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      01-25-2013, 05:14 AM   #234
Efthreeoh
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Drives: The E90 + Z4 Coupe & Z3 R'ster
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Virginia

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Quote:
Originally Posted by hickoryE92 View Post
"My last BMW was a 1989 E30 that I took to 250,000."

Sorry if this is a repeat post, I didnt read all the pages but the e30 is my favorite BMW... do you have any pics of it?

One day I want to get my hands on an E30 M3.
This was it at 256K when I sold it.

In hindsight I should have kept it. But the issue is where I live, if you don't drive a car regularly, the varmints move into it and tear it up right quick. After you've owned a car since brand new, even one that is now classic, for 18 years and 250,000 it is nice to have a change. When I got my brand new E90 back in May 2006, I was like a kid with a new toy and just never stopped playing with it, so I knew the E30 was going to sit and rot; and back then I didn’t know I was going to start racking up 33K a year on the E90.

I sold the E30 to my neighbor across the street (so it was close by at least), but he let it deteriorate by not taking it to a BMW trained mechanic, so it eventually overheated at 295,000 miles. I bought it back from him in 2009 for a buck with the hopes of making a track car, or just building it, but he had let a kid drive it one day who put it through a fence down the street and messed up the right front. The chassis was just never the same after that. I had put tons of money in that car over the years, like you do any car to get it to that level of mileage, and just decided that since the body was not perfect anymore (it had never been in a major accident during my ownership), and the motor was toast, it was going to be a $10K minimum to restore it and I just didn't see the point since I had my time with it. I traded it to a guy who helped me around the house for a few weeks. He was going to refurb it, but since sold it.

From what I know the car is still local, and I could probably get it back for dirt cheap (lately been thinking about it – I don’t think it is in running condition). When I bought it back in 2009 it sat for a long time and mice really tore up the wiring harnesses in the engine bay, so it needed a lot of work just to get the electrics right. If I buy it back a second time I could have the body redone by the shop who rebuilt my driver's seat on the E90, but it's still a money/value issue thing. That shop does mainly VW bugs; with a few that have been featured in magazines, so their quality is excellent. But once you do the body, then the driveline needs to be put up to snuff (i.e. totally redone) to match the new body, then the interior (I had already done the seats once in it), then the suspension (which I already had been through once), then … I’d rather part with my money on something like downpayment on a new C7 Vette.
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Last edited by Efthreeoh; 01-25-2013 at 05:47 AM..
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