Probably been covered a million times but looking at selling my wrx and picking up a cheaper E30. Found a 86 325es with 174k on it, no rust, service records, really nice. What I really am wondering is the E30 going to be the perfect everyday car I imagine it to be, or am I going to be kicking myself after a month of selling the wrx?
I know the BMW is going to be really slow, but I don’t really care because I ride my bike everyday its nice and that’s faster than any car I could afford. My hope is to use the left over cash to pay off some bills, then I can save the rest and wait a year and buy a newer car if I want to. I’m not looking to get more than 1-2 years out of the E30 as my only car.
What would you guys say? Dumb idea? Good idea? Little of both?
I drive my e30 everyday and love it. Yes she’s slow as balls but they in my opinion are nice cars for their age. If you decide to convert over and not like that one mine is for sale!
I should have been more clear, the main reason to sell the wrx is to raise money to pay off a lingering CC bill I can’t stand having, and since I hardly drive the wrx in the summer it was the first thing that popped into mind. I see what you guys are saying though, another thing is that I’ve wanted a E30 for a long time, so I figure by the time I get my financials straight, and a new job, the E30 can become a project car. That’s purely best case scenario though.
In general selling a car with a loan on it for a cheaper, reliable DD is always a good option. There are however issues that can always surface. As I said before, registering and paying to get the new car on the road sucks, and of course a cheaper, often older can mean unforseen repair bills further down the line.
Now you say you really want an e30, an OLD BMW. I can see this causing issues with repairs being that it will be your DD. Is it worth it? I know you said you have wanted one for a long time, but is now really the right point in your life? Sure, you can sell the WRX and eliminate the CC debt, but what happens when you are driving to work and something bad happens. Will you have the money to fix it?
Just my 2 cents. If you take your time and make a smart purchase it could work out for you.
Also, am I missing some sort of joke with the “03 Honda WRX” thing?
I would recommend going for an E36 over an E30 if you want it to be your daily. You can get a lot of E36 for very cheap these days and will have a bigger selection. E30s are more of a good toy / project at this point and unless you really want to be fixing lot of little things all the time I would avoid.
Well, I should probably clarify winter driving wasn’t bad most of the time, but it really sucked when a blizzard came through and nothing was plowed, I only got stuck once though.
as your only car…ehhh. i’d get an e36. i mean, don’t get me wrong, i fucking loveeeeeeeeeeddd my e30 so fucking much. still do. but there’s always stupid little shit with a 20+ year old car, and i wouldn’t drive it in the winter. and going from a wrx to an e30 is a big difference. i went from a 2.5rs to an e30. it’s just… different.
fuck it. get the e30. but get a newer one. (i’d try for late late 80s, early 90s.) this is personal preference but i fucking hate steel bumpers. haha. and it’s gonna be slowwwww.
Yeah you gotta love when a blizzard comes in right before you have to get to work.
Jesus I had the worst luck this year… I had to drive to Cleveland and back on December 1st, when my neighborhood (South Buffalo) got 39 inches of snow in 2 days. Talk about the worst place to have to drive though! However, by being smart and getting off in Irving I managed to not get stuck on the Thruway like everybody else. Route 5 was nasty in Derby there were just ruts from cars. I was really happy that day that I went with snows.
---------- Post added at 08:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 PM ----------
I would be nervous about having such an old car as a DD too - no matter what it was.
Thanks for the input guys, been getting a very mixed response which I expected. Its a tough call, I’m still going to look at the E30 but I’m definitely not dead set on buying it. I really like my wrx and don’t really want to sell it, but I hate owing money.
I’ll have to look into E36’s, I’ve only ever looked at M3’s (which are not in price range obviously). I had a chance to buy my friends 95 M3 a few months ago, but several people advised not to.
The Honda wrx thing is an is an inside joke with my friend. Stuck around in my sig for a while.
take a look for 96+ 328i (coupe, sedan, vert). they are 80% of the way to being an E36 M3 and 1/4 the price these days. being right around 200 hp/tq makes them not miserably slow and you can swap in an M3 diff for about $300 which gives you a better gear ratio and an LSD.
