[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by Igor_M5

Ooo, $20k - for auto, - for previous accident, + for wheels, and exhaust, I'll call $17k for it.

Yikes, didn't bother to read the description. Not in the market personally but I'd steer well clear.

[JupiterBMW]

Ok, I might as well post... I'm on the hunt for an E91... I'm not being too particular, but a few details below... Of course, maintenance vs. mileage are something I'll be looking into. I definitely don't need a garage queen, this will be a replacement for my 06 Mini Cooper S daily runaround car that I have now. Yes, willing to trade + cash if anyone is interested.

Must haves:
1. 6spd manual
2. Comfort access (standalone or part of package... and yes, I know I'm weird )

Would like to have:
1. Not a black car
2. Not all black interior
3. Sport seats
4. iDrive/Nav
5. RWD

Unicorn car in my book:
Sport package car in blue with some sort of black based 2-tone interior... Oyster/Chestnut/??


Let me know what anyone may find... PM or reply here! Thanks!

[vilord]

About 10 total 6MT wagons sell per year across the whole country. Only half will have comfort access. Probably will have 150k+ miles. Good luck!

I think I have seen one 6MT comfort access wagon with a Chestnut or oyster interior total in 7 years...

[BIGGNS]

Guess who finally found a 6MT/RWD!

[CSBM5]

Originally Posted by JupiterBMW

Ok, I might as well post... I'm on the hunt for an E91... I'm not being too particular, but a few details below... Of course, maintenance vs. mileage are something I'll be looking into. I definitely don't need a garage queen, this will be a replacement for my 06 Mini Cooper S daily runaround car that I have now. Yes, willing to trade + cash if anyone is interested.

Must haves:
1. 6spd manual
2. Comfort access (standalone or part of package... and yes, I know I'm weird )

Would like to have:
1. Not a black car
2. Not all black interior
3. Sport seats
4. iDrive/Nav
5. RWD

Unicorn car in my book:
Sport package car in blue with some sort of black based 2-tone interior... Oyster/Chestnut/??


Let me know what anyone may find... PM or reply here! Thanks!

I've been following the E91 market for the past five years. As vilord mentioned, what you're looking for is extremely rare if almost non-existent.

Here are the "problems" I ran into 4+ years ago hunting an E91 that still exist today only to a greater level. Many of these were sold without the "stuff many of us want"...i.e. no sport package, no xenon lights, no comfort access, no RWD. The most common dealer order profile seems to have been ZPP (premium package) and heated seats -- no other options.

Almost no dealers spec'd comfort access, so in my experience that is very rare. CA was only a $500 option on the E9x too (had to be individually ordered, wasn't part of a package). Very few individuals ordered E91s.

So four years ago I stumbled across this E91 we have after having looked at 6 or 7 within a couple of months. All of those prior examples had some major issues that prevented consideration. Winter road use was the biggie, or they were xDrive (no way, extra weight in an already slow car, and stuck with an 18:1 steering rack, no use for xDrive too), or they didn't have options we required. A 6MT was mandatory for us...for a while...until the market wore us down. If it was to have been a primary car, we would have kept looking until we found one and paid up for it. Our other cars are 6MT, so we "settled" with this awful automatic in the 2007 E91 (later model years had a much improved slushbox).

In the years since then, I've seen maybe 3 examples that would have met our criteria. None had comfort access. One of them was at EAG asking like $35k.

The one we settled for has ZPP, heated seats, comfort access, adaptive xenons as its main options. The other huge factor it had going for it was condition -- no undercarriage surface rust (no winter roads, always in the south), body in excellent condition with no paint work (well cared for which very few E91s have been), interior in very good shape.

I've been continually looking the past four years to buy that unicorn, but I'm very discerning on RWD, 6MT, sport package, heated seats, comfort access plus overall condition, mileage, and prior use (no winter roads and preferably a car that has been garaged day and night). I found one about 18 months ago, but it turned out to have been in a frontal collision (clean carfax though) where a lot of stuff was replaced, and the paintwork was average at best.

It will be a long road to travel hunting your unicorn. Have cash ready. When you see one pop up, be an EAG -- call right away, ask the right questions, send a deposit immediately. In EAG's case, they will make an immediate bank wire offer for the right car sight unseen, so that's what you will be competing with for a primo example (i.e. 2011 crimson red, 6MT, RWD, sport package, perm package, heated seats, nav, comfort access, pdc, 39k miles,factory paint all over, garaged since new day and night, all records since new, no winter road use).

If that car pops up with the seller asking $25k, it will be gone immediately, so you'll have to be quick.

[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by BIGGNS

Guess who finally found a 6MT/RWD!

Congrats on the find! It’s a combo I’ve been after for a few years, enjoy!

