E30 Zone

As title, does driving a left hooker increase your insurance?? Found a nice e30 on ebay.de, not an M3 but nice none the less. Also are the spares the same for left and right hookers and finally are there any issues that effect lefties that are not apparent in RHD.

Cheers

Not sure about insurance, it would have to be a VERY nice car to go through the hassle of getting it back here.

Steering parts are most likely to be different than RHD. On the plus side if its a 6pot you will find it easier/cheaper to find a tubular manifold.

Im sure some one with practical experience of owning a lefthooker will offer some useful advice.

I work offshore so I have plenty of time off, hence the hassle of getting it back isn't really an issue,

for those who have imported a car, can you drive it into the country and then register it or do you have to register it before it arrives??

ive had 2 integrales and its a nightmare to overtake,carparks are a pain to get into and mcdonalds is a two player game! on the plus side its good for curb crawling

you can register it in this country after driving it over but it must be done within 6 months of arriving, and allow time for the paper work to be sorted.

Make sure you can get it OUT of germany though, they have unny rules on export and you need some beefed up MOT before you can get it out of the country.

in mt experience but I am young LHD is usually more expensive to insure, however some insurance companies treat it as a specialist vehicle and if your old enough with good enough no claims it will only make a negligable difference to your insurance.

as mentioned steering parts and some engine parts, eg manifold, dash, ect will be different, the remainder of the parts will mostly be the same spec.

If your going to all that trouble get an M3!

LHD are good for turbo's..........

but do cost more to insure.

Deffo cost more to insure - silly money if you're under 25 it would seem

Very nearly bought a proper integrale evo, but the 850CSi was cheaper to insure!!!!!!

Cheers guys, will look into it in more depth, nearly 25 so hopefully insurance will be ok.
Some valid points regarding overtaking and the local drive thru, however I like the idea about curb crawling .

Didn't realise it was hard to export a car, in my ignorance I thought it was just a case of buying it and a quick call to the german equivalent of the DVLA. Obviously I'll need to google this to find out more info.

Cheers again Fraser

My M3 was £250 cheaper to insure than the 325i Sport I had before it, so this was a deciding factor really!

As for parts being the same, then yes, a lot of parts are the same, those who say steering parts are different, then not all parts are actually different.

There are some things which people don't realise are different such as the wing mirrors.

And, don't listen to anyone who tells you LHD is awkward in the UK, it's rubbish!

how was your m3 cheaper to insure?? just seems ridiculous!

it's probably down to statictics. the M3 will always be loved and cherished whereas a sport is more likely to be mercilessly thrashed and crashed.

my 335i is cheaper to insure as a heavily modified car than a standard 325i touring like a red rag to a bull that is!!!

There is no logic to car insurance premiums. Full stop!

When I moved from Norway to Scotland with my LHD Citroen I would say that the hassle of driving in the UK was a minimum. I manange easly to get in and out of parking, its just buy one with el-windows and its sorted!
Germany is a mekka for E30s and they are very ofen cheap compear to the UK market

I once rang for insurance on an E30 M3 1990 and after a whole lot of questions was told the price and i just happened to mention at the end of the call that it was LHD,and they said "oh , we didn't realize it was LHD ,wev'e quoted you on an english M3 1990,so i've just spoken to my supervisor and it's an extra £250" WTF?

i'd challenge that as the 'supervisor' probably doesn't know it's LHD and is being a twat!

though they're probably not the kind of insurance company you want to trust with a M3 now anyway.....

I suppose the point i'm trying to make is that ins. companys(mainstream ones anyway)can't be trusted,even for a simple quote,as i could have took that policy out there and then(as they had my exact model of M3 on their computer)and if a claim did arise,i bet they would of taken issue with it being LHD.As it was ,they just assumed,that English E30 M3's will be RHD and this is not the case.



Just another instance to get my point across(off topic slightly)........When insureing a clio williams,i found that the williams 3 was much cheaper to insure than a williams 2,this being said the ins. co. , because the 3 had a cobra alarm fit as standard from factory.....................although so does a 2 I just hope most of you have had better luck with them than me

I got a qutoe from elephant for an E30 M3 and it was only £500 full comp with 3 years no claims, my big bro was quoted £900.

It seems ins co take all sorts into consideration, but occupation is very significant, he is in the RAF and pays crazy money, when I was a poor student I was still paying less than him.

As said they seem to live on another planet and charge what ever the hell they like on that specific day.

Try Heritage. They insured my LHD 325i fully comp for £240.00 including full European breakdown and legal cover. Although that's limited to 5000 miles per year.

Well when i swapped my insurance from an old 325i tourer i had to my ix (lhd) i was actually refunded 20quid!

driving a lhd over here is no fuss at all, people who say it is have probably never done it.....

...in actual fact on the motor ways it's better 'cause you can see up the inside of the fast lane and the outside of the middle lane making gaps and twats about to pull out on you easier to spot.

Exporting the Car from Germany isn't just as easy as buying the car and driving it over. Depending on where you live. It has to do with the German Plates. I used to live in Munich and bought a 911 when I was there. When I moved to the UK I just packed up the car and drove it back. (Averaged over 200 kmph between Munich and Calais ) However what I didn't realise was that I was supposed to tell the local TUV ( German DVLA ) I was leaving. So even though I had left the country and sold the car in the UK not long after I arrived, when it came to pay the equivalent of Road Tax in Germany they just took it straight out of my german bank account. No matter how many letters I wrote and tried to phone I still lost out over 1000 DM. What I was supposed to do was tell the TUV then exchange my plates for "export" plates that were vaild I think for 3 months, which allows you to drive it legally to wherever you are going then re-register it. However it you don't live in Gemany you could always just say F#*# to the TUV and drive it back. Who is to know.

Mick

micktdel wrote:Exporting the Car from Germany isn't just as easy as buying the car and driving it over. Depending on where you live. It has to do with the German Plates. I used to live in Munich and bought a 911 when I was there. When I moved to the UK I just packed up the car and drove it back. (Averaged over 200 kmph between Munich and Calais ) However what I didn't realise was that I was supposed to tell the local TUV ( German DVLA ) I was leaving. So even though I had left the country and sold the car in the UK not long after I arrived, when it came to pay the equivalent of Road Tax in Germany they just took it straight out of my german bank account. No matter how many letters I wrote and tried to phone I still lost out over 1000 DM. What I was supposed to do was tell the TUV then exchange my plates for "export" plates that were vaild I think for 3 months, which allows you to drive it legally to wherever you are going then re-register it. However it you don't live in Gemany you could always just say F#*# to the TUV and drive it back. Who is to know.

Mick

German number plates are the same as yank ones, the plate does not refer to the car its on it refers to the owner, you are issued a plate when you pass your test and it stays with you whatever car you own. This is what makes bringing one back not so straight forward as when you buy the car the owner removes their plates!