I am currently posted overseas in Germany and want to bring home an E30 touring this summer to add to the collection. I am going to look at the car this weekend but I wanted to gather some thoughts. The seller claims the car is rust free and TUV approved until 2021. The 325i/ix is more desirable but they're bringing more money than I care to spend.
Looks awesome. Buy it.
If you're worried the power isn't enough, it's very easy to put together a 2.7 M20 stroker when you get back to the States.
When you have it in the states licensed and insured, you will have no end of random BMW people coming up to take a closer look.
Keep it in good shape and you will make all your money back and then some.
The two things that stuck out to me when I briefly looked at it:
I expect pretty much any non-high end car of that vintage in Germany not to have AC. That's pretty normal. Especially on something like a BMW where everything was an option.
The 2L six was never sold in the US, it's not a powerful engine but very smooth. But these are pretty Lego like, like Hondas of similar vintage.
Just because it has current TÜV doesn't mean it's in really good shape. Like with all of those inspections, it certified that the car was legal to drive on the road when it was inspected. And unless things changed since I lived in Germany, TÜV until 21 means that it was inspected sometime in 19 - it at least used to be a bi-annual inspection. Check when it was last inspected, and check it over closely anyway. It's at a dealer, and dealers usually have roaming TÜV or DEKRA inspectors come around, and they tend to be a bit more lenient when inspecting cars at dealers (of course, this is Officially Not The Case - Germany can be pretty Japanese in certain "what the law says" aspects).
since you are in Germany, i recommend you make like the Scorpions and Rock It Like A Hurricane.
As always, thanks for the good advice. I put two different cars through the TUV process while here and I concur that the roaming inspectors are definitely more forgiving than the process I went through.
The lack of AC doesn't really bother me too much. This will be weekend driver in the States. My primary concern is finding something that's rust free which is proving more difficult than I expected. Germany is like living in the Midwest with the road salt.
If it had AC, it would probably suck. Most old BMWs have been converted to R134a by now, and that makes a pretty weak system even weaker. Some people have put in nicer condensers, compressors and the ilk, but windows and sunroof have satisfied me on all but the worst days.
Cactus said:Looks awesome. Buy it.
If you're worried the power isn't enough, it's very easy to put together a 2.7 M20 stroker when you get back to the States.
It's even easier to drop an m50 in it :)
The black E30 touring was a total bust. I found standing water in the trunk and the dealership did really seem to care. Good new is that I found a clean 1990 318i touring for 2400 Euros!
Excellent. Lower and stiffen to taste, plant right foot - always, everywhere. The closer you keep it to the redline the happier it will be. A very engaging car to drive, if not an especially fast one.
NVHEngr said:The black E30 touring was a total bust. I found standing water in the trunk and the dealership did really seem to care. Good new is that I found a clean 1990 318i touring for 2400 Euros!
The nice thing about it being an M42 car is that if you want more power, it's an extremely easy conversion to drop an M50 in there compared to the old 6cyl cars. M50 will actually directly bolt up to the G240 4cyl transmission, so you don't even have to find a new trans.
Analog clock and factory phallic trailer hitch, nice. Looks like a really clean car.
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