Skyrocketing E30 prices. Is it worth it anymore?

[mbonder]

Another factor here is location. The use of road salt has destroyed many older vehicles in certain parts of the country, driving up the price of quality cars in certain portions of the country, especially the Northeast.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Another factor here is location. The use of road salt has destroyed many older vehicles in certain parts of the country, driving up the price of quality cars in certain portions of the country, especially the Northeast.

And the Midwest. Basiclly if wanna get a cheap e30 buy a rust bucket from the Midwest or northeast or pay the money to have one shipped to you from cali or other non rust states.

[phreshkid]

I picked up a nice e36 m3/4/5 recently and am happy with it. No problems, well maintained, and a great daily driver. Would an e30 be cooler? Yes, but I was after a good DD, while still being fun (and working AC).

I think your biggest problem is that you are located in Los Angeles, the heart of the biggest e30 community in the country. People know e30s well, and know what others are willing to pay for a good example. You can still find a deal, but this becoming more and more uncommon, especially when the east coast crowd is raping and pillaging our own local stock.

You will pay the e30 tax.



But don't listen to me. I haven't owned an e30 in over a year.

[fiveightandten]

Can attest to what fiveightandten is saying. Been looking for a clean example of an e30 for a while. The owner of a particular e30 I found on Craig's blatantly lied to me claiming "absolutely no rust". Needless to say when I got there, the thing was coated with cancer. These days when sellers refuse to send me additional pics I don't even bother. Usually means they have something to hide.

I've come across a good amount of sellers that are honest people, but just aren't on the same wavelength when it comes to evaluating or describing a car.

For cars i've gone to see...

"Zero rust" has actually been:
-"I didn't see any rust on the car, but I didn't look on the underside"
-"Oh, well, there's that bit of rust, and just 5 or 6 other spots. But they're small. It's XX years old, what do you expect?"
-"I've never noticed any rust. But I didn't really look the car over too well."

"Perfect paint" has actually been:
-"It's in good shape for a XX year old car. But you have to expect that 24" key mark down to bare metal, and the color burned down to the primer on 10 or 12 places, by someone who didn't know how to use a buffer. It's not a new car anymore"
-"It has a fresh respray. It's all perfect, except the areas around every edge, where the paint is chipping off and bubbling due to underlying rust that wasn't fixed before the spray"
-"That huge dent in the door, preventing it from opening all the way? That's a problem? Oh, I didn't know you were looking for a show car"
-"Oh that? I closed the hood with a tool on the engine and it cracked the paint around the golf ball sized dent. I never got it fixed, so it spidered and rusted out in a 8" wide area. So, it's perfect except for needing a new hood. Those huge failed areas in the floor pan? Oh. I put jacks stands in the wrong place and it destroyed the metal. I never re-coated it, so it rusted out. So, it's perfect and rust free outside of needing a new hood, and having huge holes of rust in the floor pans"
-"Oh that? A car canopy fell on it and dented the roof, rear quarter, and front right fender. A body shop could fix that stuff easily. It's perfect outside of that"

"Runs Perfect" has actually been:
-"The blue smoke? I never noticed that before. That horrible whirring noise in the rear? No, that's not wheel bearings, I think the brakes are just dirty."
-"The excessive bottom end clattering noise coming from the engine? No, it's never been beat on...Just oil starved 4 or 5 times from when I cracked my oil pan and din't realize it until I got home, 5 separate times. Low is a lifestyle. Don't hate."


Anyways, good luck in your search. The right one will come along.

[Benjamin_Button]

I've come across a good amount of sellers that are honest people, but just aren't on the same wavelength when it comes to evaluating or describing a car.

For cars i've gone to see...

"Zero rust" has actually been:
-"I didn't see any rust on the car, but I didn't look on the underside"
-"Oh, well, there's that bit of rust, and just 5 or 6 other spots. But they're small. It's XX years old, what do you expect?"
-"I've never noticed any rust. But I didn't really look the car over too well."

