E90 Or E30?

[nmlss2006]

Given the amount of work that many posters mention on this forum and others, could you enlighten me as to how $2500 is off the mark? Keep in mind that your time isn't free.

[Jean]

Given the amount of work that many posters mention on this forum and others, could you enlighten me as to how $2500 is off the mark? Keep in mind that your time isn't free.

Well, given that many here are more than just e30 owners, lots more $ is poured into these cars. Otherwise, lots of these items/upgrades aren't needed, yet alone on a yearly basis.

imho of course.

[nmlss2006]

Oh I concur, but unless your E30 experience is significantly different from mine - and it could very well be, though from what I read here and elsewhere my predicament seems common - the age and state of the cars is such that they require constant maintenance, especially on the electrical side. This can get expensive (or at least time consuming) in a hurry.
To quote from experience, since 2000 my car has travelled 46kmi. In no particular order, from Jan 2001 to last month:
- replaced all bushings
- balanced driveshaft
- replaced head (!)
- brakes 2x, including a replacement of most of the connections under the rear subframe
- replaced all the rubber (gaskets/hoses/belts) in the engine compartment, including the evil seals between engine and gearbox
- replaced seals on differential
- replaced thermostat (twice, once with whole housing)
- replaced effectively all engine sensors
- replaced various lightbulbs in dash etc (horrendous amount of work)
- refinished seats (horrendous amount of work, MK II: knowing what I know today, I will gladly pay for new leather 6 times over)
- replaced lines, filter, pump in fuel system
This is all the major non-routine, non-cosmetic stuff that was performed on a car that started off in december 2000 as a clean car, with no rust and 71kmi. MY1990. This is off the top of my head: if I went and looked, I'm sure I'd discover dozens of things that I forgot.
As a result, see other thread, I have a car that ... sort of runs OK. It certainly doesn't run like it should and it guzzles gas worse than an LM-002.
Now, let's discount for a moment the fact that I had most of the work done for me because I lack the time to do major stuff myself and let's discount the fact that I consider anything perceptibly different from new to be unacceptable: just considering the cost of parts and even a median hourly salary, how much money are we talking about here? Not that little, I'm sure. Now go from 46kmi in seven years to 140kmi in seven years and the situation worsens by a factor of 10, I suspect.
Compare this with leasing two cars on a 48-month basis from 2000 to 2008. With BMW's maintenance program, the only things you get to factor in are lease payments, tyres and fuel. The fuel is indubitably less than in the E30: the E46 M3 gets about 15% BETTER gas mileage, with the same usage patterns. Tyres are admittedly much more expensive, but the cost per mile becomes acceptable. You're left with lease payments: with $209/mo or whatever it was, the cost doesn't compare.
At this point though I am curious: have I been *particularly* unlucky?

[jflip2002]

Sounds like you got a piece. I never put money into my car besides gas, oil changes, and the rare upkeeping it requires. Sounds like you inherited a potential problem. My old e30 was good maintenance wise also.

[Andrew325is]

It's easy to get brainwashed by our materialist corporate-run culture that we always need the newest greatest thing. Pretty soon companies will be able to sell us dog shit on wheels and we will think its the greatest thing ever. I'd say keep your E30. The nice one's are getting increasingly hard to find and are going up in value. Read my little story I posted about the E90: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show...1&postcount=23 . It's not a very great car. Also, my friend's aunt has a new 328i convertible and its beautiful but you can tell the quality is pretty bad. For example, the rubber/plastic trim on the upper side of the car when the top is down has what looks like "drips" in it resembling drips in paint someone oversprayed; obviously indicating very poor construction. If you don't want your car anymore I would suggest getting a different really really nice E30 (obviously one of the desirable incarnations: M3, 325is, 325ix, etc)