Parting the E30

[HowieE30]

Hello there!
I've been her for a little time now..
And i noticed that you part out/stripps your nice beemers!

Why is so many of you parting out your E30's ?
Damn, cars that are fully functionable get stripped and trashed..
Why the hell are you doing that? :S

I just get so surprised! Nice looking originals!
Are there really so many of you that works on a junk yard?

Cheers Howie, frustrated Norwegian !

[daimlerman]

Most E30's are worth more in bits than as a whole.

[HowieE30]

Why don't you sell your perfect shells complete to us ?
We make lovely cars of them! I sware!

Someone should seriously start a shipping company to Norway/Sweden/Denmark!
So we enthusiasts can enjoy these cars MANY more years ..

Cheers Howie

[Nay]

Its a shame, but its true. Most are often worn down and too expenisive to fix for what they are. + people decide they want this and that, so rob them off a cleanish car and break the rest down into parts...

This does lower the count of E30s slowly, but also keeps the rest of ours running nicely and coupled up with nice goodies!

Remember, E30s are really common for the age of the car. As they start to get rare, people will think more before breaking... we still have probably a good decade or so before these cars become rare. Unless the UK's government scrappage scheme eats them all up for £2000 off a rubbish new car.

[HowieE30]

It's INSANE!
I have no other words for it!
I can see that some, rusty, shabby, old, crashed, non mint@all cars get parted out..

But I have seen MANY good E30's been parted out...
It annoys me just like a amazingly hard hangover!

[sihooker]

Your kidneys are probably worth quite a bit to somebody...are you selling??

Howie has raised a serious point. When will people stop fragging old motors that could be saved?

Are we going to be really annoyed with ourselves in a few years time when we are trying to buy a replacement for our much loved '30s that have met a nasty end(accidents happen!),only to find that there are none left that are affordable?

The £2000 pay off from the government has wound a few people up on the zone,and the classic scene in general,but there are quite a few zoners that have been doing much the same thing for a while now..

[HowieE30]

Just added them to the E-Bay hehe

But seriously guys, look forward !
In about 10 years from now, how many good lookin E30's will there be?!?
If you guys only is braking them for bucks?

There will be FEW, and I mean like MAYBEE 25% of what we got now!
I have a couple of E30's here on my land!

And, this is the car I have got most comments for:
By randoms visiting me,
People parked next to me at the car wash,
When I stop at my crusing route, just to take a ciagrett!
People just LOVE, the BMW E30!
It is, and will ALWAYS be the car people love!
Here in Norway, the BMW E30 have been voted to the car, with the best chassie ever!
It never look "old", just new!
It will ALWAYS look good, with the right mods!

Please correct me if I'm wrong!
But is'nt you guys E30 FANATICS/LOVERS/LIVERS ?

I wouldn't part my non-rust E30 for some simple dough! NEVER!
We lovers, look for the right car over a long time!
I checked the Norwegian market for about one and a half year, before I found my beauty!
Was sitting on the internett ad's almost every day!
And cheking the paper ads, and what my peoples recomended me!

Please guys, stop this terrible trend!

Cheers Howie

[Felix79]

Hey Howie, it's nice to see a Norweigen on here. I lived in Hougsen ( between stravanger and burgen) for 4 months in 2001 and I loved how welcomming you guys were to me.

New parts are still readily avilable so there is little demand to save one that needs big money. Most e30 owners are after one thing, a good rust free shell! My Alpina had a full shell replacement done back in 1999 so that a rare type of Alpina would live on. The car has now done nearly 230,000 miles and all the previous owners have kept every bill and recipt for this stunning car. I have spent the last year having things done to get it back to perfection once again. Look at Simon13 and the lengths he has gone to , to keep another Alpina living regardless the cost. So don't worry there are still plenty of us who are crazy enough to keep an e30 alive and together!