"Perfect paint" has actually been:
-"It's in good shape for a XX year old car. But you have to expect that 24" key mark down to bare metal, and the color burned down to the primer on 10 or 12 places, by someone who didn't know how to use a buffer. It's not a new car anymore"
-"It has a fresh respray. It's all perfect, except the areas around every edge, where the paint is chipping off and bubbling due to underlying rust that wasn't fixed before the spray"
-"That huge dent in the door, preventing it from opening all the way? That's a problem? Oh, I didn't know you were looking for a show car"
-"Oh that? I closed the hood with a tool on the engine and it cracked the paint around the golf ball sized dent. I never got it fixed, so it spidered and rusted out in a 8" wide area. So, it's perfect except for needing a new hood. Those huge failed areas in the floor pan? Oh. I put jacks stands in the wrong place and it destroyed the metal. I never re-coated it, so it rusted out. So, it's perfect and rust free outside of needing a new hood, and having huge holes of rust in the floor pans"
-"Oh that? A car canopy fell on it and dented the roof, rear quarter, and front right fender. A body shop could fix that stuff easily. It's perfect outside of that"

"Runs Perfect" has actually been:
-"The blue smoke? I never noticed that before. That horrible whirring noise in the rear? No, that's not wheel bearings, I think the brakes are just dirty."
-"The excessive bottom end clattering noise coming from the engine? No, it's never been beat on...Just oil starved 4 or 5 times from when I cracked my oil pan and din't realize it until I got home, 5 separate times. Low is a lifestyle. Don't hate."


Anyways, good luck in your search. The right one will come along.

LMFAO. SO TRUE.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[ThatOneEuroE30]

I've come across a good amount of sellers that are honest people, but just aren't on the same wavelength when it comes to evaluating or describing a car.

For cars i've gone to see...

"Zero rust" has actually been:
-"I didn't see any rust on the car, but I didn't look on the underside"
-"Oh, well, there's that bit of rust, and just 5 or 6 other spots. But they're small. It's XX years old, what do you expect?"
-"I've never noticed any rust. But I didn't really look the car over too well."

"Perfect paint" has actually been:
-"It's in good shape for a XX year old car. But you have to expect that 24" key mark down to bare metal, and the color burned down to the primer on 10 or 12 places, by someone who didn't know how to use a buffer. It's not a new car anymore"
-"It has a fresh respray. It's all perfect, except the areas around every edge, where the paint is chipping off and bubbling due to underlying rust that wasn't fixed before the spray"
-"That huge dent in the door, preventing it from opening all the way? That's a problem? Oh, I didn't know you were looking for a show car"
-"Oh that? I closed the hood with a tool on the engine and it cracked the paint around the golf ball sized dent. I never got it fixed, so it spidered and rusted out in a 8" wide area. So, it's perfect except for needing a new hood. Those huge failed areas in the floor pan? Oh. I put jacks stands in the wrong place and it destroyed the metal. I never re-coated it, so it rusted out. So, it's perfect and rust free outside of needing a new hood, and having huge holes of rust in the floor pans"
-"Oh that? A car canopy fell on it and dented the roof, rear quarter, and front right fender. A body shop could fix that stuff easily. It's perfect outside of that"

"Runs Perfect" has actually been:
-"The blue smoke? I never noticed that before. That horrible whirring noise in the rear? No, that's not wheel bearings, I think the brakes are just dirty."
-"The excessive bottom end clattering noise coming from the engine? No, it's never been beat on...Just oil starved 4 or 5 times from when I cracked my oil pan and din't realize it until I got home, 5 separate times. Low is a lifestyle. Don't hate."


Anyways, good luck in your search. The right one will come along.

So true. Especially the there's only two patches of rust on entire car but I didn't look at the bottom cause my x ray vision already told me there wasn't any rust.

[Bearmw]

I once drove two hours to look at a car that the owner assured me had NO rust. When I got to his driveway I could clearly see holes from 10 feet away...and there was nothing I could do about it unfortunately. I once saw a car for sale of which the owner claimed a "rebuilt engine" which mostly involved a couple of spray cans of paint. Yeah people often lie about condition but all you can do is get as many pics and as much info in advance as possible. It sucks but is the nature of buying and selling anything. The deals of 5-10 years ago are less frequent (a lot of E30's have been junked in that span) so that just means you have to work harder to find a good deal.

[KIRIEIW]

All I'm going to say is I can't stress enough about looking for matching vins. I checked out 2 cars last year with different finder and hood numbers/ other had them all missing... Go with my flashlight down there to reveal frame damage and rust forming were the bends were (on both) one was $5,600 and the other $2,000 if I remember correctly. If it has all vins just check for rust and it'll be a good buy because you never find 25yr old cars with the same vin panels.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Yea my car doesn't have an original panel I don't think. It won't for sure when I'm done with it.

