Bring a Trailer Auctions, E30 edition

[e30austin]

I'm talking about buyers that don't want a project. If you are looking for a perfect car and have a budget for it what the problem? Maybe you're not mechanically inclined, or just don't have the time to fuck around with a project car. Plus those top grade cars are more likely to hold their value or appreciate and be easier to sell, if that's your thing.

As for the commenters, in the case of that car I don't recall the comments about the car being negative, the seller's ethics were called out. Which seemed appropriate.

Fair and I respect what you are saying. I wouldn't be in business, if those kinds of people didn't exist.

My opinion, at least the seller mentioned it...he certainly didn't have to and nobody would have been the wiser (if they didn't check this forum, at least); I think he genuinely probably forgot about the engine being changed, because to most, that really doesn't matter...

Either way, done deal, now.

[bradnic]

I think the issue is that the engine change wasn't disclosed.

Trust is everything when buying a car online.


edit - The car is listed on Chicago CL for $8k.

I know the seller well. He’s good people, but he f’d up in the listing. Engine swap was done by PO and he didn’t get all the details straight before he listed

[Jb325is]

Fair and I respect what you are saying. I wouldn't be in business, if those kinds of people didn't exist.

My opinion, at least the seller mentioned it...he certainly didn't have to and nobody would have been the wiser (if they didn't check this forum, at least); I think he genuinely probably forgot about the engine being changed, because to most, that really doesn't matter...

Either way, done deal, now.

He mentioned it after the PO called him on the flip in his for sale ad here, which was promptly locked and deleted. There were a few other details pointed out in that thread that didn't make it to BaT. Not knocking the guy, but people are getting lazy with these flip cars, you need to put forth some real effort to get the big money IMO and a lot of these cars going up lately have been lazily presented. The other red 318is that's FS on here fits that category as well for me

[e30austin]

He mentioned it after the PO called him on the flip in his for sale ad here, which was promptly locked and deleted. There were a few other details pointed out in that thread that didn't make it to BaT. Not knocking the guy, but people are getting lazy with these flip cars, you need to put forth some real effort to get the big money IMO and a lot of these cars going up lately have been lazily presented. The other red 318is that's FS on here fits that category as well for me

I agree with you, there - folks are definitely getting lazy when they want to get the big money out of their "run of the mill" type cars.

[Tisoc]

He mentioned it after the PO called him on the flip in his for sale ad here, which was promptly locked and deleted. There were a few other details pointed out in that thread that didn't make it to BaT. Not knocking the guy, but people are getting lazy with these flip cars, you need to put forth some real effort to get the big money IMO and a lot of these cars going up lately have been lazily presented. The other red 318is that's FS on here fits that category as well for me

Glad someone shares the same sentiment. The 5 figure pricing for the other flipper red 318is is ambitious to say the least. Like, at least take the time to embed the pictures on the ad. It just comes off as half-assed.

[JimmyP]

So you're saying they will pay top money for really nice cars and won't buy crap or stories.

How does that make them pussies?

I think my main annoyance with the BAT buyers is if a buyer is really a player looking for a premium car, a top tier no stories car, thats fine, but once it becomes fairly obvious its not (which for most car guys is in the first round of pictures),,, then dont sit there and pick the car apart, stand down and wait for the next one.
They know they are not buyers so why whine about all the things that make the car a driver quality car and ruin the guys auction.
To me, if your a real player, then play on the top cars.
If your a piker trying to complain down a guys auction so as to scare off other bbuyers thinking you will get the car cheaper, thats just lame.
So much of the buyer pool on that site leaves me really just angry.

[lambo]

I think my main annoyance with the BAT buyers is if a buyer is really a player looking for a premium car, a top tier no stories car, thats fine, but once it becomes fairly obvious its not (which for most car guys is in the first round of pictures),,, then dont sit there and pick the car apart, stand down and wait for the next one.
They know they are not buyers so why whine about all the things that make the car a driver quality car and ruin the guys auction.
To me, if your a real player, then play on the top cars.
If your a piker trying to complain down a guys auction so as to scare off other bbuyers thinking you will get the car cheaper, thats just lame.
So much of the buyer pool on that site leaves me really just angry.

It's the demographic that BaT attracts that's the problem. Same thing with people who comment on Jalopnik articles. It's a bunch of dudes who have amassed a lot of useless knowledge about cars they can't afford/are never going to buy. And then they just want to flaunt their "superior" knowledge to that same group of dudes for imaginary internet points.

[JimmyP]

It's the demographic that BaT attracts that's the problem. Same thing with people who comment on Jalopnik articles. It's a bunch of dudes who have amassed a lot of useless knowledge about cars they can't afford/are never going to buy. And then they just want to flaunt their "superior" knowledge to that same group of dudes for imaginary internet points.

+1000000
You will not get any argument from me on any of those points as well.

[Motheye99]

It's the demographic that BaT attracts that's the problem. Same thing with people who comment on Jalopnik articles. It's a bunch of dudes who have amassed a lot of useless knowledge about cars they can't afford/are never going to buy. And then they just want to flaunt their "superior" knowledge to that same group of dudes for imaginary internet points.

I've meet allot of people like this In college, guys that watch YouTube videos and there uncle or grandfather wrenches on cars. They really bother me. They say things like "what is your opinion on the new gt500, I think it's over styled" and there conversation isnt inspired by there own tinkering but instead the most recent Doug demro vid or jalopnik article. These young guys turn into the old guy's on BAT with opinions based on nothing.

[E30 Wagen]

He mentioned it after the PO called him on the flip in his for sale ad here

Yeah, that was me. I didn't care that he was going to flip it, but when I saw the BaT listing and no mention that the engine was not original to the car I called him out on it here. He then pm'd me asking to remove my post, so I call bs that he simply forgot that detail about the car like 4 months after he bought it. I responded that I'd delete my post here if he informed BaT, which he did.

Whatever. I got what I needed for it and for what I thought it was worth, and my conscience is clear. Moving on...

[djjerme]

See, I come from the domestic, muscle car world originally. And a non-matching numbers block makes all the difference in value. It was weird switching to Bimmers where there was little concern of the block not being original to the car.

That being said, if the compression is good and you're not trying to pass it off as all original something-something, then run it.

My axe to grind is just BAT as an entity. I hate what they have become, vs what they were. But like anything related to the internet, you can't put the Genie back in the bottle, and so BAT is pretty much always going to be an auction site from now until it self destructs.

[Jb325is]

Don't want to derail this thread to badly, since this isn't e30 content, but what are everyone's thoughts on this (it's the S62 e39 touring):

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2003-bmw-m5-wagon-touring-conversion/

[amcp]

If I had 72k laying around, I'm not buying that. That's some dough for a pieced together car, even if it looks well done.

[Tisoc]

Really clean, but you’d have to be crazy to pay the 50K+ premium over a real M5 sedan.

[djjerme]

Yah, that got loony. Expect a few more to show up soon.

Funny thing, my buddy has all the parts to build the same thing (e39, M5 drivetrain) in storage because a customer wanted him to build it. But they dropped the project and ended up just pseudo abandoning it all.

If we had the time to finish it, it’d be a fun parts hauler, but we’ve got too many other projects ahead of it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk