the US it needs to be 25 years
old (to import hassle-free).

http://www.willz.ca/importing.htm

http://www.willz.ca/indexold.htm

Good luck.

[mikeedler]

im pretty sure that on s14.de there is one for sale for 8,500 euros. I wouldnt buy it with plans on shipping it back, cause its gonna cost so much dough that you really wont expect. E30 M3s are just as rare here in germany as in the states. probably more rare in some cases. there was i believe only around 15,000 built total, 5000 went to the states, 5,000 approx in western europe, and 5000 or so to all the other places around the world. and due to the no speed limits here, i bet more were crashed here in germany. buy what makes you happy--- i love mine!! just look on mobile.de and autoscout24.de, there are always a few on there.