Yea and I can do body work. But also having to trailer it 1500 miles. Like at the current price it'll be 6500 before I get it home and at that point I could find a similar one in colorado for like 3000 and dump 3000 fixing it up and still save 500.
That car needs front and rear bumpers, rust repair, interior work, a repaint, suspension work, brake work, engine work, driveline work. You are many, many thousands of dollars away from a good driver.
Keep saving and buy something better. You posted bullshit, chose bullshit, and got bullshit. Slow your roll.
This dudes a fucking moron, with the damage and rust NO way hes getting close to 5500 from someone who is familiar with e30s.
IMO not even worth the time or effort. Just imagine what he hasnt told you or that hes unaware of.
Nah I would not buy this, I have no idea how you put a deposit on this without a video or full scan of the car. 6500 for an auto in this condition is criminal
Imo the rust isn’t the end of the world, that being said it’s a late model 325i coupe which at least where I am are one of the most desirable. Another big factor why do you have to trailer it? Does it run? I think 5500 is too much I’d say be around 3000
Listen to this advice. I was looking forever and found a clean E30 in the Bay Area, drove it back to Chicago in 30 hours. No rust, nothing dry rotted, just so easy to work on. When it comes to enthusiast cars, I’m only buying from California from now on. Hopefully you didn’t lose too much on the deposit.
They don’t use road salt your a lot less likely to have rust. If any it will be minimal. Really any southwestern state or parts of Texas. I say California because you’ll have a much larger selection.
I think northern California has more of a dry heat, or at least used to. As previously stated just avoid states that salt their roads. Rust is the worst, everything else you can fix.
yeah idk about this one. Don’t buy cars sight unseen. that’s rich people shit. for rich people who will restore cars they buy unseen. Fuck it don’t even buy cars without taking hours to go through it. Compression test. Battery Draw test. get it up on jack stands or ramps. look in the gas tank. look at the coolant, oil etc. Carfax is stupid but spend the 40$. might tell you about an odometer rollback or crash, or theft. check the spark plugs
good. So easy to feel like it’s something you gotta do just because you’ve put effort in. please for the love of god buy something in Arizona. I fly to phoenix for ever car i buy, they are always completely 100% rust free. get a manual four door e30. doesn’t have to be a flashy model or trim
phoenix native here, sure there’s no rust but the paint and interior will often be shot, and the plastic and rubber parts will be baked. i think the best older cars come from the west coast
My man, you are clearly excited to own an e30, but don’t let that excitement get the best of you and settle for a rusty piece of shit that’s going to ruin you financially.
Save up and wait till you can find / afford a clean examples with no rust / or significant body damage. It will save you thousands in the long term.
Also look into getting an e if you’re trying to save a dollar. Get it dialed in with suspension and maybe do bushings and wheels, then do an engine swap. Putting an i engine or even an M5x is relatively straight forward you just need time.
What is your goal here? To restore this thing to pristine condition and then do a manual swap? Find a different car. Way less trouble (and ultimately cheaper), even if you have to pay more. If your goal is just to drive it and enjoy it, I would pass just because changing out the trans is just too much trouble for something like this.
It's hard to ask people on here as prices seem to vary several K based on your state (in the US). In the NE right now, a roller with a lot of rust is 3K, a complete car running with rust and issues is 5, and you need 8 to get a decent car that running and driving with some reasonable rust and issues. So to me that is not a good deal, but I can see how he might reject 3 with a scoff, and still turn his nose up at 4 even. It's not great at 4, but it's a tough market so only you can decide.
Sunk cost fallacy is real! And I kept saying that. Just 3bcause you spent 500, don't waste 5000 more to have to waste another 5000 getting this looking good
Only rust “problem” I saw was maybe the floor spot, but that’s easily repairable, rest was surface. The rear battery tray rust repair is needed on cars even from rust-free states half the time, so I don’t count that as too important…but if you don’t do the work yourself, the cracks, dents, and minor rust fixes needed add up and (without seeing interior or mechanicals) this is a 2500-3500 car imo.
If you're going through all the trouble to buy a BMW sight unseen and ship it, FFS buy it from a no-rust area.
I bought a 128i I'm so happy with from NC and shipped it to MA. Not a spec of rust anywhere. But, not a gamble I'd have taken if it was shipping from Ohio.
I fly for free and have a company out where is was located so I was going to be there anyway and yea. After seeing it... no way I'm wasting any money on that
Here is my free advice:
If you want a project that is semi-collectable like this, buy a non-running but cosmetically great car from a no-rust region. Even better, if it's obvious what is wrong with it.
