Bring a Trailer Auctions, E30 edition

[Staszek]

I felt so bad for the seller being ripped to shreds in the facebook group. He was honest and open with the build, and respectful in the comments.
$70k is not that much money when you're paying a shop to do everything, but the chorus of people that don't make that much in a year can't be silenced.

Audibly chuckled at the eBay taillights when I was browsing the photos, though.

I gotta be honest, even if he had a shop do 100% of the work, he overpaid, that is not even close to a $70k job. Everything seems tacked on. If I paid $70k and they handed me that product at the end I would be pissed.

[rjmcdermott81]

I hope he does better than 23k this time. I remember thinking the auction maybe died because it ended at drive time on a Friday.

1st gear looks so tall in that driving video with a 2.93.

[AWDBOB]

Why would you pay $70k for modifications and sell it immediately?
Is the final product undrivable?

I can relate with the sentiment- I have sold the last few bigger builds (non-e30) I've done right as they're finished. The car becomes a burden a lot of the time when bigger money is invested, and you start to resent the car. Doesn't happen all of the time, but I've had my fair share (deff not $70k's worth) of cars that I've sold directly after a build because I was taxed and just wanted it gone. Hard to enjoy a car like that sometimes, but usually something happens that causes you to resent the car, whether it's money, time, shop, issues, comfort, etc etc.

I have also purchased several cars after someone built them and didn't put the final touches on them because they resented the cost involved in getting to that point and didn't want to see it through.

Doesn't make any sense, but it happens quite often.

[Kyle90]

Based on all of the poor decisions on the build I can tell the owner simply has more money then sense. It’s funny when a lot of the money he spent on tasteless mods will end up costing him thousands of dollars in potential bids.

[varg]

I felt so bad for the seller being ripped to shreds in the facebook group. He was honest and open with the build, and respectful in the comments.
$70k is not that much money when you're paying a shop to do everything, but the chorus of people that don't make that much in a year can't be silenced.

That's presumptuous. You don't need to make $70k in a year to know that $70k is stretching it for work of that caliber. It is a nice car, red tach, molding delete and ugly wheels be damned, it has working AC which is more than you can say about a lot of the pretend race cars with swaps. But $70k is a lot of money for what is essentially a paint job, suspension, brakes and an S54 swap with a fancy (up until the tailpipe) exhaust system. When you dump big cash on a swap and get corrugated split wiring loom on the harnesses there's something amiss, that's shadetree level attention to detail, not high dollar build stuff. And the car hasn't been fully restored, just painted where visible.

[2mAn]

Have we factored the cost of the car to the 70k? Maybe that will help bridge the gap in the money spent... How much is a 325e nowadays

[Mazdayasna]

That's presumptuous. You don't need to make $70k in a year to know that $70k is stretching it for work of that caliber. It is a nice car, red tach, molding delete and ugly wheels be damned, it has working AC which is more than you can say about a lot of the pretend race cars with swaps. But $70k is a lot of money for what is essentially a paint job, suspension, brakes and an S54 swap with a fancy (up until the tailpipe) exhaust system. When you dump big cash on a swap and get corrugated split wiring loom on the harnesses there's something amiss, that's shadetree level attention to detail, not high dollar build stuff. And the car hasn't been fully restored, just painted where visible.

Presumptuous, yes, but we must be in different r3v fb groups if you haven't noticed that non-constructive comments generally come from profiles with the least impressive cars. Smaller dogs bark louder and all that.
I agree, the owner definitely did not receive $70k worth of work. If he hadn't mentioned that figure, though, the car would have been received much better.

[varg]

but we must be in different r3v fb groups

Considering I've never even seen the r3v facebook group outside of the screenshots posted on this forum, you'd be correct on that. I don't use facebook. I have an out of date profile with some family members as friends.

[Staszek]

That's presumptuous. You don't need to make $70k in a year to know that $70k is stretching it for work of that caliber. It is a nice car, red tach, molding delete and ugly wheels be damned, it has working AC which is more than you can say about a lot of the pretend race cars with swaps. But $70k is a lot of money for what is essentially a paint job, suspension, brakes and an S54 swap with a fancy (up until the tailpipe) exhaust system. When you dump big cash on a swap and get corrugated split wiring loom on the harnesses there's something amiss, that's shadetree level attention to detail, not high dollar build stuff. And the car hasn't been fully restored, just painted where visible.

Exactly this, you could spend half that number and get what he got on that car, I actually feel bad for him if he really spent that. I see half-ass work all over it.

[2mAn]

1987 Mtech1 325i

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1987-bmw-325is-66/

[2mAn]

1993 316 Touring

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1993-bmw-316-3/

1991 325i Convertible
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...-cabriolet-23/

[SOneThreeCoupe]

Was 10/90 really the cut-off for diving boards? I always just assumed all 1991 325i Convertibles were plastic-bumper cars but my aversion to cruisers never had me do the research.

Edit: and jesus their requirements on pictures are lax- that Touring doesn't have any pics of the worry spots. Why include a Carfax on a car that was imported from Germany? The interior is awesome and the exterior looks okay but is that really how one sells a car for top dollar nowadays?

[mforrest100]

The touring was actually on Craigslist for a few weeks for a reasonable price. I think it was $10K or less. I thought about buying it simply for that reason but trying not to do anymore impulse buys.

[R3Z3N]

What boggles me, is that this red S54 E30 was only bid to 23k, which had noticeably better paint/body than mine, whereas mine sold for 23k....though mine already hit reserve. There are things that still bug me about the car currently on BAT, ie gearing is awkward with the 5 speed, lower dash/pedal cover etc.

BTW, buyer of mine had to toss the UUC lightweight flywheel, it had play. I had my shop take a look at it. I gave the owner the receipts as the part was under warranty, but he decided to go back to a stock Dual Mass flywheel.... We could BARELY tell that there was a vibration, especially with the autox suspension and delrin mounts all around... Then about a month after driving it the custom AC high pressure line blew. I feel so bad, but that is why I put 1k miles with everything working to make sure I had no problems.

[varg]

Since from what I'm reading you did it too you maybe you can enlighten me on this. Why go through all the trouble to build the car and sell it after only 1,000mi? Is it a business for you? I see that kind of thing on BAT and it makes me wonder. People seem to dump a bunch of money and time modding a car then sell it really quickly. Admittedly I haven't read your thread so forgive me if the answer is plainly in there. I never had an iota of interest in S54 swaps so I haven't done much reading in the S54 swap build threads.