E30 Zone

hi guys,

just posted about buying a 1990 e30 316i, but im posting now for insurance. at the moment ive been qouted Ԛ£1800 third party, fire and theft, from Quinns motor insurance. but being such an old car id feel safer with fully comp. its seems a bit expensive seeing as my brothers 1.2 punto got insured for Ԛ£800 and now his second car, brand new 1.4 clio, is Ԛ£1300 fully comp.

it'll be my first car so im expecting prices ranging from Ԛ£1000-Ԛ£2000.

anyways like i said in the other thread, any advice on what to check on an e30 would be appreciated.

p.s. could someone provide me with some technical details like miles per gallon, 0-60, top speed etc.

thanks all.

those details are on the main site matey

i used confused.com to get quotes they are very low

www.elephant.co.uk I use they give pretty competitive quotes but remember the 316i is group 12 or 13 insurance wise

by the way is that you nwmlarge power sliding in that e30

lol no its not its a german car by the looks of things but give me time lol

i could watch that all day. if only it had sound though.

i know its mesmerising lol

forget fully comp fella, simply not worth it.

If you have the misfortune of crashing the car and it's a write off (which it more than likely would be) your insurers will take the piss big time with the settlement they will give. So you will probably pay more for the difference between TPFT & fully comp cover than what they will pay you out for the car. PLus if you are paying in instalments they will want to collect all outstanding premiums from you before paying out, so for example, fully comp price of Ԛ£1500. You smash the fcuker up 1 month into your policy and still owe them Ԛ£1200. They value your car at Ԛ£1000, you would get nowt as you would still owe them Ԛ£200 and that's before applying any excess etc.

Just keep it simple to start with, fire & theft cover, drive it sensibly & earn some no claims discount. It's a ball ache but everybody has ot start somewhere.

By paying for fully comp you will effectively be paying for the car twice, so save the money and spend it on the car on maintenance and sensible upgrades

Im 17, and 318i was/is my first car.

1k-2k isnt realistic. I was getting quoted 4k-5k, so i decided to split car with my mum so she would be main driver. Loweres the quotes well under 1k. Nothing wrong with doing it either if its honest.

HTH

thanks for the advice mate

harry13789 wrote:thanks for the advice mate

I live near you. Is the car your after local? I can look it over if it is.

have the insurance in your name so you get the no-claims discount, but put your mother on as a named driver, usually lowers it quite a lot

a few young lads on here have seen good quotes with Nationwide insurance. But you probably need to just try the usual suspects that advertise in the back of car mags like Adrian Flux, Greenlight, Hyperformance etc etc

Use confused.com to get a ballpark figure then see if you can beat it. From personal experience the big boys (Norwich Union, Directline, Morethan etc) dont give the best quotes so try some smaller companies. Ive used Zurich in the past and Hastings Direct at the moment for the daily car (E36 316i) and performance direct for my 325i (a classic policy with ltd miles though)

bmwe30mtech you can look it over if you promise not to buy it. its near leeds castle and im gonna look at it about 6 o'clock. if you wanna be a gentleman and check it over for me you could do it tomorrow if you're not working. you see i dont have clue about cars.

anyways by the time you reply i would have left work and be on my way there. i will relpy on this thread after ive looked at it.

thanks for all your help guys.

Nothing

just looked at it. the auction ends tomorrow, it on ebay.

as i said i dont know much about cars but it didnt seem to have much rust on it. the wheel arches were pretty clean but in the boot under the carpet it was very wet, and quite rusty. like i said if you could look at it it would be great. but for what hes asking i dont think its worth it.

heres the link to it. if you look at the bottom of the page you can see a few questions ive asked.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... %3AIT&rd=1

Those seats are M3, same as mine. They are worth over 500 alone, easy. Looks ok, i probably would have gone and looked a year ago. I sent you my number. If you need any q's answered you can call, and if it doesnt sell we could go and look at the weekend. Rust in the boot (water in boot) is very common, and usually easy to fix, so long as its not too far gone .

ok mate. i will call him at the weekend to see if he has sold it.

