Common things to look for when buying an E30

[bernzpeed]

carfax to determine approximate mileage of car

i bought an IS that says 188k miles, got carfax, last reported mileage was 355K miles in 1999.

[george graves]

I'm wondering if you can bring an E30 to a BMW dealership and get your shit inspected there......costs about $150, or is that just plain retardedz?

Dealers techs haven't seen an e30 in their bays for a long time. Most of them have never worked on an m20. They wouldn't always know what to look for.

But a decent german shop should be able to do a PPI (per-purchase inspection) for less then $150. Last I check they wanted $75 to throw it up on a rack, and drive it around the block. A good shop will know what to look for on e30's.

[ChadtheRad]

It depends on what your plans are with the car. I bought my car as a daily driver that I knew I would slowly mod. So I needed something semi-reliable, just I didn't need everything perfect, knowing that I would "upgrade" almost everything(and since then have).

The car is exactly what I'm looking for, Bronzit (I personally love the color but it is a love/hate for bimmer fans), coupe with 200k on the motor (not bad in my opinion because the average person puts 15k on their car a year) and a clean title. The owner is asking 2700. Body, engine bay, and interior of the car look mint from all the pictures I have seen.
As for mods: I want to get used to the car itself before I add anything too crazy, and plan to daily drive it in the mean time. So the S50 or S52 swap I plan to do wont happen until sometime next year.

carfax to determine approximate mileage of car

I am going to carfax after I check the car out tomorrow if everything is as good as it looks.

Blood in the trunk....



I tend to walk away from those cars....

Ya thats a pretty smart idea on its own, make sure there are no fingers in the glove box or anything also.

[ChadtheRad]

For those wondering about the progress of the car inspection. I checked it out, really clean but had a list of problems (about 2k in parts from the list my mechanic made,just to not cause more problems than it had). The guy wouldn't budge lower than 2500. So overall I walked away and the search continues...

[absolutdog]

I'm wondering if you can bring an E30 to a BMW dealership and get your shit inspected there......costs about $150, or is that just plain retardedz?

a bmw shop'll charge you more
find a local shop that'll put it up on a lift for free and just look at everything underneath

Things broke on half of the bimmers on the road:
1 or more dash lights out
1 or more guages out (at the very least gas gause is twitchy)
glove compartment latch broke
one of the windows doesn't work
one of the doors won't lock
Some problem with sunroof
rust in battery tray (either in engine or trunk)
No out door temp(ask gearge about that one)
brake cooling ducts missing
rear shock mount makes noise