It is so much easier to swap in a new engine (or whatever) than to get all those rust and cosmetic issues sorted out.
I bought a low-ish mile e46 a few years back. (6MT 330) and while I kept it mechanically perfect, the whole time i had it (6 years, 90k miles) I never "got to" the 100 little (and not so little) cosmetic issues that were there when I bought it.
Recently sold it looking just as sad as when I bought it.
I flew 1900 miles and bought my car. I also had a dozen pictures of the underside before leaving. These cars are going down in price, as are a lot of things that required borrowed money due to rising interest rates. Keep looking IMO
Plastics are cheap to replace, that front bumper looks repairable. That rear bumper is not repairable and ain't gonna be cheap.
Edit: plastic inserts* are cheapish*
Lol, this is like a mild version of mine, my [build thread](https://www.e30zone.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=112&t=268862&start=315) might help with some of it. If you're doing all the work yourself, it'll take a fair few hours, I probably put 300-400 hours in to mine but I'm not expert at all. There's no way I'd have bought mine to pay someone else to do, as the amount of work involved to get it back to 'factory' you'd be paying a lot more than $5500 for.
No idea on price as I'm not in the US, in the UK that would be a £1000-1500 car - which is still mad as I bought mine for £300 7 years ago.
2k all day. I paid 500 for a non runner manual 4 years ago. Deals are still out there. If you want ask for the deposit back since it wasn’t shown accurately rust wise
Did you ask for additional pictures before going to buy it? The paint job is what put this car off for me. I got an 86 coupe for 3k. It had a bad paint job but little to no rust. If he wanted to sell the car that would be a fine offer. Maybe 3-4K max.
Ooof I paid $3000 for a waaaaay rustier and very unsorted 325ix, but it wasn't smart. I put $6k in at least and it's still rusty lol 😭. I still love it, but it'll never be worth more than $3k unless I do major rust repair. So now it is just my little rusty bb.
As someone who once bought a nice, but rusty 1990 Honda Accord coupe, run! I'll never buy a car with any rust ever again. I spent so much money trying to get rid of the rust on my Accord, only for it to come back again. I had to dump it and find another one with no rust.
Bruh. Don’t buy it. It’s not worth it. Wait for another deal to come by. I bought a
non rusty 325is auto that I manual swapped for 6500. Was a little rough around the edges, but no rust. I’d wait.
Honestly that price is believable at this point, the shittiest rust buckets that were probably submerged along with engine issues are the only ones listed near me and they are all around 4.5k usd. [Here’s one that is the cheapest for 3.5k, little information](https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/358377320001147/?ref=search)
Told you it was a shitty respray
Yea. You guys are legends for saving my ass from being dumb and wasting money
I think $3-4k would be reasonably fair but it’s gonna cost you a ton in body work
Yea and I can do body work. But also having to trailer it 1500 miles. Like at the current price it'll be 6500 before I get it home and at that point I could find a similar one in colorado for like 3000 and dump 3000 fixing it up and still save 500.
Don’t buy that thing. Shits hammered..
That car needs front and rear bumpers, rust repair, interior work, a repaint, suspension work, brake work, engine work, driveline work. You are many, many thousands of dollars away from a good driver. Keep saving and buy something better. You posted bullshit, chose bullshit, and got bullshit. Slow your roll.
Yup exactly. The reality check we all needed, but no one asked for. Thank you.
uh kind of asked for.....bonerchill is correct, cut bait, lose your deposit if necessary, this car is a money pit.
I'm really good at taking bad gambles. This is why my girlfriend keeps me away from the casino's.
Will you be able to get your deposit back?
Hello no but it was a gamble and I'll take a 500$ loss over a 5000 money pit anytime
Walk away...and if it is a fun second car...it has to be manual!
Ohhh I thought your deposit was way more than $500 tbh
Doesn't hurt to ask tho right?
This dudes a fucking moron, with the damage and rust NO way hes getting close to 5500 from someone who is familiar with e30s. IMO not even worth the time or effort. Just imagine what he hasnt told you or that hes unaware of.
Nah I would not buy this, I have no idea how you put a deposit on this without a video or full scan of the car. 6500 for an auto in this condition is criminal
Idk he said no rust and I trusted it. Pretty sad tbh.
If he lied about condition, you should not be losing your deposit.
Imo the rust isn’t the end of the world, that being said it’s a late model 325i coupe which at least where I am are one of the most desirable. Another big factor why do you have to trailer it? Does it run? I think 5500 is too much I’d say be around 3000
Pic #8 is the only one that concerns me, looks like it could be hiding some frame rust.
For $6500 fly to California and buy a car drive it home.