[JupiterBMW]

Originally Posted by CSBM5

I've been following the E91 market for the past five years. As vilord mentioned, what you're looking for is extremely rare if almost non-existent.

Here are the "problems" I ran into 4+ years ago hunting an E91 that still exist today only to a greater level. Many of these were sold without the "stuff many of us want"...i.e. no sport package, no xenon lights, no comfort access, no RWD. The most common dealer order profile seems to have been ZPP (premium package) and heated seats -- no other options.

Almost no dealers spec'd comfort access, so in my experience that is very rare. CA was only a $500 option on the E9x too (had to be individually ordered, wasn't part of a package). Very few individuals ordered E91s.

So four years ago I stumbled across this E91 we have after having looked at 6 or 7 within a couple of months. All of those prior examples had some major issues that prevented consideration. Winter road use was the biggie, or they were xDrive (no way, extra weight in an already slow car, and stuck with an 18:1 steering rack, no use for xDrive too), or they didn't have options we required. A 6MT was mandatory for us...for a while...until the market wore us down. If it was to have been a primary car, we would have kept looking until we found one and paid up for it. Our other cars are 6MT, so we "settled" with this awful automatic in the 2007 E91 (later model years had a much improved slushbox).

In the years since then, I've seen maybe 3 examples that would have met our criteria. None had comfort access. One of them was at EAG asking like $35k.

The one we settled for has ZPP, heated seats, comfort access, adaptive xenons as its main options. The other huge factor it had going for it was condition -- no undercarriage surface rust (no winter roads, always in the south), body in excellent condition with no paint work (well cared for which very few E91s have been), interior in very good shape.

I've been continually looking the past four years to buy that unicorn, but I'm very discerning on RWD, 6MT, sport package, heated seats, comfort access plus overall condition, mileage, and prior use (no winter roads and preferably a car that has been garaged day and night). I found one about 18 months ago, but it turned out to have been in a frontal collision (clean carfax though) where a lot of stuff was replaced, and the paintwork was average at best.

It will be a long road to travel hunting your unicorn. Have cash ready. When you see one pop up, be an EAG -- call right away, ask the right questions, send a deposit immediately. In EAG's case, they will make an immediate bank wire offer for the right car sight unseen, so that's what you will be competing with for a primo example (i.e. 2011 crimson red, 6MT, RWD, sport package, perm package, heated seats, nav, comfort access, pdc, 39k miles,factory paint all over, garaged since new day and night, all records since new, no winter road use).

If that car pops up with the seller asking $25k, it will be gone immediately, so you'll have to be quick.

You, sir, are now known as the dream crusher...

Damn, your following of the model is incredible, and I appreciate you laying it all out for me. Truth be told, there's a manual car for sale now that I've got my eye on, it has comfort access, but its AWD... I initially thought that would be fine, but after reading your post and thinking some more, I think I'll just settle for the 6AT, and then go for the RWD. The benefits here are that it opens up my options quite a bit, will most likely be cheaper to buy, and my wife will be able to drive it on occasion.

Would appreciate your insight on my thought process. As for mileage, I'm honestly not really concerned with the number... I drove my M3 about 1000 miles last year and my Mini about 2000 miles... I'm gone half the year anyway and both of them sit... The wife has a 2013 X3 35i, so that gets most of the miles...

[vilord]

I think going for rwd auto over manual xdrive you are much more likely to find a well equipped car that meets the rest of your desires.
Also, if you decide that you really do want manual, you can convert an auto to manual for a couple thousand US or less.
X-drive can't be converted to RWD without significant fabrication, the body/frame is different, with different mounts, different spacing of components, etc.

[Bob Shiftright]

I don't think the dealers ordered many E91s and the ones they did were ATs with no options. I did occasionally draw the one E91 service loaner my dealer had, and it was just as bad as the E90 AT non-ZSP non-ZPP loaners, except it seemed that every surface of the interior was covered with some unidentifiable sticky substance.

Like almost everyone who purchased a manual, I needed to order my car. I managed to drive a 6-speed completely un-optioned bare bones 328i sedan at the dealer so I knew I could work the pedals, and a 335i AT with sport seats, so I knew I could fit into the seats. (The SA was instructing me how to shift "correctly" all the while. I have been driving stick shifts for most of my life and have 220K on my old Volvo's original clutch now.)

I would have been happy with the rotary ignition switch that Vincent Bendix invented in 1910, but BMW managed to make the "Bavarian two-step" process more complicated and inconvenient so I ordered the car with CA. I've come to like it over the years.

My wife's new Honda has the same system except Honda doesn't charge extra for it.