[nando]

I haven't been in the E30 market for years, but from what I see locally - about 75% of them are basically rolling parts cars at this point. Finding a good one and a decent price has got to be much more difficult. My buddy just picked up an '89 ix, and honestly, it's a basket case. He needs to put about $5k into it to get it up to par.

[5ickride]

I got lucky...northeast car, 70k miles, no rust (really, no rust), all original unmolested. I will never give her up! I paid a premium for it, I wont lie, but it was worth it given all these attributes.

[Julien]

I've come across a good amount of sellers that are honest people, but just aren't on the same wavelength when it comes to evaluating or describing a car.

For cars i've gone to see...

"Zero rust" has actually been:
-"I didn't see any rust on the car, but I didn't look on the underside"
-"Oh, well, there's that bit of rust, and just 5 or 6 other spots. But they're small. It's XX years old, what do you expect?"
-"I've never noticed any rust. But I didn't really look the car over too well."

"Perfect paint" has actually been:
-"It's in good shape for a XX year old car. But you have to expect that 24" key mark down to bare metal, and the color burned down to the primer on 10 or 12 places, by someone who didn't know how to use a buffer. It's not a new car anymore"
-"It has a fresh respray. It's all perfect, except the areas around every edge, where the paint is chipping off and bubbling due to underlying rust that wasn't fixed before the spray"
-"That huge dent in the door, preventing it from opening all the way? That's a problem? Oh, I didn't know you were looking for a show car"
-"Oh that? I closed the hood with a tool on the engine and it cracked the paint around the golf ball sized dent. I never got it fixed, so it spidered and rusted out in a 8" wide area. So, it's perfect except for needing a new hood. Those huge failed areas in the floor pan? Oh. I put jacks stands in the wrong place and it destroyed the metal. I never re-coated it, so it rusted out. So, it's perfect and rust free outside of needing a new hood, and having huge holes of rust in the floor pans"
-"Oh that? A car canopy fell on it and dented the roof, rear quarter, and front right fender. A body shop could fix that stuff easily. It's perfect outside of that"

"Runs Perfect" has actually been:
-"The blue smoke? I never noticed that before. That horrible whirring noise in the rear? No, that's not wheel bearings, I think the brakes are just dirty."
-"The excessive bottom end clattering noise coming from the engine? No, it's never been beat on...Just oil starved 4 or 5 times from when I cracked my oil pan and din't realize it until I got home, 5 separate times. Low is a lifestyle. Don't hate."


Anyways, good luck in your search. The right one will come along.

haha saw a local 318is the other day.
- front fender lips pulled out via vis grips
- half the car had been painted and was peeling off
- death shake from wheel when braking from anything over 20 mph
- sunroof *sealed* with duct tape
- icv unplugged. I want to say the motor was also running open loop
- ETA cluster with inop temp gauge. had autozone temp gauge in place of 6 button obc (just kind of jammed in there)
- no heat (bi-passed)

was listed for $4500

[nando]

dude, but was it stanced?

[ThatOneEuroE30]

haha saw a local 318is the other day.

- front fender lips pulled out via vis grips

- half the car had been painted and was peeling off

- death shake from wheel when braking from anything over 20 mph

- sunroof *sealed* with duct tape

- icv unplugged. I want to say the motor was also running open loop

- ETA cluster with inop temp gauge. had autozone temp gauge in place of 6 button obc (just kind of jammed in there)

- no heat (bi-passed)



was listed for $4500

I wouldn't pay 450 for that car okay maybe would but that would be max

[firstE30]

I will say that i got a cheap e30 and still think i overpaid. Asking $1900 for a 1991 318i with new transmission around 150,000 miles and some mechanical and cosmetic issues.
Wound up taking a four hour greyhound ride down there and left with an $1100 1991 318i with a new transmission, a torn shift boot, a cracked windshield, rust all along the rockers, rotted out trunk pockets, rusty coolant, thrashed interior, no AC, no heat, broken sunroof, non-idling, overheating, rich running crapcan with 1 toyota hubcap.

Still love it though :)