So I decided to buy my 3rd E30 and Mrs. Funcrew cut me off until the other 2 get sold – details here:
Saturday morning, I was granted marital privileges on a temporary, one-time only emergency waiver basis. Then I flew from Las Vegas to Phoenix to look at the car. Asking price was $5.5K, and we had agreed to $5K on the phone mid-week. The seller picked me up at the airport & I drove back to his house. The car drove great, but was loud. I spent maybe an hour and a half looking it over.
I liked it overall, but was a bit queasy about a few things that were not disclosed in the ad. I also looked through the receipts for recent work, which were extensive & backed up the guy’s story. After some give-and-take, we settled on $4K. (Yes, I know – you R3V veterans never pay more than $250 for a running car. Feel free to comment on the price. I’ve come to expect it.)
Driving the car home from Phoenix to Las Vegas, I started to get more familiar with some of the car’s annoyances. So here’s my starting basis – if I can’t fix #1 on the Bad list, my ownership of this E30 is going to be real short.
BAD:
1. Interior reeks of cigarette smoke. I forgot to ask over the phone or I would never have gone to see it. I just don’t think of that when I’m looking at car ads. Same thing with houses.
2. Muffler is too loud. I need a stainless 2-1/2 inch muffler that’s as quiet as death. Any ideas?
3. Head has been off the engine at 77K miles. Why? Seller had receipt from head rebuild, but seems flaky to me.
4. A/C works (including blower on all 4 speeds) but only by jumpering the compressor. Unknown why compressor switch on dash does not work.
5. Paint is pretty bad. Lots of gravel dings, severe swirls & mediocre partial re-spray areas.
6. New, no-name tires are really, really loud. They sound like old-style offroad tires on a Jeep CJ5. Weird.
7. Leaking oil thermostat – easy to fix.
8. Plastic bumper swap does not fit well at right front wheel well.
GOOD:
1. No rust at all that I could find. However the old sunroof had rusted & been replaced. So maybe there’s hidden rust elsewhere, but the spare tire well & battery area looked mint.
2. Lots of new stuff – see ad in link.
3. Leather sport interior in great shape.
4. Drives perfect. Pulls hard, shifts good, steers good, stops hard & straight.
5. Everything works except as mentioned in the Bad list.
6. In general, it doesn’t have that worn-out, shitty, dirty, corroded, neglected, broken, half-missing POS feeling like every E30 I’ve ever seen in Las Vegas always has. Except for the cigarette smoke odor. That part fits the above description exactly.
So we’ll see. I need to get my convertibles ready for sale, then I’ll tackle the sedan’s smoke odor problem. Will post pics when I get a chance.
In unrelated, but sad news, my employer just cut off access to R3V via Websense. What the heck am I supposed to do all day at work now? Geez.
Saturday morning, I was granted marital privileges on a temporary, one-time only emergency waiver basis. Then I flew from Las Vegas to Phoenix to look at the car. Asking price was $5.5K, and we had agreed to $5K on the phone mid-week. The seller picked me up at the airport & I drove back to his house. The car drove great, but was loud. I spent maybe an hour and a half looking it over.
I liked it overall, but was a bit queasy about a few things that were not disclosed in the ad. I also looked through the receipts for recent work, which were extensive & backed up the guy’s story. After some give-and-take, we settled on $4K. (Yes, I know – you R3V veterans never pay more than $250 for a running car. Feel free to comment on the price. I’ve come to expect it.)
Driving the car home from Phoenix to Las Vegas, I started to get more familiar with some of the car’s annoyances. So here’s my starting basis – if I can’t fix #1 on the Bad list, my ownership of this E30 is going to be real short.
BAD:
1. Interior reeks of cigarette smoke. I forgot to ask over the phone or I would never have gone to see it. I just don’t think of that when I’m looking at car ads. Same thing with houses.
2. Muffler is too loud. I need a stainless 2-1/2 inch muffler that’s as quiet as death. Any ideas?
3. Head has been off the engine at 77K miles. Why? Seller had receipt from head rebuild, but seems flaky to me.
4. A/C works (including blower on all 4 speeds) but only by jumpering the compressor. Unknown why compressor switch on dash does not work.
5. Paint is pretty bad. Lots of gravel dings, severe swirls & mediocre partial re-spray areas.
6. New, no-name tires are really, really loud. They sound like old-style offroad tires on a Jeep CJ5. Weird.
7. Leaking oil thermostat – easy to fix.
8. Plastic bumper swap does not fit well at right front wheel well.
GOOD:
1. No rust at all that I could find. However the old sunroof had rusted & been replaced. So maybe there’s hidden rust elsewhere, but the spare tire well & battery area looked mint.
2. Lots of new stuff – see ad in link.
3. Leather sport interior in great shape.
4. Drives perfect. Pulls hard, shifts good, steers good, stops hard & straight.
5. Everything works except as mentioned in the Bad list.
6. In general, it doesn’t have that worn-out, shitty, dirty, corroded, neglected, broken, half-missing POS feeling like every E30 I’ve ever seen in Las Vegas always has. Except for the cigarette smoke odor. That part fits the above description exactly.
So we’ll see. I need to get my convertibles ready for sale, then I’ll tackle the sedan’s smoke odor problem. Will post pics when I get a chance.
In unrelated, but sad news, my employer just cut off access to R3V via Websense. What the heck am I supposed to do all day at work now? Geez.
Comment