[R4N_S_S]

sorry but i think as the E30s get rarer, more will get broke as that is the only way to recoupe most of the money the over enthusiastic owner has sepnt on the car.

that certainly is the way the classic ford scene has gone anway. Look how much Cossies go for and then look at how much the parts go for - its a no brainer.

[Nay]

But there always has been more E30s than Cossies. M3s yes, normal E30s... not quite the same.

As the E30 gets rarer, the people will buy as many shells that they can fit in their homes and use and sell all their parts that way.

Knackered old E30s will be lying around the county (and other countries) in all sorts of places waiting for their old parts to be used. Un-rusted shells will be striped and stored. Parts will be stocked up. People will start more and more restorations on not so good shells and so on.

These wont be to the stage of cossies for decades, but the price of good'un and parts will skyrocket.

If you own a large amount of land, keep stocking up the scrappers and cheap runners and get your hands on some of the more sort after parts and in a decade or so you will be laughing!!!

But as long as BMW are good to us and continue to offer nearly every part at a reasonable (*cough*) price, then we'll be fine! The E30s will live on.

I'm keeping my 325i for life! Or try anyway!

[HowieE30]

I'm keeping my 325i for life! Or try anyway!

That's my boy!

[325isporttech1]

I think its good if you plan on keeping your e30 for a long time as the values will get very high for the special models but bad if you sell, then fancy another e30 one day. If you notice its mostly basic models getting broke as they are not as desirable. Sports, M3's etc are less common to be broke for parts, as they are worth saving and are starting to fall in to good hands.

Eventualy there will be few basic models left, the ones that are will be worth quite a bit, the desirable models even more so

Its just too expensive to repair cars properly in this country hence why a lot get broke, and a lot of us are also broke!! explaining the increase in people breaking their cars

I wouldnt mind shipping some old beater e30's over to Scandinavia if it was worth it, il have to look in to that one

[oakey]

I am very impressed by your enthusiasm HowieE30!
I think alot of what makes you think this is that in pictures on here the shells may look very good but in reality they are rusted to fek. There are very few solid cars that get broken and if the shell is good it will more than likely be sold on.

[rossmc88]

Want to buy my e30 HowieE30 before it gets broken since no one wants to buy it? http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1085832.htm

[HowieE30]

Actually rossmc88, I would have taken the whole car, if it not had been for my budget theese days, just spent about 5 000 £ on moving..
But if you dont get it sold, ill buy ur interior!
Can you add som pictures here of the back seats?

Cheers Howie

[mhuk]

I think I'm going to strip out my 325i. The autobox is duff and I'm buying a house. I have triumph spitfire to play with and the e30 has pissed me off. (Replaced engine already and now the box has failed great!!)

[R4N_S_S]

surprisingly i didnt get much interest in my 2dr E30 318i which was a very very clean shell - no wonder they get stripped for parts.

On my 4dr I only had to sell two items (wheels and diff) and I have already made more than what the car owes me and no one in their right mind would buy that turd.

[Nay]

Most E30s have rust lurking somewhere in them. When they do, its either too expensive to fix or not worth it for the type of car, e.g £350 job on a £500 316 runabout. So they get dismantled. The E30s that have solid shells after dismanteling often can be sold on for good money, as whilst the car is completely bare, its easy to look over, fix if anything is needed, respray and waxoil. Then use as a start for a rebuild.

In the UK, on average, most people will see quite a few a week (whether its other mates, ones that live near by or work near by or just happen to rive past). They're not so much in demand, but the pure minters are becoming a challenge to find. Thankfully my mate (who got me into E30s) and his dad have a tech2 sport sitting in a garage with <20k miles on it. I'll make a move for that in a decade or so Perfect concours car, bar a little dent the farm-workers made to the wing.

[magpie]

i only break rusty/rotten turds
and ship worldwide i'm a keen recycler

the last 2 e30's i bought to break i sold as full cars
because i couldn't find any rot to justify fragging them.
if i'd broke both i'd have been quids in