Whats interesting about your e30's history?

[Mr. Tasty]

Every e30 I've owned has never left me stranded after the first few weeks of new owner maintanence (TB/WP, Oil, Coolant, Cap/Rotor)

that's true, my e30 has never "not" started on me or broken down. Never been trailor'd

[spike68]

I'm not exactly sure where my car came from, but my dad became the second owner of the car back in 91. My dad proceeded to use the car for many years until I was old enough to use it. I remember being in a car seat riding in the back with the top down. That's what made me fall in love with e30s. But after he decided to let me use it, I had of course done what every teenager does and modify the car to my liking. When we did my suspension, the mechanic I was working with checked out the car overall and told me the whole underside of the car was relined to prevent rusting. My dad didn't do this so I am assuming the first owner knew exactly what the car was going to be prone to in the future. The underside being the first because the car resided mostly in Chicago. I'm taking all of the wheel wells and floor boards. For as long as the car was in the north and the amount of snow it saw, the car is spotless in those places. The car still has rust in some spots, but its really not serious. They will eventually be taken care of.

Yeah it's not a big weird crazy story, but I thought this was pretty neat.

[CrusherCurtis]

3 owners. It was bought new by the owner of the dealership for his mistress!

[Anthony B]

I came across my e30 by chance I was actually in the market for a Ford falcon ute like

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_BA_Falcon

I got a phone call from dad who said he had an e30 traded in & knew I always wanted one $600 later with a full year of rego I had an e30 & no ute. Looking through the records of the car it was a Feb 1990 build 318i 4dr auto, power options, cloth interior, nothing really special.....

except it was purchased by the USSR consulate in Canberra Australia, it was service by Sterling Bmw up until 155000km I bought the car with 190000km. It has no record of change of ownership from what it appear the USSR consulate staff member who signed the purchase owned the car after the USSR disbanded in 1991. Funny enough the guy who traded it in was a Russian(I should have checked his name on the trade in papers).

When I was pulling apart the car I found a lapel pin written in Russian which translated to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin with his portrait I actually still keep it in the car.

Its a little bit of quirky history,

My other e30 history it was owned by an idiot & now I have to basically rebuild the entire car. Anything he touched I'm checking cause well he had no idea what he was doing.

[Rook12V]

My E30 was bought on a whim by someone I knew who worked at a used car dealership. It was located in a large steel building, looked like an airplane hanger. I bought it 11 years ago.
It was tucked in the back row, on the left hand side of the building. It was dusty and had been sitting for a while. I got them to get it out and I drove it around and bought it.

9 years later I crashed it. It was totaled but I elected to fix it up. I brought it to the best bodyshop in the area (I am personal friends with the owner after years in the car industry).

The bodyshop was located next door to where the car lot used to be. They now owned the building that I bought my car from. When I went to visit the car during repair, I found the rack they had set it on was basically *exactly* where the car was located the first time I saw it. It had sat in that exact spot for months neglected, then I bought it and wrecked it, and here it was, sitting in that spot again, getting a new lease on life.

Its not the coolest story in the world, but its pretty neat.

This is the transformation.

[long tall eta]

that's true, my e30 has never "not" started on me or broken down. Never been trailor'd

mine either

[Cinnabar325is]

My car was owned by Vlad!

haha, it's true, but there was one owner between us for two years. And when I contacted Vlad to see if he knew anything about the car's history or at least where he'd bought it, he completely blew me off. He said verbatim, "there's nothing special about your car, why do you care?"

[SubDad]

Its not the coolest story in the world, but its pretty neat

That is cool, neat too.

Here's my mundane story of luckiness:

I bought my current (second) E30 non-running off a very pleasant young man who had bought it from a Canadian diplomat who had bought it in and imported it from Serbia. According to the paperwork (in various languages) I found in the glovebox, the dip had had the engine rebuilt in Belgrade; new pistons and valves, new clutch etc. then brought it home and replaced almost everything rubber. (Not the upper rad hose :-( nor the thermostat to head hose, nor the upper vacuum lines but hey, it all helps.)

I got it running (long story) with a junk yard ECU from Germany, delivered by mail to my Canadian door in 6 days. It has No Rust... and comfort seats... and a green check interior...and No Actual Torque Rating.

