Skyrocketing E30 prices. Is it worth it anymore?

[hopefule30owner]

Yes in Socal we are very fortunate to have a large e30 community but many of whom are young, broke college students who like to stance to "enhance" and do hack job mods. I'm holding out for something that is in the best possible condition and is within my price range... as I am sure other r3vers do. If you read my WTB ad I posted that I am looking specifically for an auto.

This. I feel like I'm watching Gas Monkey Garage. Every decent car is getting bought up and slammed on cheap wheels and suspension. Then they're back up for sale and people want $7,000 to recoup the cost of their crap parts.

[Benjamin_Button]

your in socal there are e30s available

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/cto/4376671651.html

http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/4378546549.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/4370903861.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/4376333198.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/cto/4373576467.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/4361855558.html

if your willing to be a bit flexible your spoiled for choice, I've never done a deal on c-list where the price wasn't negotiable. there was also a white plastic bumper vert i can't seem to find now. i admit most of these are autos but a manual swap can be done easily for 500-700 bucks

Yes in Socal we are very fortunate to have a large e30 community but many of whom are young, broke college students who like to stance to "enhance" and do hack job mods. I'm holding out for something that is in the best possible condition and is within my price range... as I am sure other r3vers do. If you read my WTB ad I posted that I am looking specifically for an auto.

Also pertaining to that last link- the bronzit. I reached out to the seller when it was first posted 2 weeks ago for more pictures but he was a less than agreeable fellow and told me to bugger off because there were sufficient pictures in the ad (you can see why it hasn't sold). Not going to waste my time driving 2hrs+ to look at something that is potentially a rolling pile of junk.

[Julien]

From a collector standpoint, the matching VIN is more important. If you can repair the trunk that is. If it's not repairable, then it doesn't matter.

my motor doesn't match so *shrug*

i just hate seeing a partially painted car, looks way more ghetto than a non matching vin. i guess i'll just keep the old trunk in case I do a full respray one day

[elbrack]

so.. thoughts
I have a vin matching car but the trunk has several dings, paint is fading (primer starting to show in one tine spot) and one bigger dent. I've found a replacement trunk from another car with oem paint. What's more important vin matching or all original paint (replacement trunk matches perfectly)

From a collector standpoint, the matching VIN is more important. If you can repair the trunk that is. If it's not repairable, then it doesn't matter.

[KIRIEIW]

I did. Twice.

Cool man. Me and my friends car are all matching. My point is there extremely hard to find

[Julien]

All I'm going to say is I can't stress enough about looking for matching vins.

so.. thoughts
I have a vin matching car but the trunk has several dings, paint is fading (primer starting to show in one tine spot) and one bigger dent. I've found a replacement trunk from another car with oem paint. What's more important vin matching or all original paint (replacement trunk matches perfectly)

[RDM3]

your in socal there are e30s available

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/cto/4376671651.html

http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/4378546549.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/4370903861.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/4376333198.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/cto/4373576467.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/4361855558.html

if your willing to be a bit flexible your spoiled for choice, I've never done a deal on c-list where the price wasn't negotiable. there was also a white plastic bumper vert i can't seem to find now. i admit most of these are autos but a manual swap can be done easily for 500-700 bucks

From what I can see and my opinion, the last one is the one I think is the best.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/4361855558.html

[elbrack]

I found a low mileage one with some rust spots near the trunk, but nothing severe to the frame for a fair SOCAL price. Basically bonestock except for the radio. A lot of guys are asking over 5K for cars that aren't even mechanically complete. (No A/C, No P/S etc)

That was my main concern, is that I found a car that was mechanically sound and not completely rusting from bottom up.

The prices will go up from here, they aren't gonna come down.