Well spotted Harry. Looks lovely. Good spec too. Central locking, elec windows standard, but leather interior, m-tech steering wheel & gear knob, 17"alloys... Great. Only 120k miles too. May find insurance charges more for having 17" alloys, but would suggest you tell em or your insurance will be invalid and worthless anyway. If it is chipped, keep it quiet, you can just claim ignorance. Best of luck with the auction.

cheers mate. looks can be deceiving though. it didnt look as good as it did in the picture but it was still nice. the paint was flat, no stereo, clutch was quite heavy and the gear stick had six speed but it was in fact a five speed. there was rust in the boot and it only had service history up until 80k, and leather was worn at the sides. saying all that makes me feel bad though because i really liked it. anyways i dont think ill bid on it, ill wait till the weekend and see if he still has it, and then take it for a test drive.

thanks for everybodies help and support though.

harry13789 wrote:cheers mate. looks can be deceiving though. it didnt look as good as it did in the picture but it was still nice. the paint was flat, no stereo, clutch was quite heavy and the gear stick had six speed but it was in fact a five speed. there was rust in the boot and it only had service history up until 80k, and leather was worn at the sides. saying all that makes me feel bad though because i really liked it. anyways i dont think ill bid on it, ill wait till the weekend and see if he still has it, and then take it for a test drive.

thanks for everybodies help and support though.

To be fair mate its probably a bt of a rotter. I emailed the seller asking a few things (dont worry im not after it!). If the leather is worn, thats the only good thing in that car really. Usualy a 1.8 with big alloys has been ragged, i would say dont bid. If it doesnt sell offer him a little for it, see what he says.

It seems to have a 325i exhaust also??? Just make sure its not a money pit.

sounds like you are being sensible fella. Don't get lured by the morsels like leather seats and 17" alloys etc.

There are plenty of late 316's about and generally they are in better fettle than their 6-pot cousins, which have usually been thrashed to within an inch of their life and neglected on the service front.

i thought it was a 1.6. anyways thanks for the advice mate. post back what he says about it, if you would.

Elbow grease works wonders with flat paint, as does T-cut if that flat. Leather can be treated and 'fed', service history is better, but as long as the oil and oil filter look like they're recently done, and as long as the boot isn't wet cos the floor's rusted through, it should be easily tidied. May be no worse than the boot seal, easily found in a scrapyard. Hope noone bids and you can get it at a snip.

no bids on that BM then Harry. May be worth putting an offer in, around Ԛ£300-350? He does say in the Ebay ad that all cars must go...

yeah he said he wanted Ԛ£850 without MOT and Ԛ£950 with MOT ! it says in the the description it has an MOT already . i can't be bothered to put an offer in cos its not even worth Ԛ£300 in my eyes. i will contact him if i get round to it. anyways the old man says i shouldnt get it cos he thinks i will drive it before i pass my test, therefore losing my license altogether.

bmwe30mtech wrote:

harry13789 wrote:cheers mate. looks can be deceiving though. it didnt look as good as it did in the picture but it was still nice. the paint was flat, no stereo, clutch was quite heavy and the gear stick had six speed but it was in fact a five speed. there was rust in the boot and it only had service history up until 80k, and leather was worn at the sides. saying all that makes me feel bad though because i really liked it. anyways i dont think ill bid on it, ill wait till the weekend and see if he still has it, and then take it for a test drive.

thanks for everybodies help and support though.

To be fair mate its probably a bt of a rotter. I emailed the seller asking a few things (dont worry im not after it!). If the leather is worn, thats the only good thing in that car really. Usualy a 1.8 with big alloys has been ragged, i would say dont bid. If it doesnt sell offer him a little for it, see what he says.

It seems to have a 325i exhaust also??? Just make sure its not a money pit.

what do you mean when you say money pit?

Sounds like a top seller then... not!
Reckon you're probably right not to go for it. I would guess that the alloys and leather would be worth a few hundred, plus engine, gearbox, back axle, lights, and other odd bits. May even make you a few quid towards a better car. Certainly don't pay more than you're going to get back in parts.

As far as money pit goes, bmwe30mtech is referring to a car that constantly needs money spent on it. You keep throwing money into the pit you know as a car.

Best to wait and get something you're happy with. Good luck

Wait and get a nice 316i, plenty arround. Dont be attracted by the 17" alloys (which are probably buckled with shagged tyres anyway!!) and the leathers (they can be bought!).

Just get a nice one off an old man or something, best way to do it imho.

thanks for the help guys. ill let you all know when i next find one.

Quite agree. Wait for something better, was only meaning that if the alloys and the leather were good enough, then it may have been worth getting - if the price was right - to sell for spares and make a profit on it. If the bits aren't good, then forget it. Best of luck with the search Harry.