I totaled the amount I spent restoring my e30 and I'm shocked.

[lukeADE335i]

At least the value is going up now. When I got into E30's in the mid 00's you could drop a lot of money on an E30 and get only pennies when you sold.

In fact, the previous owner of my car did the interior and new dashboard, while the owner before him did a high end respray (his father had a car restoration paint shop). I then bought that E30 in 2005 for 7k Aussie (about 5k USD).
So I got it for next to nothing and the body/interior were spectacular. You cannot get those sunk cost cars anymore.

Those were the days! I bought mine for $3.5k in 2008 as a well maintained two owner 320i auto with 160,000km on it. The only problem it had was a noisy diff, which the owner had decided enough was enough after an outrageous quote for a rebuild. I replaced it the first weekend I had it with a cheap wrecker one. When I did my swap I lucked out with performance parts - eg. bought my M30B35 with a recently rebuilt top end for $100, a manual gearbox for $150, a full poly bush and spring kit, including engine and transmission mounts, adjustable strut tops and Eibachs for $250 and a set of style 5s for $100, all from abandoned projects. I even picked up a spare Getrag 240 for $1 on ebay - the guy really wasn't happy when I picked it up. The most expensive bits were $700 for a set of Bilstein B8s, and a HD clutch kit to suit the M30 for $650. All in my swap was $2.5k. Since then it has just been keeping up with maintenance & replacing things that break.

Last time I added it up, the e30 had cost me around $13k over 10 years of daily driving, not bad at all really.

In contrast, my e92 has cost me roughly $2k in maintenance in 2.5 years + depreciated about $8k so the cost of the e92 will likely exceed the e30 by the end of 2021. This doesn't include logbook servicing as it has the dealer service package from the previous owner!

[Elysian]

I told my wife I will never tally what I've spent on my E30, so don't bother asking. I honestly won't either, it's a lot of money and would just be depressing given the current state of the car.

[dnguyen1963]

You can at least get a reasonable set of dampers for $250, and good to hear that your ball joints won't be falling out of your control arms any time soon!

Speaking like a true mechanic. Everything is good so far. I did not see the need to replace the ball joints. None of them had any play.

[DealinDave@Blunttech.com]

Its only too much if you're not enjoying it.

Its expensive to do it right, its expensive to do it twice.

If it puts a smile on your face and you enjoy where its going, keep going.

There is another thread going mentioning how much people have in their E30's, most all these cars in the 1-5K range are close to needing a full rebuild to make them proper again, and its happening and the market price is reflecting. Its still cheaper to buy a car that is done right than to build one. Whats the fun in that!?

This, so much this.

And craziness is all relative.

[Stan]

If you love the car and will keep it, try not to add up the bills. I restored an E9 coupe and I think I could have bought a brand new 2 series for what I spent but, I have kept that car for almost 20 years (so far). Then I bought a low mileage E30 cabriolet and spent about $25K; new leather interior, 15: wheels, a lot of deferred maintenance had to be done, iS spoiler, new trunk to delete the 3rd brake light, stromung exhaust, Euro bumpers, refurb the instrument cluster and an automatic to 5 speed swap.

[WERDNA75]

That is a lot of money, BUT you know exactly what you have , how it is put together, reliable, way cooler than any NEW car and well E30 FTW. Just imagine all the mediocre NEW cars that cost that much and are complete garbage and the people that buy them think they have something good or even nice, THAT is funny...

[Staszek]

If you love the car and will keep it, try not to add up the bills. I restored an E9 coupe and I think I could have bought a brand new 2 series for what I spent but, I have kept that car for almost 20 years (so far). Then I bought a low mileage E30 cabriolet and spent about $25K; new leather interior, 15: wheels, a lot of deferred maintenance had to be done, iS spoiler, new trunk to delete the 3rd brake light, stromung exhaust, Euro bumpers, refurb the instrument cluster and an automatic to 5 speed swap.

You and I need to connect on your E9. That is my next project.