A lot of guys are just buying and flipping the really nice ones out there too. Seen a lot of very nice versions being listed over 10K. :-\

[Herr Faust Schinken]

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.

your in socal there are e30s available

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/cto/4376671651.html

http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/4378546549.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/4370903861.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/4376333198.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/cto/4373576467.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/4361855558.html

if your willing to be a bit flexible your spoiled for choice, I've never done a deal on c-list where the price wasn't negotiable. there was also a white plastic bumper vert i can't seem to find now. i admit most of these are autos but a manual swap can be done easily for 500-700 bucks

[ThatOneEuroE30]

that thing is a rust bucket. the first place I always look is the engine bay. if the strut mounts are original and the nuts are rusty, the rest of the car isn't going to be pretty.

I'd like to see the floor pans for that thing. Probably resemble mine haha.

[agent]

I can't stress enough about looking for matching vins.
...you never find 25yr old cars with the same vin panels.

I did. Twice.

[RDM3]

that thing is a rust bucket. the first place I always look is the engine bay. if the strut mounts are original and the nuts are rusty, the rest of the car isn't going to be pretty.

If you look at this photo you can see rust along the bottom, I told him sight unseen the most I would go is $2,000.

[nando]

that thing is a rust bucket. the first place I always look is the engine bay. if the strut mounts are original and the nuts are rusty, the rest of the car isn't going to be pretty.

[RDM3]

Prices have gone up, but as someone who was just in the market up until a few weeks ago, i'll tell you what's going on....

People list E30's at completely stupid prices. The cars look amazing in pictures and are listed as "no rust", "perfect paint", etc. Then you get there and the thing is a rust bucket with the paint chipped off the fenders from aggressive tire fitment and holes rotting through the frame rails from the undercoat being scraped off.

The seller will then come down on price. Way down. As an example, I went to see a late model red coupe with euro houndstooth interior that was listed here and indeed looked amazing in pictures. I won't go into detail, but the car was far from as clean as it presented in the FS ad, or was described. But in the ad, it did look amazing. Asking price was originally $7200. I looked the car over for about 20 minutes and said no thanks. Seller came down to $5500. Still, no thanks. Seller came down to $4500. Still, no thanks. Ok, howabout $4K? No thanks. The car was too rough.

I happen to know the car sold for $4K (best of luck to the guy who paid that much). But here's the issue...now the seller posts "SOLD" on the FS thread, and everyone thinks the car sold for $6 or $7K. This is happening with a lot of E30's, and it gives the next guy a completely distorted viewpoint as to what the market value of his car is.

I walked away from 3 cars that were listed on this forum because they had big rust issues or notable body/chassis damage. All were listed as "rust free" and "near perfect". Many sellers have a pretty distorted viewpoint of what a rust free car is, and what a car in nice condition is. They list the car at a completely unrealistic price point, and noone knows that they come down as much as 50% or more from their asking price. It's driving up the price of E30's.

I love my E30 and E36, but in different ways. It's the same with my E46. My E36 M3 still remains to be, IMO, the best car i've ever driven. If I had to choose one car of the 3 I own (E30, E36, E46), i'd choose that one. It simply blows the E30 chassis out of the water in every way. But, it doesn't have that old, quirky raw mechanical feel of an 80's designed E30. And some people just really love the look of an E30. This is totally understandable, they're gorgeous cars.

E36's are stupid cheap for what you get in return. That's for sure. E30's are overpriced at this point, and there's an epidemic with sellers being out of touch with the condition and value of their cars. But that will plateau sooner or later.

I have found the same thing in my search, like the one below from CL 91 325ix, he states no rot, but if you look around the wheel wells there are chips and they are rusting, he is down to $5600, but I basically said it is too much.

http://lancaster.craigslist.org/cto/4280513078.html

http://s1266.photobucket.com/user/hansmarks/slideshow/

[matthugie]

Reminds me of a local e28 that's been for sale off and on for a while. It photographs well, but I've seen it in person a couple times and it's completely clapped out. Slammed on Chinese coils, chewed up fenders, missing hood, absurdly painted knock off wheels, "custom" harness bar, stripped interior, and ebay seats. All this for only 7k...