Late 80's 325 convertible, worthy miata replacement?

So the last highway trip has got me thinking of making a change. I love my early Miata, but after 4 or 5 hours of 120kms/hr it's starts to wear thin. Our moutainous highways are harsh, bumpy and noisy. We always seem to be bringing more stuff up to the folks' or more home than we anticipated so the trunk space is never enough. The windblocker helped, but 4000 rpm for hours on end is a little grating. I already have another 2 seater sportscar(1960 MGA) for around town ya-ya's and I've always wondered what an e30 bimmer ragtop would be like as the weekend summer getaway car. There's a nice one here for sale, 80k miles, 5 speed needs the t belt to be done, but no rust and nice leather. No track driving, etc. just fun in the sun twities when they can be found and long stretches of highway driving. Do the bimmer sixes oink fuel? Other than electrical switches and getting the t belt done pronto are there other things I should look for? Are they a big dissapointment to drive? I love the way that six sounds and I haven't had a straight six car since my 240z of many years ago.....

It won't be as nimble as a Miata, not nearly as rigid, and the gas mileage won't be quite the same around town - but on the freeway, it will probably do even better, since the six will barely be working. The electrical maladies are pretty overblown, from my experience. Just don't leave it with the top down in the rain, then all bets are off.

If you already have an MGA, then it's a no-brainer. All I would say is that if the E30 lacks the factory sport seats, find a pair - they are godly.

For the use you described, I'd day an E30 'vert would work well. Not sure about the mileage, though. My '88 could only manage in the low 20's during a couple of weeks of sedate commuting I did with it a couple of years ago while I was doing some maintenance on the TDi. Compared to TDi mileage, those were an expensive two weeks.

I have a '90 Miata and an '87 BMW 325is in the driveway.
I have owned the Miata for 17 yrs and the BMW for 3 yrs.
If i had to sell one, I would sell the BMW first.
My e30 is a hard top coupe so I have nothing to say about BMW 'vert body flex but the Miata is clearly more nimble. The power steering on the e30 is much heavier and the slower than the manual steering on my Miata. This is not to say that the e30 is not fun on a windy road but the Miata is better. In low speed, large maneuvers like you might encounter in autox the slowness of the e30 steering really shows its ugly head. In high speed maneuvers like you might see at a track day, the difference is not that noticable.

For Sunday driving like you have mentioned, the e30 will be very fun (the Miata is funner) and the compromise will be worth the added utility.

My e30 returns 24.5 mpg in mixed driving according to the on-board calculator. As high as 28 mpg in all hyw.

FWIW, it's REALLY easy to fix the slow steering on the E30's with a later steering rack. Z3 and late E46 330i racks are plentiful and easy to retrofit.