Retrospect; What would you do with your E30 if..?

[CorvallisBMW]

I'm really happy with my e30, and honestly I've been able to do with it most everything I've wanted. But I suppose there are a few things I'd do differently if I could.

- The turbo m30 is awesome, but part of me wishes for V8 on-demand torque. I think an m60b44 would have been more fun, but also more difficult.
- I wish I had spent more $ on my interior reupholstering. I didn't have the funds at the time to blow on $3-4k of super high quality work, and the leather quality and wear shows it.
- I wish there was a real way to improve chassis stiffness; when I had the entire car apart down to the chassis, I should have welded in some custom reinforcements and then fit the stock panels and interior around them.

All-in-all it's pretty nitpicky shit, I love my car :)

[spiDmang]

If I could change one thing, it would have been to swap an S54 into my E30 instead of an S52. The S52 is a wonderful match for the E30 and has more than enough power, but I wish I bit the bullet and just did an S54 swap.

Aside from that, I've built my car to be a super reliable daily driver with all the creature comforts you'd want. But since I have my E46 M3 now, all i want to do is turn my E30 into a super light weight weekend car....or sell it and buy property

[Shock(/\)ave]

That's definitely part of it for sure, although I don't think the government has anything to do with it, they just are doing nothing about it.

But....... From the people I have spoke to regarding this(realtors, other contractors, purchasers, and the such) the big thing is wealthy people want to live here and invest money here. They see it as a stable government, in a wealthy country, with lots of social programs, and health care. On the world stage, Vancouver is cheap.
One of the big reasons Asians come here is obviously it's close proximity to Asia, but also..............Vancouver doesnt have winter like the rest of the country, and the climate reflects the prices. The fact that there is nowhere to build drives the prices up. The gvrd is pinned between the Pacific Ocean to the west,the coastal mountain range to the north, the US border to the south, and the Agricultural land reserve in the valley to the east.

It's great for owners like you - quite literally similar to winning the lottery if you've owned your property for long enough, but young Canadian families have no hope of property ownership in the area now.

[Hooffenstein HD]

Wouldn't change much other than skip the 2.7i M20 and go straight for an aluminium M52B28 with custom cross member and rear lump sump.

[E30 Wagen]

Instead of completely tearing it apart for a restoration I would have simply kept on driving it as it was, or sold it to buy something cleaner.

[estoguy]

Not much different... she's my daily and I like it that way. If I had the money, would totally swap something newer in, but I'm pretty happy with my Eta. :)

[nando]

I never really answered the question - but my E30 has definitely been on a journey. There were some stages that I enjoyed more than others - the "stock" stage just had that solid BMW feel. the stroker/5 speed was an amazing transition. Running it on sticky R-comps every weekend was fun too. But I also went way too far with suspensions stiffness (FU Billsteins!), and the M20 is getting tired. Time for a new transition - garage queen. :|

IMO, stripping your interior out is pretty stupid unless it literally is a race car. Basically, you've turned it into a parts car or maybe a roller shell if you're lucky. But hey, when you're 19-25, nobody can tell you you're wrong...

That's definitely part of it for sure, although I don't think the government has anything to do with it, they just are doing nothing about it.

But....... From the people I have spoke to regarding this(realtors, other contractors, purchasers, and the such) the big thing is wealthy people want to live here and invest money here. They see it as a stable government, in a wealthy country, with lots of social programs, and health care. On the world stage, Vancouver is cheap.
One of the big reasons Asians come here is obviously it's close proximity to Asia, but also..............Vancouver doesnt have winter like the rest of the country, and the climate reflects the prices. The fact that there is nowhere to build drives the prices up. The gvrd is pinned between the Pacific Ocean to the west,the coastal mountain range to the north, the US border to the south, and the Agricultural land reserve in the valley to the east.

and it drives up the prices here too. The Chinese come to BC to retire, and the people from BC come down here, lol. literally half of my neighbors are from Canada (as is my wife).

[Todd Black 88]

You have unscrupulous agents directing wealthy yet clueless Chinese investors to buy property in Vancouver, combined with local government corruption to thank for the ridiculous and totally unsustainable housing market in your area. It's certainly not typical of just about anywhere else on the planet...

I've been pretty careful with my planning for each E30 I've had, and sticking to those plans is why I was able to afford my current E30 (M3), which I plan to keep stock as a nice weather daily.

That's definitely part of it for sure, although I don't think the government has anything to do with it, they just are doing nothing about it.

But....... From the people I have spoke to regarding this(realtors, other contractors, purchasers, and the such) the big thing is wealthy people want to live here and invest money here. They see it as a stable government, in a wealthy country, with lots of social programs, and health care. On the world stage, Vancouver is cheap.
One of the big reasons Asians come here is obviously it's close proximity to Asia, but also..............Vancouver doesnt have winter like the rest of the country, and the climate reflects the prices. The fact that there is nowhere to build drives the prices up. The gvrd is pinned between the Pacific Ocean to the west,the coastal mountain range to the north, the US border to the south, and the Agricultural land reserve in the valley to the east.

[TobyB]

don't try to make it something it's not.

But they make such perfect PRO3 cars. I'd do that again in a heartbeat.
And then, if I didn't like the ti so much, buy a late- model E30 as a commuter.

You can say the same thing about the 2002.
But it makes a very nice FP race car, too.

Make it what you want it to be. It's a production car, not a Ferrari Daytona.
There will always be more, at least until we're all dead.

And a track E36 may very well be more car than many of us can handle.
Having the perfect chassis is sometimes less of a blessing and more of a curse.
Look how many E36M3's end up upside- down in places that don't make sense
to those of us with more 'archaic' platforms.

Going to go load the race car now,

t

[Shock(/\)ave]

Yeah but mine wasn't always as nice as it is now. It's still not worth what I have into it, whereas my house has almost tripled in value the last 10 years. Up 800+k. I can't make money as fast as real estate here goes up.

You have unscrupulous agents directing wealthy yet clueless Chinese investors to buy property in Vancouver, combined with local government corruption to thank for the ridiculous and totally unsustainable housing market in your area. It's certainly not typical of just about anywhere else on the planet...

I've been pretty careful with my planning for each E30 I've had, and sticking to those plans is why I was able to afford my current E30 (M3), which I plan to keep stock as a nice weather daily.

[efficient]

i wish i would have boosted it when i had more time and space. i didn't want to walk/bike to work(i lived 2 miles from work). so i just drove to work and moved to a house without space and now that i Work much more and have a commute, i don't really have time to be messing around with the car.

[Kershaw]

Yeah but mine wasn't always as nice as it is now. It's still not worth what I have into it, whereas my house has almost tripled in value the last 10 years. Up 800+k. I can't make money as fast as real estate here goes up.

I should have looked at your location. Housing in Vancouver is nuts. My house has doubled in the last 3 years, but it was definitely a fixer upper when I bought it. Still kinda is,

[jpod999]

I just wish I would have started my swap years ago. I have had different plans for swaps over the years but I always had an excuse not to do them. I wish I would have just gone for it back in the day.

[Todd Black 88]

Yeah but mine wasn't always as nice as it is now. It's still not worth what I have into it, whereas my house has almost tripled in value the last 10 years. Up 800+k. I can't make money as fast as real estate here goes up.

[Kershaw]

Sell it and bought real estate

I dunno, for some e30s that's not a bad idea. But your m3 is appreciating way faster than real estate will. Very little property doubles in value in 10 years.