E30 Zone

Been looking at a 325i sport tech 2 recently and it is a really nice car. Chaps had it for best part of 7 years and looked after the thing. Paintwork is v good, no rot in arches inner or outer, footwells all good, engine is running sweet and interior is lovely, has quite a bit of service history and most of the mots dating back to around 1996. Its missing around 4 of them.

I want to go for the car but its had 13 owners!
I've been picky in my search for the past few months and finding one with low miles, low owners and complete history is impossible unless I pay well over 6k!

Now the car in question seems genuine. has covered around 136k miles. But the number of owners on the logbook bothers me.

Should I pay considerably less? Seller wants around £5k...

Why does owners other you ? But 13 owners and 136k doesn't really add up, with part history , its probably done 100k on top of that at least , but if the its in good shape and you want to drive and enjoy and use it then get it properly inspected , if possible by an experienced zoner and buy it, although a lot of rust issues in sports are hidden

Personally? 5k for a 13 owner, 136k sport seems a bit toppy for me.

The fact the owner has had it for 7 years is a redeeming factor but personally? I'd be looking at sub 100k cars with 3-4 owners up for a grand more than pay £5k for a 13 owner with the thick end of 140k up. Not sure why it would have done 100K more just because it has 13 owners on the book though?

It's impossible to value it without detailed pics but thats my initial feelings?

I once sold a (overated 318is) with 15 owners,what a head ache that was cam chain guides etc etc....a drift mug bought it in the end.

Convertibles notoriously have higher numbers of owners. I've seen it with e30's, e36's and MX5's. people buy them for a bit of fun over 1 or 2 summers and then get bored with the impracticalities.

Or women want one, get bought one and then within 6 weeks, then get a live one shot at them. The convertible is the first to go as baby seats and prams do not fit. Thats what happened with our first MX!

This car is in really good shape. Looked at it on a ramp and cant really see any rust, inner arches are solid. I agree with the point made about cars with many owners having done more miles than what is on the clocks but this car really does look very clean. It was resprayed a couple of years ago and paintwork is very good.

buy on condition, number of keepers and milage should only be factors if you have to choose between similar condition cars.

stew72 wrote:buy on condition, number of keepers and milage should only be factors if you have to choose between similar condition cars.

This. the car is 20 years + now.

We would all love a car with low mileage & low owners but lets be realistic here, these cars are very old now & the chances are very very slim of finding a 1 owner with 30k miles. From what I've seen 10 owners are average. Owners have never bothered me & I buy on condition. I have noticed that some cars with more owners are better maintained than that one owner who was as tight as a ducks ass & didn't spend a penny on maintenance.

Some cars (like mine) have changed previous owners but still registered at the same address, ie same family owned. Still another owner on the log book but different family member at the same address, when i enquired why i was told for insurance reasons. Maybe worth checking if your concerned about number of previous owners.

To be real - these cars are 20-25 years old ,most sports were always driven and enjoyed, you hardly ever see one with fsh and every mot from new with 200k+ for sale, its always always 80-120k range with a chunk of history missing, its a shame people did that after the hair cut rather than keep it honest

Let's face it - these e30s were often bought by high milage doing yuppie executive types and lots of miles done and god knows what milage before its 1st mot then traded in to a dealer for a new car, 21 years and 13 owners later 130k - if was genuine would be super low milage as it is with each of its owners not actualy driving it that much

polsta wrote:To be real - these cars are 20-25 years old ,most sports were always driven and enjoyed, you hardly ever see one with fsh and every mot from new with 200k+ for sale, its always always 80-120k range with a chunk of history missing, its a shame people did that after the hair cut rather than keep it honest

Let's face it - these e30s were often bought by high milage doing yuppie executive types and lots of miles done and god knows what milage before its 1st mot then traded in to a dealer for a new car, 21 years and 13 owners later 130k - if was genuine would be super low milage as it is with each of its owners not actualy driving it that much

So cynical

It makes me laugh on ebay when every second hand engine is a low mileage 70k minter. Yep, of course it is

12 or 13 owners on mine but fick it is mine now

beautymeanswheels wrote:Been looking at a 325i sport tech 2 recently and it is a really nice car. Chaps had it for best part of 7 years and looked after the thing. Paintwork is v good, no rot in arches inner or outer, footwells all good, engine is running sweet and interior is lovely, has quite a bit of service history and most of the mots dating back to around 1996. Its missing around 4 of them.

I want to go for the car but its had 13 owners!
I've been picky in my search for the past few months and finding one with low miles, low owners and complete history is impossible unless I pay well over 6k!

Now the car in question seems genuine. has covered around 136k miles. But the number of owners on the logbook bothers me.

Should I pay considerably less? Seller wants around £5k...

