Are # E30s dwindling or stabilising?

[alexdejonghe]

Be it the Zone, Ebay or the FB group - there's clearly a hell of a lot less 'turds' being dismantled for spares than I when i bought up loads to restore mine in 2010-13 so it got me thinking, have we reached a plateau of all the £500 'shitters' being killed off? Are the number of E30s registered in the UK plateauing? Are less going to scrap? Have Zone traders moved onto other things? Find myself these days buying more from Cotswolds than from a trader unfortunately. E30's are now a richer mans game than before, most of us lucky we bought in early!

[martauto]

I live in Leeds and never see one from one week to the next and it has been like that for about four to five years now.
I bought my Baur for £700 just over five years ago now and just got in before the prices went up big time.
The "man in the street" wont come across the cheaper cars anymore unless we drop lucky so, hang on to what you have and make the best of it before spares start to become rare, and we all know what that means !!

Mart.

[alexdejonghe]

I live in Leeds and never see one from one week to the next and it has been like that for about four to five years now.
I bought my Baur for £700 just over five years ago now and just got in before the prices went up big time.
The "man in the street" wont come across the cheaper cars anymore unless we drop lucky so, hang on to what you have and make the best of it before spares start to become rare, and we all know what that means !!

Mart.

Its crazy isn't it, £700, and i bet your Baur (previously sniffed at by haters when the E30 supply was plentiful) is clean, straight and tidy. What does 2 or 3K even get you these days? 4 or 5 years ago we didnt have to strip off layers of chav to uncover the car underneath, nor deal with modded engines and could pick our model for under 2K (mine a 93 convertible, £1650), whereas 4 doors are twice that price now. Is a shame though as i liked all the hustling over parts on here!

[martauto]

Yeh, its still a very much "marmite" car
I chose it because it has the M10 B18 which is indestructable and so reliable and the auto box which is soooooo cool to drive.
We had a field trip planed for last year but it never came off due to bad "bones and a duff ball joint" which are now sorted so roll on later this year. I would take her anywhere in this country with full confidense.
My wife loves the car and now she has passed her test (57 years old ) she can enjoy driving her later this year.

Bring it on !!!!


Mart.

[Topblag]

used parts prices increased because the cheap breaker E30s dried up (unless you're lucky) then folk saw classic cars as a decent investment and demand for cars and parts grew.

All shitter E30s which are sitting rusting into a pile will eventually be sold when values increase to a point where you can restore a them and still make money. The problem is that the longer they sit, the more they'll cost to restore.

One thing is for sure, unless the arse falls out of the classic car market, values are only going one way. However, It happened in 2008/9, it'll happen again....

[flybynite]

You only have to look at what has happened to the Mk1 Escort to see which way this is going and that from being one of the most popular cars on the road.

I would certainly love to have the Mk1 Mexico I had in the '80s sitting in my garage right now. I would even take it back in the condition it went to the local scrappy.

Thankfully I hung on to the E30 and most of the bits

[alexdejonghe]

Yeah i feel the same about my Renault 5, but unless we have a multi-story garage from aged 18 upwards they all get cubed. Makes you wonder though...should we be collecting the Toyota Yaris, Dacia Duster or Ford C Max of today to coin it in 20 years from now? Or, are all todays equivalents sh*t?

[flybynite]

Yeah i feel the same about my Renault 5, but unless we have a multi-story garage from aged 18 upwards they all get cubed. Makes you wonder though...should we be collecting the Toyota Yaris, Dacia Duster or Ford C Max of today to coin it in 20 years from now? Or, are all todays equivalents sh*t?

I don't think I would do it for a C-max, but I have thought more than once that a Focus mk3 RS might be a good candidate. Mind you an Allegro was sold for decent money so maybe there is mileage in mothballing a Dacia yet.

[Bonymaenjack]

If I kept all the now "classic cars" I've owned I'd be a wealthy man.
Mk1 1500 GT Cortina,Countless Cortina 1600es ,1300 and 1600s.Corsair 2000e,Hillman Avenger Tiger, Rover SD1 2600s (probably my favourite ) Marina 1800TC . Ital , Triumph 2500 PI, Triumph 1750. Allegro (pish).Mk 2 cavalier CDI .Landrover 130 V8, and about 10 E30s of various shapes and engine sizes. I sold my current one way back in 2006 and then bought her back having only completed 4k in that time .

[Topblag]

Think we’re straying off into another topic here.... back to the original post and help the man with his questions.

[alexdejonghe]

Reckon there's any way of being able to plot a graph of declining #E30's registered in the UK against time, split by model/engine against rising price? Surely no Joe scrappy man would cluelessly cube an E30 without realising tge parts have value. Perhaps our supply will now come from Germany, as ferried across by good men like Z3I!

[Topblag]

Shells from South Africa, that'll be the way forward for us brits. The pound goes a very long way there.

[alexdejonghe]

Shells from South Africa, that'll be the way forward for us brits. The pound goes a very long way there.

Yep, just have to fill in & sand over the bullet holes and job'll be a good'un.

[Topblag]

Shells from South Africa, that'll be the way forward for us brits. The pound goes a very long way there.

Yep, just have to fill in & sand over the bullet holes and job'll be a good'un.

There'll be somebody on Gumtree.Sa making bullethole patches from Budweiser cans for the equivalent of 5 shillings in our money.

[alexdejonghe]

Guess this kinda answers my question! Shows M3's and cabrio's in Germany have held out the longest

[paultv]

You can look up numbers by model in the UK including sorn on here,

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/browse/bmw/bmw_3_series

Paul

[Ukhozi]

I bought my 1987 4door for 1200€ that's about 1K UK. Now 3,400€ , cost of repairs and service, so far 300. So quids in. Or euros in.
I am also a scooter nut and my 1968 Lambretta SX200 cost £300 new, now you can't buy one one under £7,000.