To Mod or not to Mod

[Simon325i]

Hi Guys,

Picked up a 2 door 325i SE at the weekend, dolphin grey, 43000 miles on the clock, fsh (BMW and Porsche) totally original and in mint condition, puts my existing 4 door 325i to shame.

Thing is my existing car has the looks but has 136,000 on the clock and not much history.

With the new one being so mint and origional I cant decide if I should keep it standard, modify it, or sell it on as an original and purchase an already modified motor?

Are original/standard motors holding their value, or are they not quite at the "classic" stage yet. Any advice much appreciated.

Cheers,

[Mahmood]

Sounds like you've bought a rather nice motor.

Depends what your objective was in buying this motor in the first place. Personally, I would try and keep it original but there is a cost to maintaining a FSH and all the effort in terms of cleaning etc. You could of course store it for a while until prices suit you.

WLN may be able to help you make a more informed choice about it's potential one way or another.

[Jhonno]

the classic stage is very iminent and sport and 325ise's are the money cars atm..

sounds like a gorgeous example with that mileage!! mine is only a 316i but came with 53k and fbmwsh when i bout it just over 6months ago..

[Simon325i]

I bought it to replace the existing car and the ad made it sound like a nice motor, it was only when I went to see it that I realised just how good an original car it was.

Would love to keep both but the missus wont have two cars on the drive and the cost of running two would be too much

[tommo320i]

I'd vote to keep it as original as poss, or if you make any changes keep them i n period with the car, my 320 was similar and I'm thinking of modding it but only things that cna be changed back easily to original spec.

tom

[CaesarBob]

With that kind of mileage and condition reckon you really should keep it as original as possible. Prices are improving steadily and will continue, especially of original cars.

If you want to mod, sell that one and get a car that's already modded.

[Karan]

ppl prob wont agree with me on this, but its hard to find a mint e30, and u dont wanna be moding a pile of sh1t now do you.... so i say use the mint car, look after it really well and mod it tastefully-ie-no chav styling.

perhaps an iS lip spoiler and rear lip spoiler, clear indicators etc... then do whatever suspension and enginewise. You will not drop the cars value by doing the above to it.

Karan

[Guest]

Theres no harm in a few sensible mods. The way I look at it is the car will only be worth proper money to cars bods such as ourselves. Such car bods like tastefully modded cars so theres no problem.

[dale325i]

i would keep it original and spend my money keeping it mint, as it will be worth a lot more in the long run than modding it, and with an original prime example that you seem to have there, and with only 43000 and full service history your on to a winner

[Jimbob]

You could probably sell it to WLN at a profit

[SCOTT325SE]

regulars will probably have been able to speak on my behalf as they know my opinions so well, but i'd deffinately keep it standard. Maybe add mtech shocks and springs to firm up roadholding a bit and improve feel and lower the car slightly. On a car with so few miles, if it was mine there would be no way id fit anything that didnt carry a BMW or BMW approved tuners stamp or badge (Hartge/Alpina/Hammann/BBS/AC Schnitzer) and i'd still keep it as subtle as possible.

Let your missus drive the high mile car and see if you can convert her...if you can, 2 cars will be the best thing that ever happened to you!

[M5pilot]

I'm with karan on this one.

Why would a set of clear indicators devalue the car?

Front iS lip and rear spoiler are BMW items, they could have been ordered from BMW, you will not devalue tha car by adding these.

Suspension- be sensible and it will have about the same ride height as Mtec and be alot nicer to drive.


There will be the anoraks out there that say......."oh my god, you've changed it to the way it came out of the factory"....bla bla bla.

I think the above items are better stated as "improvments". I bet iof the e30 went on for a few more years in production BMW would have done half of them themselves......especially the indicators.

[Simon325i]

Thanks for the advice guys, think the "less is more" approach is the way to go.

Jimbob - who or what is WLN? Have seen reference to same a few times now?

Cheers.

[Kedge]

www.wlnautomotive.co.uk

They sell immaculate E30's for gig money.

Less is more it the way to mod a car i reckon, just look at the euro scene.

[Jimbob]

http://www.wlnautomotive.co.uk/

[Jimbob]

woopsy

[Kedge]

you got to be quicker than that Jim