If you want a low owner low mileage Sport try prizing the Sports of bss325i or Kieran. Don't think they want to sell at all tbh. But everyone has a price IMO.

pony wrote:

beautymeanswheels wrote:Been looking at a 325i sport tech 2 recently and it is a really nice car. Chaps had it for best part of 7 years and looked after the thing. Paintwork is v good, no rot in arches inner or outer, footwells all good, engine is running sweet and interior is lovely, has quite a bit of service history and most of the mots dating back to around 1996. Its missing around 4 of them.

I want to go for the car but its had 13 owners!
I've been picky in my search for the past few months and finding one with low miles, low owners and complete history is impossible unless I pay well over 6k!

Now the car in question seems genuine. has covered around 136k miles. But the number of owners on the logbook bothers me.

Should I pay considerably less? Seller wants around £5k...

If you want a low owner low mileage Sport try prizing the Sports of bss325i or Kieran. Don't think they want to sell at all tbh. But everyone has a price IMO.

" But everyone has a price "

How much and what services do you offer Soni ?

Or try that Avantgarde 20k mileage Tech1!!!!

pacerpete wrote:

pony wrote:

beautymeanswheels wrote:Been looking at a 325i sport tech 2 recently and it is a really nice car. Chaps had it for best part of 7 years and looked after the thing. Paintwork is v good, no rot in arches inner or outer, footwells all good, engine is running sweet and interior is lovely, has quite a bit of service history and most of the mots dating back to around 1996. Its missing around 4 of them.

I want to go for the car but its had 13 owners!
I've been picky in my search for the past few months and finding one with low miles, low owners and complete history is impossible unless I pay well over 6k!

Now the car in question seems genuine. has covered around 136k miles. But the number of owners on the logbook bothers me.

Should I pay considerably less? Seller wants around £5k...

If you want a low owner low mileage Sport try prizing the Sports of bss325i or Kieran. Don't think they want to sell at all tbh. But everyone has a price IMO.

" But everyone has a price "

How much and what services do you offer Soni ?

Put it this way that 745i you never let me have as a courtesy car and is not for sale .... I am sure it would be if the price is right (assuming you haven't already sold that)

darkchild wrote:

polsta wrote:To be real - these cars are 20-25 years old ,most sports were always driven and enjoyed, you hardly ever see one with fsh and every mot from new with 200k+ for sale, its always always 80-120k range with a chunk of history missing, its a shame people did that after the hair cut rather than keep it honest

Let's face it - these e30s were often bought by high milage doing yuppie executive types and lots of miles done and god knows what milage before its 1st mot then traded in to a dealer for a new car, 21 years and 13 owners later 130k - if was genuine would be super low milage as it is with each of its owners not actualy driving it that much

So cynical

It makes me laugh on ebay when every second hand engine is a low mileage 70k minter. Yep, of course it is

True tho isn't it, every gear box engine or mechanical breaker part is from a 60-80k car lol , never seem a box or engine advertised said from a 200k car lol

Condition not miles or owners, mine has 193k and double figure owners, so what. How many birds you guys had and would that put you off riding one!!

mate doest matter end of the day most sports now days are been looked after due to how sort after they are mines got 12owners and the chap before me had it for 9 years if u look at it its mint mate best thing is buy one and just just spend a fair bit on it and get it the way u want it

ajay wrote:Some cars (like mine) have changed previous owners but still registered at the same address, ie same family owned. Still another owner on the log book but different family member at the same address, when i enquired why i was told for insurance reasons. Maybe worth checking if your concerned about number of previous owners.

That is a similar situation to mine.

My Sport has 4 previous owners when in reality its only 2.

My car was bought new by an eldery owner of a family butchers when he was 70! He barely used the car up until he passed away in his early 80's by which time the car had only covered 27k.
This was about 2002 when the son inherited the car, which put the second owner on the log book, but to him it was just "an old BMW" so sold it to a friend of the family which put the 3rd owner on the log book.

That friend of the family is a mate of mine, Adam the guy who ended up painting my car after i bought it and also Simon13's 2dr C2 2.7 resto.
During the time he had the car it was registered to him then his wife for insurance purposes during which time it had a plate change to B5FJH which put the 4th owner on.

Fast forward 4 years and only 5k he sold it to me in 2006 with appox 32k on it.

In the 7 years ive owned it i've more than doubled the mileage to 68k as it was my daily for a while but its now a summer garage queen and in the last year has only done 1600 miles.

pony wrote:If you want a low owner low mileage Sport try prizing the Sports of bss325i or Kieran. Don't think they want to sell at all tbh. But everyone has a price IMO.

I will never sell it!

There is to much sentimentality attached to it as both my sons were brought home from the hospital in it and i had it when i first started dating my other half.

