The Official "How did I get into E30's" Thread

[varg]

I wanted a relatively light, RWD project car that I could make fast with my small budget, and E30s seemed to fit the bill best. It was pretty damn hard to find one that wasn't badly rusted though. The other cars that were on my radar all just got ruled out eventually.
-Miatas are convertibles, and I hate convertibles
-Z31 300ZXs are a bitch to work on and all rusted to hell
-FC RX7s are hard to find in turbo guise, and I didn't want to have to track down a turbo RX7 drivetrain and do a swap
-FB RX7s are hard to find in half-decent shape, and had the same problem as the FC
-Starions have too many problems
-AW11 MR2s are hard to find in decent shape, and there is little information out there about turbocharging them and what the drivetrain can take
-SW20 MR2s are too expensive when they're decent and turbocharged
-Nissan 240s are, well... you know.
-E36s - well, I just don't like how they look, or the interiors, and didn't want to deal with VANOS crap


So that left the E30, which is more practical, better made, more reliable and had a huge aftermarket and community where info and parts are easy to find. And here I am.

[bostonvert]

Where I grew up there was someone who drove a black e34 m5, I saw it everyday after school (8-12 years old ) and it looked so mean and it was super loud. That and the local grocery owner drove an e34 touring, loved that car

And the main reason is the local garage in town is bmw mecca. On it's lot there are currently sitting : e34 m5 touring, us spec e28 m5, Euro e28 m5, m635csi, e30 320IS, couple e30 tourings, 1600 convertible, e36 318IS pro car and many more

Long story short this place is filled with the rarest bmw cars and parts, the guy has 3 attics filled with anything you can imagine. This forum would explode if I could ever get my hands on his stock. Well since I was 10 years old I would bike over and just look at all the cars there. Now so many years later I slowly drive by and still dream

Unfortunately the owner is sorta a pain in the ass to deal with, he has his customers and doesn't really need more customers...A real shame but within a few years he is retiring so there might still be some hope, I can post some pics if anyone wants

[flyboyx]

^i would say yes

[Blake B]

I had always been into muscle cars and older JDMs. I had always appreciated BMW/Porsche/Mercs/etc but it wasn't anything I grew up around and they always seemed so expensive to maintain.

After building a pair of 79 monte's and working on a few datsuns etc. my brother got a 240sx. It wasn't really my style but there was no denying the fun of a light, rwd, chassis that I could toss around and stretch its RPMs without going to prison.

So from there, the search was on. I wanted a newer (not from the 60-70s) light car with RWD, little rust, with good part supply, while being something I could build and most importantly without the drift tax. The e30 fit(s) the bill perfectly.

I can't find a fault that can't be overcome.

[audiquattrot]

back in 1996 when i was first getting my license, my neighbor was selling his minty Diamondschwartz 325iX for $5000. I didn't know much about the E30s back then, but knew the iX was something different, just by looking at it (flares etc).

I only had $3000 to purchase a car at the time, so it didn't pan out. He ended up selling it to another neighbor before i had a chance to scoop it up, who trashed the car.

Fast-forward to now, ironic that I've owned 5 E30s, 4 of which have been 325iX's. That same neighbor still wishes he'd sold it to me knowing how well I would've taken care of it.

[FireFight]

was heavy in to Volvos, my 245 took a shit when i bent the sub-frame.
buddy at the time hooked me up with a e28 which I loved but never worked on until it wouldn't fire up and i ended up tossing another grand in to it and finally sold it for $400 saying fuck BMWS.
took that bought a rabbit, traded the rabbit after a year for a boosted 16v MK2, which blew up and sold for $500 haha.
went looking for another 240 and was gonna go pick one up but the seller was flaky as shit. then i found an ad for a 86 325e, picked it up $1000 and fell in love with it. owned it for a long time, sold it when i got a hair up my ass for a Datsun 510, which blew up on its way to Seattle, after that i said would never not have a BMW.
Which led to
2 e21s, 1 e28, 7 e30s, 2 e36, 1 e34
currently I'm rocking a e34 touring and my lady is in my 318i with a M20 swap, I don't think I will get another e30 after this one(which isn't going anywhere any time soon she loves it) i really love e34s and if i wanted a car for handling i would get another e21

[estoguy]

I got into E30s a little over 3 years ago.

