Increased interest in e30's...is it just me?

[dkbmxer002]

Haha I've done that driving my camaro and I do it in my e36. I've tried to ask some kid in an lt1 trans am about his car while I was driving my e36 and they looked at me like I didn't know what I was talking about. Not realizing I've forgotten more fbody knowledge than they ever knew.

[JinormusJ]

I've noticed it

My last e30 was a stock height body damaged 325i with good paint. I would get compliments on it most times I filled up by a range of people: old guys, young guys; tuners, passerbys, everyone would ask me what kind of car it was because no one is used to serif an old BMW now in the era of the 3-Series BMW Accord.
Now with the IS, I see the same attention, if not more (I get thumbs up from tuners everytime I drive, and my cars automatic!) and the increased geekiness of having the sport model.

As far as why pop culture has seemed to be noticing them more often, it's a hipster thing, and hipsterism has been but and large mainstream for a while now. Almost all the local coffee shops I frequent have a distinct hipster-owned e30 parked out front whenever I go usually. Frank ocean has one too IIRC, and everyone knows rap-idol posers are revered as gods by pop culture; thus, e30s are growing a community simply based on the fact Pcean has one, and not that they're actually good cars.

[BlackbirdM3]

The fact that they are good cars might be part of the reason people take notice. They are 20+ years old now and there are still lots and lots of them on the road. Sure there were lots built, but I can't think of many other cars of the same age that are as common. That says something. If they are taken care of, they just keep going and going. Even ones that haven't been well taken care of seem to soldier on. They seem to hold up better than the later models as well.

Perhaps the general public is starting to take notice. In a lot of ways its the Datsun 510 of the 80s and '90s rather than the early '70s.

Will

[brutus87]

Because racecar.

[Xat1cZ]

When I drive my car people take fucking notice, they bow down and some even get tears in their eyes. Once I had a woman in her late 30's come up to me at a gas station holding a 1-2 year old just begging me to take her baby because I am so awesome, I said "no mam, I can't take her #because leather seats" .. she said "but.. she can take care of herself" .. at this point I was like ""wtfweeeird" .. then the woman laughed awkwardly as she realized I thought she meant the little one, then she pointed to her e91, and out stepped this ~19 year old looking hottie .. and I was like "YOLO!!"

..I totally did a skid when I pulled out the station.

[J3M93]

This is why

[MR 325]

I think others are right. They've transformed from "old car" to "classic" these days.

I get compliments and looks almost every time I drive mine too. ;)

[Stanley Rockafella]

I honestly couldnt' give two shits about Frank Ocean

Now Billy Ocean, that man could sing!

[dashboardmonkey]

I have noticed more attention lately too. I am amazed at how many say "nice e30" rather than "nice beemer" then I open the hood, and they're like "thats not stock" haha

[Edirtyy808]

its all because of stanceworks/hellaflush. i had my e30 for 3years. im 19 by the way. my car was moderately dropped, with 15x8 rims. but no one cared, they only cared about their civics and integras, or jdm cars as you call them. but when stance/hellaflush became popular those same people wanted my car. so i thank stanceworks for making e30s popular lol!

[e30trooper]

When I drive my car I think nothing of it than just a e30. From the other person its a bitch'n car. I also tend to forget about my car being lowered loud and fancy'ish looking.

The trend is growing , ive got two kids looking for e30 atm too. 5k range...

[e30trooper]

ppl want what they see

[mikeedler]

It could be nothing more than people noticing a well penned design. These days everything looks the same. An E30 will stand out because it looks like a car. Its got a well defined hood, cockpit and trunk, something 99.9% of the cars on the market these days lack (They all look like stationwagons more or less since they have the stupid high rear window and no real defined trunk area.) The E30 is proportional and still a very good looking car.

This is very true. Me and my daughter always laugh when we come out to the E30 in a parking lot. It sticks out like a sore thumb, and looks NOTHING like all the other cars parked around it. A tiny little box.

and I think EVERYONE that listens to Frank Ocean outside of R3v, probably doesn't car or even know what an E30 is. They care more about his E90M3 and youtube videos of him in an X6.

[dannyyisntt]

I was actually noticing this the other day on my way home from work. My rusty ix turns heads.

Here I thought it was because the obnoxious exhaust or the previously mentioned rust, but clearly its because godschariot

[Ether-D]

This sums it up to me:
I'm picking my daughter up from school a couple months ago, top down (along with 2 or 3 other cars with their tops down). A 5-year-old boy looks at my car, his jaw drops, and he blurts out "Cool car!!!!". A 5-year-old. If a little kid thinks it's cool, it's cool.