Sad as it sounds, its part of the family and there for irreplaceable at any price.

For any 2 identical vehicles in the same conditions and same specification and same options the one with low owners and low mileage will ALWAYS be more desireable. FACT.

Problem is most of these 325i Sports because back in the 80s was the performance car of choice and a firm Yuppie favourite .... Most have led hard lives, been through lots of owners and high mileage. The problem given the age of most Sports besides finding one for sale (which generally there are not many to choose from at any given time) and finding a low owner, low mileage Sport will be even more tricky.


Barry yeah I think u said before is never for sale. Fair play you put a hell of a lot of work into it. Really super low mileage over the first 16 years of its life. I don't know whether you were actively hunting for one or did u strike lucky. I done 2000 miles between the 2 MOTs in the CS which makes it 3000 miles in total since July 2012.

I was not actively looking for a sport, i had XR3i and an E28 520i at the time and it just fell into my lap.

As for for 325i Sports back in the 80's, they were new or nearly new cars back then on the first or second owners and still worth a lot of money, it wasn't until the 90's when they became cheaper performance cars with multiple owners and chequered histories and clocking that the decline set in.

Fast forward to the early 00's when the onset of councilness set in with 'brows, scorpion DTM's and BK reps that many started to become turds clinging to an MOT and diffed to death.

Many went to Ireland in this period.

Here we are today where so few unmolested cars remain and restorations are happening and completely f ucked ones getting fragged.

B7 wrote:Personally? 5k for a 13 owner, 136k sport seems a bit toppy for me.

The fact the owner has had it for 7 years is a redeeming factor but personally? I'd be looking at sub 100k cars with 3-4 owners up for a grand more than pay £5k for a 13 owner with the thick end of 140k up. Not sure why it would have done 100K more just because it has 13 owners on the book though?

It's impossible to value it without detailed pics but thats my initial feelings?

Just where are these sub 100k 3 owner sports hiding? i've not seen one for a LONG time. Only 2000 came over here in each guise...........

bss325i wrote:
There is to much sentimentality attached to it as both my sons were brought home from the hospital in it and i had it when i first started dating my other half.

Sad as it sounds, its part of the family and there for irreplaceable at any price.

Much the same here with my Touring, it will get put back on the black top one day, but until then it can rest in it's poly tunnel. If I sold it, i'd regret it like my late Dad always regreted selling his beloved 1600E, i'll not make the same mistake.

It's the 7th member of the family along with the dog

bss325i wrote:I was not actively looking for a sport, i had XR3i and an E28 520i at the time and it just fell into my lap.

As for for 325i Sports back in the 80's, they were new or nearly new cars back then on the first or second owners and still worth a lot of money, it wasn't until the 90's when they became cheaper performance cars with multiple owners and chequered histories and clocking that the decline set in.

Fast forward to the early 00's when the onset of councilness set in with 'brows, scorpion DTM's and BK reps that many started to become turds clinging to an MOT and diffed to death.

Many went to Ireland in this period.

Here we are today where so few unmolested cars remain and restorations are happening and completely f ucked ones getting fragged.

XR3i - that is Essex boy's performance car of choice

These 325i Sports are proper Yuppie icons (for those that couldn't afford the 911 Turbo in Guards Red). They were very expensive when new.

I thought the councilness set in the 90s when they were getting lowered, brow, big stereos, angels etc. Given the value some E30 M3 Sport Evolutions fetch makes me wonder whether any clocking gone on in them and whether many of them have chequered histories ?

And if you do manage to find a sub 100k low owner Sport in good nick, it wont be £6k any more!

Zero previous Owners on the log book

Fastroad wrote:Zero previous Owners on the log book

You've owned what from new?

bss325i wrote:I will never sell it!

There is to much sentimentality attached to it as both my sons were brought home from the hospital in it and i had it when i first started dating my other half.

Sad as it sounds, its part of the family and there for irreplaceable at any price.

Same here, not for sale!

Ok mine isn't some sparkly awesome show pony but I'm only the 7th owner, owned 8yrs and the miles aren't heavy and yes he needs a bit more work but nothing too serious.

It has memories attached and yes is part of the family also!

I want even more memories and he's staying with me...

if it's in high Wycombe, i'd be concerned.

Two previous owners and less than 100k im open to offers.

bss325i wrote:

Fastroad wrote:Zero previous Owners on the log book

You've owned what from new?

Should have stated UK log book ... I imported the car in 2005 and am the only UK owner and bought it from the guy who had owned it from new.

The Car is an E30 M3

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-325i-spor ... 35cbc4dd34

That didn't seem to make as much as I would have thought? Wasn't it u[p for £7k on the zone not too long back.

Does anyone actually know how many 1 - 3 owners, under 100k, manual, 325i Sports there are on the Zone ?