Affording an E30? Your thoughts and knowledge needed.

[Heir2Air]

I flew to LA, bought an E30 I had never seen in person from a guy I had never met, and drove it 500+ miles back home on a Saturday in the middle of a semester of school.

A year and half later I can easily say it is the single best purchase I have ever made and one of the best decisions I've made in my life.

People have tried talking me out of following my dreams my entire life, and I've learned it's much better to make dumb mistakes doing what you want than to miss a golden opportunity.

Come back to r3v when you grow some balls son.

Lol, yeah, thanks for the advice. Words to live by...

Anyone have any other suggestions for a car to watch out for? By the way, the Best Buy interview went well today. Tomorrow I go out there to solidify my hours and pay. Should be able to keep the summer job and hopefully even make a little extra dough from BB than I had planned for.

I am stilling looking out for a Focus in my range, but all I see are wagons. And I actually lowered my budget a bit, so that 122K mile 1999 ZX2 for $1900 is dressed to impress. Going to see the car this weekend. Maybe tomorrow, actually. Continually, your input is welcomed and appreciated.

[KIRIEIW]

I would say get a e30 cause there cool little cars. Just really check out the cars, like REALLY! look under the car for rust cause there's a good chance there will be rust if it's not a California car and its seen every snow season for 25years...

[evandael]

I am stilling looking out for a Focus in my range, but all I see are wagons. And I actually lowered my budget a bit, so that 122K mile 1999 ZX2 for $1900 is dressed to impress. Going to see the car this weekend. Maybe tomorrow, actually. Continually, your input is welcomed and appreciated.

Why no Hondas? Also, in the Ford arena, I humbly suggest a V6 Probe. They're kinda fun and sound great. Also the Mazda MX6 (it's badge-engineered stablemate).

And one last suggestion.. a truck?

[shameson]

And one last suggestion.. a truck?

That's a good suggestion. A lot of older trucks are still on the road. Things are reliable and can take a beating

[Heir2Air]

Why no Hondas? Also, in the Ford arena, I humbly suggest a V6 Probe. They're kinda fun and sound great. Also the Mazda MX6 (it's badge-engineered stablemate).

And one last suggestion.. a truck?

That's a good suggestion. A lot of older trucks are still on the road. Things are reliable and can take a beating

I need something thats good on gas. So the V6's are pretty much ruled out. I'm looking at a 2001 Tiburon. From what I've read, they are slower than the ZX2, but feel sportier and give the better driving experience. The Tiburon also looks better. Sadly, not only are they a bit slower, but they also manage to get a little worse MPG. Granted, none of these cars are fast, so I'll be sticking my foot in it to go anywhere in a hurry regardless.

Better experience, or better performance? Thoughts?

[mrsleeve]

this tread made my head hurt I mean the 1st page was ok.


My advice a as new as possible and well maintained 3-4k dollar ecco-shit basic Eccono shit box as you can find. Drive it till it falls apart and dies a miserable death. You need to get from point a to b and not worry about impressing or having fun with your car while in school and just out of school.


Once you get done with your studies then you can buy what you really want

[lukeADE335i]

My 320i (I know you didn't get these in the US) was the best buy I ever had. 3 years, nothing but oil changes, but I knew it was good when I bought it as the P.O. had a folder 2 inches thick of receipts.

If you can find a good one, reliability can be a good. Of course, modding is another story, and since I then threw in an M30, reliability has still been good, but I can tell after a year of driving it's going to break other things - rear subframe bushes have just let go, so while the subframe is out I'm going to refresh the rear end.

That said - lots of good advice here. My wife has an '06 Kia Rio - not great as a drivers car, but has been ultra reliable over 7 years, is well screwed together and uses very little fuel. Those things depreciate like no tomorrow, so I'd just go some kind of commuter as others have suggested.

No - it won't pull chicks (unless they are looking to buy your car off you!)

[Heir2Air]

Thanks guys. I completely agree, get a car that is reliable and gets me from point A to B cheaply. But, there are still options in that range. For instance, started looking at a few Celicas. One of them supposedly has 103k miles on the engine. The ZX2 still seems like a good bet. Not the best looking coupe, but a coupe none the less with great gas mileage. Looking at some Tiburons. So again, the advice is sound. Get a car with under 150k on the engine that I know wont die on me the day after purchase. But, I do have some options.

Couldn't thank you guys enough for the advice given to me. I am no longer looking for an E30, so I guess we can just let this thread die a peaceful death. Maybe it will help someone else wondering if they can afford an E30.

[kaiser16]

We have too much in common! When I bought my 318is three years ago I used to work at Best Buy and I was going in second year mechanical engineering at University of Ottawa. I'll tell you how this worked out. First of all I have no regrets but you have to expect the e30 to take almost all your savings. For instance tuition fees cost 8000$ a year here and I live at my parents so very little housing fees, I still had some money so I decided to buy a 1500$ project car, that summer it took me 2 months and probably around 3000$ more to get it road legal. I then drove it for 2 months and then parked it over the winter. This gives you the first problem, the car is a toy not a reliable commuter. During the three years I drove the car 20000 km and it cost me close to 8000$ in parts. In other words I spent more time under the car then in it. Mind you I did not expect it to be a reliable commuter because I bought it as a soul purpose to learn more about cars. Although every time I took a trip with this car it has been extremely good on gas (better then honda civics on the highway) and loads of fun, I get a lot of attention from it. Right now it is in my garage being stripped naked, I have declared war on rust so it will take at least a month and a half before I drive it again. I'm biking an hour to work every day haha

[david2991]

I've dumped nearly 7k into my e30 while going to grad school and working full-time and it was a mistake in my opinion. If I were to do it again I would just enjoy being broke and save up for a better car at a higher price point later on. Don't get me wrong though, my e30 is probably going to be the highlight of my car ownership for the rest of my life.

[Bimmerman325i]

If you are studying mechanical engineering, after a year or so of courses you will be able to do internships or the co-op program (take CAD immediately!!!). These will pay roughly double what best buy would pay while also giving you a positive work experience for your professional resume. $17-25/hr is pretty standard range for an internship. My freshman year first semester CAD class got me an internship that following summer, so do not put CAD off.

My advice is what I did: drive cheap reliable car until you get a better job (internship) then get a more fun car. If you plan on staying at best buy for your entire college career your resume will suffer and you wont get a fun car either. Obviously you need to know some engineering theory before going for an intern position, but after the first year or so you should be qualified enough to quit best buy and get more applicable experience. I worked internships and coops all through school, paid tuition, and bought some fun cars along the way. Get the knowledge you need to get hired on as an intern, all the fun things will follow from that.

[Heir2Air]

Thanks for the thoughts. Those who were in similar settings truly bring light to the situation, thank you for sharing your experiences. Obviously, I need to be a BMW owner at some point in time simply for the wonderful community that it entails. Other than one or two responses, this has to be the most civilzed and helpful online community I have come accross. Way to go R3VLIMITED.

[mrsleeve]

^

We are a fickle bunch, dont cross us and we will give you the shirt off our backs, get on the wrong side and your life can be full of hot sauce pizza deliveries and late night calls wanting to adopt puppies.......

[Vtec?lol]

Like others have said, if you're looking for a decent ecconobox... Look at cavaliers or their saturn counterpart. They get 30+easily and are pretty quick. most can be had for less than $1800

[Heir2Air]

I actually did end up getting a car.

Two jobs, one class, and a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS. 90K miles; there were much worse ways for me to spend $2200.