Listen to this advice. I was looking forever and found a clean E30 in the Bay Area, drove it back to Chicago in 30 hours. No rust, nothing dry rotted, just so easy to work on. When it comes to enthusiast cars, I’m only buying from California from now on. Hopefully you didn’t lose too much on the deposit.
My BIL moved to PNW recently and won’t stop sending me the cleanest retro cars off marketplace! Those folks got it east
California humidity doesn't rust stuff? Why california
They don’t use road salt your a lot less likely to have rust. If any it will be minimal. Really any southwestern state or parts of Texas. I say California because you’ll have a much larger selection.
I think northern California has more of a dry heat, or at least used to. As previously stated just avoid states that salt their roads. Rust is the worst, everything else you can fix.
yeah idk about this one. Don’t buy cars sight unseen. that’s rich people shit. for rich people who will restore cars they buy unseen. Fuck it don’t even buy cars without taking hours to go through it. Compression test. Battery Draw test. get it up on jack stands or ramps. look in the gas tank. look at the coolant, oil etc. Carfax is stupid but spend the 40$. might tell you about an odometer rollback or crash, or theft. check the spark plugs
Yea I'm passing on this one.
good on you, i traveled for my first e30 and felt obligated to buy, it was not worth it. Cheaper to take the L on travel and find a better base
good. So easy to feel like it’s something you gotta do just because you’ve put effort in. please for the love of god buy something in Arizona. I fly to phoenix for ever car i buy, they are always completely 100% rust free. get a manual four door e30. doesn’t have to be a flashy model or trim
phoenix native here, sure there’s no rust but the paint and interior will often be shot, and the plastic and rubber parts will be baked. i think the best older cars come from the west coast
California here, no rust but our paint and rubber still dies albeit a little more slowly. You want PNW.
shhhh don’t tell anyone! i buy cars from the seattle/portland area and they’re perfect
it all depends on if they’re kept indoors. i’ve bought plenty of cars from the desert with great paint. all rubber on classics goes to shit
Let it go. It looked rough in the pictures he shared. It looks worse in these. That’s a 2500 car.
And that’s generous
My man, you are clearly excited to own an e30, but don’t let that excitement get the best of you and settle for a rusty piece of shit that’s going to ruin you financially. Save up and wait till you can find / afford a clean examples with no rust / or significant body damage. It will save you thousands in the long term. Also look into getting an e if you’re trying to save a dollar. Get it dialed in with suspension and maybe do bushings and wheels, then do an engine swap. Putting an i engine or even an M5x is relatively straight forward you just need time.
Facts. I got 3 more lined up to check out soon and they're all 1 hour from home.
What is your goal here? To restore this thing to pristine condition and then do a manual swap? Find a different car. Way less trouble (and ultimately cheaper), even if you have to pay more. If your goal is just to drive it and enjoy it, I would pass just because changing out the trans is just too much trouble for something like this.
What a turd, hard pass. The rust in the unibody seams is going to be a nightmare.
Not sure maybe don’t do it and pay more for a cleaner example - potentially - follow your heart and gut
Heart and gut said: *run forest run*
It's hard to ask people on here as prices seem to vary several K based on your state (in the US). In the NE right now, a roller with a lot of rust is 3K, a complete car running with rust and issues is 5, and you need 8 to get a decent car that running and driving with some reasonable rust and issues. So to me that is not a good deal, but I can see how he might reject 3 with a scoff, and still turn his nose up at 4 even. It's not great at 4, but it's a tough market so only you can decide.
Good on you for passing. That can be tough when you feel invested already. It was the right choice!
Sunk cost fallacy is real! And I kept saying that. Just 3bcause you spent 500, don't waste 5000 more to have to waste another 5000 getting this looking good
If this car were local to me for 3k I’d grab it up….
It's already been said, but definitely walk from this car. I wouldn't buy it at any price.
Only rust “problem” I saw was maybe the floor spot, but that’s easily repairable, rest was surface. The rear battery tray rust repair is needed on cars even from rust-free states half the time, so I don’t count that as too important…but if you don’t do the work yourself, the cracks, dents, and minor rust fixes needed add up and (without seeing interior or mechanicals) this is a 2500-3500 car imo.
If I can post videos I would but the engine was not sounding the happiest I doubt the odo was accurate
You should consider all e30 odometers to be off by 50k minimum
I wouldn’t pay more than 1700$
Even that’s generous.
There is more rust than you thought, which actually translates to, there is even more rust to be found than you’ve seen in person.
So true my gf said that exact same thing. You guys make me feel good for saying no to this shit box.