[CSBM5]

Originally Posted by vilord

I think going for rwd auto over manual xdrive you are much more likely to find a well equipped car that meets the rest of your desires.
Also, if you decide that you really do want manual, you can convert an auto to manual for a couple thousand US or less.
X-drive can't be converted to RWD without significant fabrication, the body/frame is different, with different mounts, different spacing of components, etc.

In the N57 section is a thread of a close friend who is doing an N57 335d conversion and RWD conversion and 6MT conversion on a 2011 E91 xDrive. So far he's only found the need for welding a transmission mount I believe. He's going to thoroughly document the whole conversion with pictures and such, so everyone will have a good idea what's needed to ditch xDrive. He has a donor E90 335d for the subframes and engine, and he obtained the 6MT for the diesel from Europe along with other things.

As an aside, from my experience the biggest change in feel from xDrive cars is the 18:1 rack ratio which is immediately evident, and it is not interchangeable with the non-xDrive 16:1 (or the M3 12.5:1) racks.

[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by CSBM5

In the N57 section is a thread of a close friend who is doing an N57 335d conversion and RWD conversion and 6MT conversion on a 2011 E91 xDrive. So far he's only found the need for welding a transmission mount I believe. He's going to thoroughly document the whole conversion with pictures and such, so everyone will have a good idea what's needed to ditch xDrive. He has a donor E90 335d for the subframes and engine, and he obtained the 6MT for the diesel from Europe along with other things.

As an aside, from my experience the biggest change in feel from xDrive cars is the 18:1 rack ratio which is immediately evident, and it is not interchangeable with the non-xDrive 16:1 (or the M3 12.5:1) racks.

Fantastic thread your friend has, love the project! Any idea if the M3 rack is a straight swap for RWD cars?

[86Zed]

Please go out and drive the RWD/AT, AWD/MT etc. examples you are considering before hunkering down for a nationwide search - and that is what it needs to be, nationwide. Consider your usage case and enjoyment, not finding a unicorn to appease the masses of an internet enthusiast forum.

I bought an AWD MT wagon across the country after searching for six weeks and getting seat time in an RWD MSport AT and AWD AT car. Yes I lucked out, but I also saw that finding a non-nav, sport, etc example was going to take a year plus an additional $6000. We have 20,000 miles on the car and it is the best non sports car we have owned.

Figure out the must-have items for the platform and be flexible elsewhere. Plenty of speculators and tire-kickers on the E91 hunt, while a few on this forum have purchased quickly and enjoyed multiple examples of the car.

[Inglewood]

I second what CSBM5 said above. In my search for an e91 6MT with M sport, I can think of 5-6 that I have seen in the past 7 years that these cars have been on my radar...two of which I was lucky enough to own (and should have never sold). Religious searches, immediate action/deposit and a ton of luck are key. In both instances, the seller I bought from told me they had a line down the block of people waiting in the wings if I backed out, and that had they known, they probably could have listed the car for 10k above what they did.

Had a lemans 6MT last year that I called on a few hours after listed - talked with the private party owner for about an hour and it sounded like we had a gentleman's agreement...I just needed to line up a PPI on Monday when a shop was open. Called him back Monday AM after making the appointment, and he said he had another 15 calls on the car and was sorry, but he was going with someone willing to pay 6k over his asking price. Could I have offered $26500 and taken it? Sure...but out of principle, I couldnt let myself give in after he broke the agreement we had.

It seems as each year passes from the last production date of the e91, these rare unicorns are ending up with folks who appreciate them enough to know they will never sell. I should know - I keep in touch regularly with both parties who bought the cars from me. In both instances where I sold, the S65 bug bit after being bored with the N52 lack of performance, and the wagons were gone. Also a shame the MPE are no longer sold, as that exhaust transformed the character of these wagons completely as illustrated in this clip of the last one I owned:

[mattpete13]

Originally Posted by Inglewood

I second what CSBM5 said above. In my search for an e91 6MT with M sport, I can think of 5-6 that I have seen in the past 7 years that these cars have been on my radar...two of which I was lucky enough to own (and should have never sold). Religious searches, immediate action/deposit and a ton of luck are key. In both instances, the seller I bought from told me they had a line down the block of people waiting in the wings if I backed out, and that had they known, they probably could have listed the car for 10k above what they did.

Had a lemans 6MT last year that I called on a few hours after listed - talked with the private party owner for about an hour and it sounded like we had a gentleman's agreement...I just needed to line up a PPI on Monday when a shop was open. Called him back Monday AM after making the appointment, and he said he had another 15 calls on the car and was sorry, but he was going with someone willing to pay 6k over his asking price. Could I have offered $26500 and taken it? Sure...but out of principle, I couldnt let myself give in after he broke the agreement we had.

