Owning an E30. Is it worth it?...

[DER E30]

Bahahaha I drive a ix all winter in a town that gets 450 on a bad year......I pass Subaru wagons all day and I'm the only car that can make it up my driveway once the snow pack builds up

Straight panzer status

Fixed


My answer... Yes.

[E30 Wagen]

If you can afford to have a back up car, then yes.

[DzusFast]

Bahahaha I drive a ix all winter in a town that gets 450 on a bad year......I pass Subaru wagons all day and I'm the only car that can make it up my driveway once the snow pack builds up

Straight PANZER status

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Hahahaha....drivin' dertie yeah man!

Paid $750 for my sweet '89 cabrio. I will never sell. never, never, never, never.....you get the picture.(copy>paste x1000)

Bottom line:
ALL the people above suffer from a chemical dependency - BMW (e30 only) put a special chemical in the headliner that makes you crave it night n day! why else would someone just "sit and stare" at a 25 year old car? (Me included....)


THERE HAS YET A CURE TO BE FOUND! dude, don't even test drive one.....

[mr2peak]

Stock E30's aren't worth it

[peter321]

Does a bear shit in the woods?

[N2MYE30]

Stock E30's aren't worth it

Disagree. These are the ones I would buy...UNTOUCHED! The less zipties, the better.

It has only been touched on briefly on this thread but a lot of keeps me in one is the community. Be it R3V, BMWCCA, Vintage events and /or your local C&C, this body style creates conversation. I have meet/made countless friends in my 9 years in these cars. I know that if I do have a problem with my E30, a buddy or 2 is on speed dial with a quick response. A quick thread search on R3V will usually give me an answer (with some verification of course) to my problem. Even some our venders are venders are personal and have the knowledge to makes fixing E30s easier.

Get in sooner than later because these car prices are skyrocketing!

As far as E30 specific, its been grand. Ive had an E36 and E46 and it was a totally different crowd.

I find the E30 to worth it but I works for me and what I like about car culture. I am not an E30 snob but the E30 pushes most of the right buttons. :up:

[RocketJohn]

The BMW E30 generation, I think, is the reason America has a love affair with BMWs. The sheer amount that was sold here in the 80s solidified the brand BMW for many of us. Sporting lil tanks that are mostly analog where everything is viscerally felt when you drive them. The BMW mechs I know all say that the E30 is the best BMW ever made.

Do they need maint and repairs from time to time? Absolutely! But they have reached the trough of depreciation and nice examples are climbing in value.

If you just want an appliance to get you back and forth to work or school, look elsewhere.

But if you want a memorable driving experience when you hop in to these lil' panzers, find the best one you can in a color you can live with and don't look back.

[E30Gus]

If you can afford to have a back up car, then yes.

I learned this the hard way...at least until I replaced everything. Now it is the most reliable car in the driveway.

[TimKninja]

Depends on how old you are/if your willing to work on it. None of my friends are into Old cars anymore. Nobody sees the point. Like everything old its going to need Consistant tinkering ,I probably work on mine once every two weeks when Im dailiying it 400+ Miles a week. Some people are grease monkeys at heart and some aren't.

any E30 you buy that you dont spend upwards of 5k on is gonna need work . Or you can get lucky I bought a 318is, with 270k on it for $1500, did some maitenence and put a tranny in it, and the new owner has put 40,000 trouble free ,miles on it.

Avoid anything with rust. Im still patching mine up , and Rust repair sucks

I drive it every day out of the year that there isint salt on the roads. I farking love the way it looks, the way it drives and the consistant amount of compliments I get, even tho my car has close to 300k on it and is nowhere near the cleanest E30 out there. Even if it still had the M20 in it (that had 265k on it, never rebuilt and still pulled hard) Id still be happy! Its loud, its quick, its obnoxious, its generally impractical, but I wouldnt have any car over it.