Last fall, thanks to a tip from a member on maxbimmer.com I asked BMW Archives at http://www.bmw-grouparchiv.de/2/webm...x=g&id=630857& about the car.:

Nov 3: Me to them;
My E30 was brought to Canada in 2008 from Serbia. VIN is ...D310001559399

I wonder where the car was first sold, and if it was first sold in Yugoslavia/Serbia if there were any changes to the normal western European build standard to allow its sale in Yugoslavia. The car has L-Jetronic injection and no catalytic converter.

They said Nov 7: Dear Mr (SubDad),
The BMW 320i VIN 1559399 was manufactured on January 10th, 1986 and delivered on May 13th, 1986 to the BMW importer Tehnounion in Ljubljana. The original colour was Platanengruen metallic, paint code 188.

There is no special country model specified in the database, so I would expect that the car was technically identical to the standard ECE model.

My car lived through the end of the iron Curtain and a civil war and is now sleeping in my peaceful - too peaceful- garage. Next?

[nickflic3]

My car was owned by Vlad!

lolVlad


I was technically the 3rd owner of my e30. Ironically, my 5 speed was driven solely by women until it reached me.

1986 Bronzit 4 door 325e First owner bought it new $22k. she drove it until she was in an accident with another car and could no longer drive sick. Accidents seemed to be a common occurrence with her as the front end was ever so slightly tweaked towards the driver side and the passanger fender that had been replaced and painted over had yet another dent in it (it's the only panel on the car that was still shiny bronzit)

The 2nd owner was the sister to a family friend of ours. He was a transmission mechanic that used to be all about e30's and gave me my first ride in a late model delphin when I was a kid; thought it was the coolest thing ever with it's amber dash lights. (Never thought I would drive one, let alone have my own.) Anyway, she bought the car on his suggestion back in the early 2000's with the intent to fix it up and sell it.

Well my cousin came from Kenya to live with us and go to school around that time and befriended the po. The po was going to move out of state so she gave my cousin the keys and told her to try and find a buyer for the car. enjoying her new found freedom, my cousin eventually offered to buy the car but continued to drive it under the po's name.

My cousin eventually graduated and got married, at which point the e30 was parked neatly in her apartment's garage. As a 15 y/o e30 noob and JDM fanatic, I was not even the least bit happy to be promised the lowley eta as a first car, especially with my friends getting all new mustangs, corrado's and silvias. However, with my parent's brokeness at the time, I accepted my fate and decided to reaserch the e30's potential, which eventually led me to r3v

I eventually took ownership 2 days after my 18th birthday (summer after graduation) and immediately started modding the unsuspecting bronzit beater

Weird and awesome things:

My cousin got every possible record from the dealership including original e30 info.

I'm guessing BTC is the place where it used to be serviced since the original lady lived in Rancho.





The Pacific BMW sale sheet says it was optioned with leather seats but the overall state of the car leads me to believe they were tossed out and swapped for the mint early vinyl interior it has now. (This car was literally baked in the sun and the dash was cracked,paint was completely faded and the rear parcel shelf material was terrible)

Anyway the car at one point in time had a car telephone and an 80's Hofco alarm.

This is what it looked like when I got it, and how it looked the whole time my cousin drove it



Note painted but dented fender






And then I traded it for an e28 :(

[mr ilia]

The last legal owner of my e30 has passed away while the car was in the repair shop for some time getting the head rebuild...

[JUMPNYC]

My E30 was owned by former US Representative Anthony Weiner, he gave it the name Betty.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony...exting_scandal

[Dubro]

My 90 M3 was (I'm told) 1 of 189 M3s built without an airbag in 1990. A previous owner jacked it up once under the fuel tank, so the tank has a nice dent in the bottom. It had been wrecked once on the driver side and repaired with a clean title. I only found out because I wrecked the driver side and the body shop said there was evidence of previous body work.

On my Pro3 race car (325is), when I gutted the interior I found a receipt and broken glass underneath the carpet. It must have taken a front end hit at some point because there must have been a broken tooth in the steering rack that almost put me into the wall at the track - major slop in the steering.

[coldweatherblue]

that's true, my e30 has never "not" started on me or broken down. Never been trailor'd

+1.

My old E30 required a few repairs during the 8 years i owned her but never left me stranded. Several times the car broke down as I was parking her at home. once the clutch slave gave out as I shifted into first while pulling into my garage.. easy fix the next day. Another time I drove 600 miles and as I pulled into my destination about to stop the engine the battery light came on and I knew the alternator was going.