E30 prices...Only going to keep going up

[Benjamin_Button]

ok. let me know when the 1985-1990 Toyota Camry picnic is. I won't hold my breath.

Saw a Toyota Cressida meet once. Was a sad sight to see... Cars and owners.

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[STAGGERED M3]

I think this is only true for maybe a IS and M3 Models.

[Stanley Rockafella]

after you put $40k into restoring it? :p

Dude, you gotta spend money to make money! :hitler:

If there are groups of grown ass men who enjoy My Little Pony, unfortunately the Toyota Camry Fest probably also exists

lol, I heard about that on the radio the other day.

I'm gunna change my r3v username to twilight sparkle :D

[jdt10768]

ok. let me know when the 1985-1990 Toyota Camry picnic is. I won't hold my breath.

If there are groups of grown ass men who enjoy My Little Pony, unfortunately the Toyota Camry Fest probably also exists

[brbahner]

ok. let me know when the 1985-1990 Toyota Camry picnic is. I won't hold my breath.

[ForcedFirebird]

If you're driving your e30 for transportation it'll fall apart and/or rust out before people are paying six figures for pristine bone stock specimens.

I have been daily driving my e30's for almost a decade. This statement has no truth to it. If anything a daily gets more mechanical attention since after all, it's a daily and will need to be maintained. I would still be driving my first e30 if it wasn't involved in an accident, the current one has a 175k mile broken odometer, I drive it to/from/on the tracks, have been all over Florida in this one, visited many places west of the Mississippi in the old one.

I work on them for a living, there are plenty of them still going strong in a daily status. Granted, we don't have to worry as much about rust here in FL as other locations, but my current car is from NY.

[nando]

you two are so far off from reality it's hilarious. but whatever you want to tell yourselves don't let me splash cold water on your fantasies :)

ok. let me know when the 1985-1990 Toyota Camry picnic is. I won't hold my breath.

[BenDem]

you two are so far off from reality it's hilarious. but whatever you want to tell yourselves don't let me splash cold water on your fantasies :)

Personally, I don't care what the value of e30's are. I've got mine, and I'm not selling it. I really like it, and I'm planning on keeping until I either can't drive anymore or the car is physically beyond repair.

Guess I'm living my fantasy. :D

Anyway, I'm not disagreeing with you that Asian imports of the same age are probably easier to maintain than an e30. I just don't think it's really a factor in how desirable the car is.

[smooth]

you two are so far off from reality it's hilarious. but whatever you want to tell yourselves don't let me splash cold water on your fantasies :)

[nando]

^ yeah, I agree. Occasionally I see an 80's mustang or Camaro, but Toyota Camrys? Never - and if I do, they're not something you'd want to be seen driving. Those cars were designed to driven into the ground until they were worthless and finally scrapped.

Even cars from the 90's are getting to be a rare sight. They may have had lower maintenance costs back in the day but they were basically appliances; nobody fixes a broken microwave or DVD player. it gets thrown away and replaced with a new one, there's no value in a worn out 1987 Toyota Camry.

[BenDem]

you mean besides every asian import currently pushing 200-300k miles and still driving strong?
the reality is that to anyone other than an enthusiast an e30 is just an old car with a ridiculously high maintenance price tag.

I'm not seeing at bunch of '88 Hondas driving around.

At this point, all cars the same age as e30 are old cars, and old cars take effort to keep running.

A 25 year old Toyota might be cheaper / easier to maintain, but you don't see them very often because they died of neglect a long time ago. People didn't keep them because they weren't "special". Most died the same death as the '88 Civic my mom bought new. She drove it, took good care of it. After eight years, she decided it was time to get a new car when it had about 120K on the clock. It never gave her any trouble, but the interior was starting to look a little tired. She gave it to my brother who drove it through is college years. To him, it was just an 'old honda' so he did NOTHING to it for the 4 years he had it. He might have changed the oil once a year, that's it. Everything that broke was either ignored, or fixed as cheaply as possible just to keep it moving. Eventually, the car protested it's neglect. I don't remember if it wouldn't start one morning, or if the clutch died, or if the brakes were toast, but he junked it and moved on to the next crappy car...

If he took as good of care of it as my mom did (and the road salt didn't kill it) I'm sure it would still be out there today, with cheaper running costs than my 88' e30. But he didn't, and it's not. Nobody saw the value in keeping it going.

Nobody drives a 25 year old anything unless they are an enthusiast of some sort. And, there are more vintage BMW enthusiasts than there are vintage Nissan enthusiasts.

The fact that you can easily find e30's at all in decent shape is pretty strong evidence that they are good, desirable cars. I think it will be many decades before you see any selling for 6 figures... and I'm not sure they will be 'collectable'. I think they will always be desirable.

[bruner]

I am going to start hoarding late model e30's.

Who even likes late models?;)

[smooth]

I totally disagree with this. Show me any other 1988 vehicle that's still out on the road and thriving in many ways. For comparison purposes, go onto Craigslist and do a search for 1988 Mercedes 190e. Compared to the e30, there just isn't that much out there. In my opinion they just couldn't pass the test of time, unlike the e30.

you mean besides every asian import currently pushing 200-300k miles and still driving strong?
the reality is that to anyone other than an enthusiast an e30 is just an old car with a ridiculously high maintenance price tag.

not attacking you or your decisions, just stating facts. in any subculture (the e30 community), fad modifications (in this case, 24v swaps) can certainly inflate the value of a particular car to someone else in that community, who is familiar with and appreciates that modification while it remains popular.

car collectors aren't necessarily "e30 people", they are people looking to make an investment in the value of a car. and those cars are usually (we're not talking about hot rods or chip foose resto-mods here) stock and original.

24v swaps are hardly "fad" modifications.
the debate over whether to tastefully mod collectibles or not has been going on for as long as people have been restoring and collecting cars. Very few collectibles, as in a handful, fetch stratospheric prices based on being bone stock. if you want to sell it to a museum or for someone's personal garage collection you *might* have a case but that's so far from reality for the majority of collectibles, and will be even less so for a German import, that it's not even worth worrying about.

If you're driving your e30 for transportation it'll fall apart and/or rust out before people are paying six figures for pristine bone stock specimens.

If you want a great investment car, go for this!
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/scz/cto/4464973914.html

already gone

[nando]

after you put $40k into restoring it? :p

[Stanley Rockafella]

it's already 50 years old and it's still only worth $5k? yeah..

unrestored

easily 30-40k once done