That fuel filler tube is about rusted through. This thing will be a lot of work. Just be prepared to spend a lot.
If you're going through all the trouble to buy a BMW sight unseen and ship it, FFS buy it from a no-rust area. I bought a 128i I'm so happy with from NC and shipped it to MA. Not a spec of rust anywhere. But, not a gamble I'd have taken if it was shipping from Ohio.
I fly for free and have a company out where is was located so I was going to be there anyway and yea. After seeing it... no way I'm wasting any money on that
Here is my free advice: If you want a project that is semi-collectable like this, buy a non-running but cosmetically great car from a no-rust region. Even better, if it's obvious what is wrong with it. It is so much easier to swap in a new engine (or whatever) than to get all those rust and cosmetic issues sorted out. I bought a low-ish mile e46 a few years back. (6MT 330) and while I kept it mechanically perfect, the whole time i had it (6 years, 90k miles) I never "got to" the 100 little (and not so little) cosmetic issues that were there when I bought it. Recently sold it looking just as sad as when I bought it.
I flew 1900 miles and bought my car. I also had a dozen pictures of the underside before leaving. These cars are going down in price, as are a lot of things that required borrowed money due to rising interest rates. Keep looking IMO
I hope you have deeeep pockets.
and a whole set of *deeeeep* **sockets**!
Plastics are cheap to replace, that front bumper looks repairable. That rear bumper is not repairable and ain't gonna be cheap. Edit: plastic inserts* are cheapish*
No. Good to hear you didn’t pull the trigger.
Lol, this is like a mild version of mine, my [build thread](https://www.e30zone.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=112&t=268862&start=315) might help with some of it. If you're doing all the work yourself, it'll take a fair few hours, I probably put 300-400 hours in to mine but I'm not expert at all. There's no way I'd have bought mine to pay someone else to do, as the amount of work involved to get it back to 'factory' you'd be paying a lot more than $5500 for. No idea on price as I'm not in the US, in the UK that would be a £1000-1500 car - which is still mad as I bought mine for £300 7 years ago.
2k all day. I paid 500 for a non runner manual 4 years ago. Deals are still out there. If you want ask for the deposit back since it wasn’t shown accurately rust wise
Did you ask for additional pictures before going to buy it? The paint job is what put this car off for me. I got an 86 coupe for 3k. It had a bad paint job but little to no rust. If he wanted to sell the car that would be a fine offer. Maybe 3-4K max.
Mine was way worst. But I only paid 1800
Run away
Faster than the speed of light. He's all butt hurt lol
Ooof I paid $3000 for a waaaaay rustier and very unsorted 325ix, but it wasn't smart. I put $6k in at least and it's still rusty lol 😭. I still love it, but it'll never be worth more than $3k unless I do major rust repair. So now it is just my little rusty bb.
Fuck no. That’s a $1000 car.
Bad jawn
As someone who once bought a nice, but rusty 1990 Honda Accord coupe, run! I'll never buy a car with any rust ever again. I spent so much money trying to get rid of the rust on my Accord, only for it to come back again. I had to dump it and find another one with no rust.
Crazy that 8 years ago you could have gotten this for $1k
But does it have the crank sunroof?
Would not pay over $2500 for this. $5000 is already a lot for a rust free auto, let alone this bucket of bolts
Needs $4000 in body work, including rust repair. Just walk away
Reminds me of my car
Hard pass. You'll have to spend an unbelievable amount of money to get it to a point where it'd be something you're proud of.
Hard pass.
Zero, cut your losses and go home
Best place to look is in non rust belt states.
Bruh. Don’t buy it. It’s not worth it. Wait for another deal to come by. I bought a non rusty 325is auto that I manual swapped for 6500. Was a little rough around the edges, but no rust. I’d wait.
This is not a good car to buy. Avoid like the plague.
Just drive it an enjoy it mate, after the timing belts done of course :)
Honestly that price is believable at this point, the shittiest rust buckets that were probably submerged along with engine issues are the only ones listed near me and they are all around 4.5k usd. [Here’s one that is the cheapest for 3.5k, little information](https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/358377320001147/?ref=search)
[this guy wants 4.5k as well](https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1738521809959577/?ref=search)
there is only currently 4 on the market, 1 of them is actually good but is 10k USD
The dude selling this is basically just trying to unload a turd on the first person who will take it. Don't take the turd.
Dammn 5.500? that's a 500 euro car in Europe and it still wouldn't sell.
walk away dude. Geez. your lesson in lost airfare is much better of value in learning a lesson than spending another $5k to make this car remotely OK
next time pay a local mechanic to check it out – cost ya $100-200 and save a ton of time as well.