What irritates you the most about e30s?

[Andrew325is]

Price and availability of parts. $120 for a weather strip... really? I dont really have a choice if i want to make my vert waterproof... but wow. Some of the weird electrical decisions. BMW were absolute geniuses on mechanics... electrical...not so much.

Compared to what? You should see the electrics on a British vehicle. There's a reason why there are so many Lucas jokes.

[varg]

Seconded. Your baseline is way off the mark if you think E30s have a high rate of electrical issues for cars of the era. A couple types of connectors (the semicircle ones and such) are prone to disintegrating, the service interval board is iffy at best and the central locking is temperamental but that's really it. Mechanically and electrically E30s are definitely among the best '80s cars you can buy.

Wait until you see G20s in 30 years. Provided a single example is still running at that point.

[roguetoaster]

Seconded. Your baseline is way off the mark if you think E30s have a high rate of electrical issues for cars of the era. A couple types of connectors (the semicircle ones and such) are prone to disintegrating, the service interval board is iffy at best and the central locking is temperamental but that's really it. Mechanically and electrically E30s are definitely among the best '80s cars you can buy.

Wait until you see G20s in 30 years. Provided a single example is still running at that point.

This has a great deal to do with why there are still so many E30s on the road today.

The 6 button OBC is still annoyingly slow to set unless it's midnight on the first of January.

[ZeKahr]

Seconded. Your baseline is way off the mark if you think E30s have a high rate of electrical issues for cars of the era. A couple types of connectors (the semicircle ones and such) are prone to disintegrating, the service interval board is iffy at best and the central locking is temperamental but that's really it. Mechanically and electrically E30s are definitely among the best '80s cars you can buy.

Wait until you see G20s in 30 years. Provided a single example is still running at that point.

This.

The deal with the E30 electronics is that they are not integrated enough to cause any major long term reliability issues and can very easily be removed without any adverse effects to the car if you find them to be a grievance.

The central locking and the SI board, at least on the early models, can both be easily bypassed while retaining critical vehicle functionality. As for the connectors, you can probably fabricate a much stouter design that will last much longer if you do choose.

You can literally turn an E30 into a bare bones car electronically and still have basic functionality that would otherwise be handled by electronics, which you can’t do with newer BMWs since the computers on those are so interconnected with one another that if one computer fails the whole car might stop working.

The lack of proprietary interfaces and buses as well as the more primitive engine management and other computer systems make the wiring diagrams for the E30 is very easy to decipher. I’ve read the functional descriptions for the G20 electronics, and do not want to go near one after reading that.