Opinions on first BMW/e30

[djork]

I am considering dumping my '01 Jetta for an e30. I took at look at this car in person yesterday:

http://frederick.craigslist.org/cto/3722114191.html

The engine ran well, but it made a good bit of vapor when it started up. It's got headers and straight pipes (no cat).

The suspension needs fixing. You can rock the front wheel back and forth when it's on the ground. I would not do any suspension work myself.

The carpet would have to go, and the floor pans have some rust so I could get those welded at the same time. I didn't poke at the rust in the quarter panel, but it's obviously there on the right rear.

The seats are nice except that the driver's side doesn't come up automatically. Can this be fixed?

The big plastic trim around the rear seats is faded, and the caps are missing, as you can see in the pictures. Is this too much trouble to fix?

All that being said: do you think this would be a good deal at $2500?

I'd take it to a local garage to have them look it over too.

[RondoAcapriccio]

depends .... pics of your jetta?


some of you VW guys can still be saved.... others.....well....

[djork]

It's a mostly unmolested Wolfsburg Edition (1.8T), with the exception of some cheap wheels to replace the BBS wheel which became badly corroded, the PO's hack job fixing it after an accident, and some horrible unsolvable wiring/sensor/emissions issues. I was young(er) and stupid(er) when I bought it. Every time I go to fix some plastic POS part on the Jetta, the plastic POS next to it shatters or crumbles.

You can trust me to keep it tasteful, if that's what you mean :)

And I love working on older cars.

[willworkfore30s]

Edit: After reading your description, I would say its a good not great price. But the suspension is pretty simple of these cars so I would handle that myself and save money. If I was going to have to pay someone to do it as you will most likely I'd feel a little differently about the price. But I still think is decent.

[Cletonius]

Seems like an OK price to me, but you'll need to budget another $500-1000 if you're not going to do the suspension repairs yourself.

[lowsodium]

I never did suspension work in my life before buying my E30. I spent $1600 and replaced every single suspension component. It was a lot of fun to work on and i learned a lot just from reading diy's on this forum. It rides fantastic now.

[djork]

Good to know. I'll be honest: I'm afraid of dying from a spring.

I have plenty of spare money above what I pay for it. I might offer $2K. I also don't have a press or bench or anything like that, which comes up often in the DIYs. But I can borrow a neighbor's garage for anything I want to do.

[lowsodium]

Good to know. I'll be honest: I'm afraid of dying from a spring.

I have plenty of spare money above what I pay for it. I might offer $2K. I also don't have a press or bench or anything like that, which comes up often in the DIYs. But I can borrow a neighbor's garage for anything I want to do.

Dont fear the springs, just buy spring compressors and take your time.

The rear springs arent even compressed when its raised in the air. The fronts arent under much tension either when its jacked up in the air. Plus you can pull the whole spring/shock assembly off and do the spring compressors on the ground. That actually was the easiest part of the whole thing.

Jacking up your car properly is the biggest safety issue!

[MoreMayhem]

The rust would be my main concern. That fender picture looks pretty bad to me, and hints at other major rust spots. I know you said there was some rust on the floorboards too. Get under it and look at everything.

[lowsodium]

You can get a press at harbor freight for $120, and rent a Ujoint kit for free from Advanced Auto. Use it, then sell it on Craigslist.

Or you could gather up everything that needs to be pressed and take it to a local shop.

[Vivek]

Suspension work is the biggest job I've ever done on an e30 and it wasn't hard at all. Don't worry about the compressed springs. I opened up a pair of strut housings with compressed springs on the ground once with nothing more than a ratchet (but I don't honestly suggest doing that). For the front it's probably your control arms and tie rods, which are both fairly straightforward to replace once you rent (for free) a pickle fork from Kragen. Rear bushings are a bit more of an involved job, I'd budget about a week of downtime if its your first time. But if you're looking to get a shop to do all this it'll be thousands.

[Cletonius]

Suspension work is the biggest job I've ever done on an e30 and it wasn't hard at all. Don't worry about the compressed springs. I opened up a pair of strut housings with compressed springs on the ground once with nothing more than a ratchet (but I don't honestly suggest doing that). For the front it's probably your control arms and tie rods, which are both fairly straightforward to replace once you rent (for free) a pickle fork from Kragen. Rear bushings are a bit more of an involved job, I'd budget about a week of downtime if its your first time. But if you're looking to get a shop to do all this it'll be thousands.

I'm doing suspension now and will agree with most of your post. I budgeted a week and I'll be at around 2 when I'm done.

[Kozworth]

Everything in an e30 just makes sense compared to vw. I owned 4 mk3s. The heater ore on a vr6 was literally the worst case scenario job I read dealerships refuse to do them. The e30 heater core is just simple and makes sense.

Convert now, I did and so did my best friend. I have not missed the boring drive ability, stupid engineering, or lame vwvortex.

[TC Baur MD]

I would check these two E30's first. A little more money but I think they are in better shape.

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/cto/3750076743.html

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/cto/3749921161.html

[djork]

You're right. It would probably save me some headache. I really don't have time or ability to deal with rust...