It seems as each year passes from the last production date of the e91, these rare unicorns are ending up with folks who appreciate them enough to know they will never sell. I should know - I keep in touch regularly with both parties who bought the cars from me. In both instances where I sold, the S65 bug bit after being bored with the N52 lack of performance, and the wagons were gone. Also a shame the MPE are no longer sold, as that exhaust transformed the character of these wagons completely as illustrated in this clip of the last one I owned:

Ummm I knew the MPE sounded good but not that good. Did you have other engine mods??

[JupiterBMW]

Thank you guys again for the continued chat and words. I'm shocked but you E91 guys seem to be a very rare breed of helpful, educated, and respectable guys... I miss that from my old days on the ZHP forum, and the current status of South Florida Miami douchebag-ish crowd...

That all being said, yes, I'm very well aware of the nationwide search. My current M3 came from Seattle, and my wife's X3 came from North Carolina. I already understand how rare these cars are. I tried to get my wife into a wagon a few years ago, wish she was more open to it then, could've had something back then when they weren't quite so rare... But, she's in the '13 X3 35i now and that's ok. So, yeah, it'll be a nationwide search, and I've already registered for Copart as I'm simultaneously hunting for

I am honestly not overly concerned with the driving dynamic of a RWD/AT vs. AWD as this car will simply be for general usage around town. About the only thing that interests me is the difference in steering rack between the AWD and RWD.. Otherwise, I've driven the steptronic before, and the 6MT in the regular sedans. So, long story short, I'm confident enough in my experience and abilities to pick up a car sight unseen, so long as it ticks enough of the boxes.

Also, I'm replacing an '06 Mini Cooper S with ZERO options, so this will be a much better fit for my family anyway.

[jdmwol2ks]

Hi everybody! Looking to join the e91 hunt! I checked out a 2011 e91 AT Black on Black with sports package. Its pretty nice, but has 113k miles asking $11.7k. It seems rather expensive to me, any idea how much its worth really?

Thanks!

[tailendcharlie]

Originally Posted by jdmwol2ks

Hi everybody! Looking to join the e91 hunt! I checked out a 2011 e91 AT Black on Black with sports package. Its pretty nice, but has 113k miles asking $11.7k. It seems rather expensive to me, any idea how much its worth really?

Thanks!

I saw the same ad & was thinking actually not a bad price for a dealer..... if you don’t mind the AT & it’s been reasonably well cared for I think it’s worth considering. Carfax shows it’s a one-owner California car.

[Inglewood]

Originally Posted by mattpete13

Ummm I knew the MPE sounded good but not that good. Did you have other engine mods??

Thanks - it was stock except for MPE. I hear the 135i exhaust can be fit and sounds very similar stock on an e91...

[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by jdmwol2ks

Hi everybody! Looking to join the e91 hunt! I checked out a 2011 e91 AT Black on Black with sports package. Its pretty nice, but has 113k miles asking $11.7k. It seems rather expensive to me, any idea how much its worth really?

Thanks!

Welcome aboard!

$7,500 - $12,500 is the range at which good automatic examples are trading hands at now I think. You’ll be at the higher end of the spectrum for an LCI car. 113k is around 12k miles per year, which is around average for a daily driven car. If maintenance is up to par and the car presents well, it’s a reasonable price with some dealer tax in the mix.

I paid closer to the $7,500 end of the range when I picked up an 07 RWD Automatic with 110k miles this summer. My unicorn 6MT RWD M Sport was around $30k 2 years ago.

There are deals to be had but the vast majority of people and dealers spend 5 minutes to check what these are listed at before advertising their own vehicles. Cars in snowy areas look to be listed lower than the rest of the country.

[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by mattpete13

Ummm I knew the MPE sounded good but not that good. Did you have other engine mods??

It sounds really good, it’s one of my favorite mods even though the PE on my 128i was throatier. Well worth the money!

[E92William]

I could have picked up a high highway mile e91 328i well taken care of for about the same as my e92 328i but man I just love the e92s styling. The E91 is still for sale for about 4500 here in south Florida if anyone is interested

[vilord]

Originally Posted by jdmwol2ks

Hi everybody! Looking to join the e91 hunt! I checked out a 2011 e91 AT Black on Black with sports package. Its pretty nice, but has 113k miles asking $11.7k. It seems rather expensive to me, any idea how much its worth really?

Thanks!

It definitely depends on how well it had been maintained. I bought my 2009 xi auto basically sight unseen for 6300 with 102k miles 2 weeks ago. It was a New Jersey car it's whole life, so the heads of a lot of the bolts aren't shiny zinc anymore. The subframes are solid and rust free and it had been one-owner dealer maintained since new, but the interior needed work, the previous owner had kids.

For a one owner clean well maintained no kids or pets California/southwestern example, 12k is a deal.