My buddy had owned a '86 325 for about 11 years. The last few he had it, he'd ditched his winter beater (the 325 had NEVER driven in a winter with him or the original owner), and bought a Jetta wagon. It was such a practical car for him, he stopped driving the 325 in the good weather. I knew my last car ('99 Jetta Mk3 2.0L) was getting long in the tooth and I asked about buying it off him. He'd been on the fence about it, but didn't want to sell it to some moron who'd screw it up.

Originally, I was going to put it on the road spring 2013. But my reverse gear in my Jetta took a dump, and it was going to cost me at least $500 for a used tranny (doing it DIY). So I talked to my buddy... and we got the 325 on the road the following weekend. Dropped a battery into it, two turns of the key and she was running. :)

Haven't looked back and have really gotten into my own wrenching more than ever before. My E30 has only seen a shop 3 times (outside of alignments and wheel/tire stuff)- twice for some mechanical work and the most recent to replace a fender. The rest of the work that's gone into her I've done (sometimes with help from my buddy). I've put close 200K km since then and have loved every km of it.

[bmwman91]

When I was 16 (the year 2000), I couldn't have cared less about cars. In fact, had my mom not pushed me to get my license and to buy my own car (because she did not want me using her Taurus wagon lol), I would have dragged my ass for years I am sure. Procrastination and slackerdom were my areas of expertise those days. The first car that I looked at was a 2 year old Dodge Neon which was on a dealer lot for $899. My mom had seen it and given the price, we went over after school since we could just write a check. Test drive...good. I was excited because, despite not really caring about cars, I was stoked about it being a lot newer of a car than I was expecting. We sat down with the car salesman and he asked about financing, to which my mom sort of laughed and said that we would probably just write a check. OK. So, some paperwork comes out and it turns out that the car was $8995. They had removed the 5 because it was "blocking the windshield and the DMV had rules against that." LOL. Actually I was pretty bummed. We left without buying it because my budget was a lot less (I had saved up $3000 from a part time job as a cashier and my mom said that they would let me borrow another $3000 if I needed it).

So, back to looking around online.

The next car was a red 1991 318iS being sold by a guy who had moved to CA from TX. We met up with him at his office one afternoon. My mom and dad were there, and my dad had been pretty adamant about me having a 4 cylinder as my first car (he had built a number of V8's back in his day and was pretty into hot-rodding, so he knew all too well what sort of trouble a young guy might get into with a car). It drove well, was clean for being almost 10 years old and the price was $6000. The guy agreed to take $5700, and that was that. I didn't even really know how to drive a manual transmission all that well since learning on my dad's car (1991 Thunderbird SC) was a pain. That car had the stiffest clutch and notchiest shifter. The 318iS was a breeze in comparison and within a few days I was getting around fine in it. My mom loaned me $2700 which she made me pay back with 1% interest lol. Good thing too, because the whole idea of compound interest basically turned me off to debt for the rest of my life (which was the point I think). Well, except for the mortgage that is now in my name, but it's sort of hard to buy a house without one.

Anyway, that was the start of a lifelong obsession with the M42 engine and the E30 in general. Some friends of mine in high school were into DSM's and trucks, and modding them, so they got me into bolt-ons and an obsession with trying to optimize things (which is ironic because now that I know what I am doing, I know that most cars and BMW in particular are already optimized for most things from the factory). I wrecked my first car in 2005 on a back road, which was another formative life learning experience, and I bought an identical car a few months later for $2000. I feel like 2005 was probably the bottom for E30 pricing in general, and that car in particular had been very neglected both cosmetically and mechanically. That second E30 is the one that I am still driving today!

[Stanley Rockafella]

usually via the drivers' door, unless someone else was driving then maybe the sunroof ;)

seriously tho, I smashed up my 90 Protégé, and just a week prior I sold my 84 Rabbit to a cute chic names Katie...god she was freakin cute!
Anyway, my dad was pissed at me for having to pick me up from university, so on a whim I decided to check out this e21 320i at a repair shop that was for sale. The owner said "forget that car, you should check out this 86 325es". and ever since then I haven't been able to save a dime


true story

[shameson]

Not to derail your thread but I already had one going ;)

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=279771