E30 316i value

[Greeny89]

Hi thanks for looking , I know people hate these value questions but I genuinely have no idea , I have a 1989 316i with 40,000 genuine miles with full service history most of it bmw history ! As you can see from the pics it's very tidy indeed ! Engines abit tippy but have been thinking of sorting this out ( never bothered me ) please any help would be great ! Also has 12 months mot .


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[pacerpete]

The mileage is great, shame about everything else

[Greeny89]

Ha what's wrong with it ? She's a beaut

[pacerpete]

Ha what's wrong with it ? She's a beaut

Doors, dents, bonnet doesn't fit, no spec, it's a 316, the cam is foooked and did I mention the surplus of doors ?

I am sure it has plenty more issues but I am just going from what I see and what you have told us.

[Mitchen]

It's a 4 door 316i.. probably as less desirable as it gets. As long as rust isn't easily viewable, I would stick it on ebay for a couple of grand on a weeks auction, focusing on its cleanliness, give it a polish and a wax, and see what happens.

There's people out there who just want a clean low mileage E30 and have no idea what the market deems desirable.

[Greeny89]

Honestly what is so good about 2 door models no convenient in everyday life , useless in car parks , 2 door models are only good for racing not posing same goes with any car ie escorts there's no benefits of a 2 door model except purists being abit sad and anyway , more doors for more whores

[Mitchen]

more doors for more whores

That's one way of looking at it!

[pony]

OP get old colonel cars / four star classics / Munich legends / classic heroes a call one of them may do Sale or Return and get u decent money

[Nobby_N]

Has anyone mentioned the fact it has too many doors??

[pacerpete]

OP get old colonel cars / four star classics / Munich legends / classic heroes a call one of them may do Sale or Return and get u decent money

The silence will be deafening. FACT !

[pony]

Old colonel maybe interested

[pacerpete]

Old colonel maybe interested

No they won't .

[pony]

Will they be interested in my Sport ?

[pacerpete]

Will they be interested in my Sport ?

No. Too leggy / too many bruvs, innit

[DanThe]

Honestly what is so good about 2 door models no convenient in everyday life , useless in car parks , 2 door models are only good for racing not posing same goes with any car ie escorts there's no benefits of a 2 door model except purists being abit sad and anyway , more doors for more whores

The good thing about 2 doors is A. they look better, and B. they are worth more money

You wont earn out of this turd mate, nice that it has low milage, and it would make a good daily driver for yourself if you wanted to put the effort into making it a decent car to drive, but with a 1600 mill and poverty spec everything else you will have your work cut out

[pony]

There will be a good home for this car

As for the 2 door v 4 door debate is really rather sad

[pacerpete]

There will be a good home for this car

As for the 2 door v 4 door debate is really rather sad

It is not a debate, it is a FACT that four doors are much less desirable and much less valuable than two doors.

[Topblag]

There are some sick puppies out there who will lap that up for a couple of bags.

There's moredoor love here, I'm getting rid of some of my 2 doors.

[pony]

Four door e30s posess a kind of cool that eludes deluded e30 freaks who think having 2 doors makes them cooler / more special

[andyp]

there must be someone out there that does not understand E30s and might buy it, at the end of the day its a 316 that nobody wants, its a 4 door that not many people want, its like a base model with nothing going for it apart from the milage on a tappy engine, try getting it on a classic car site for sale,

[pacerpete]

Four door e30s posess a kind of cool that eludes deluded e30 freaks who think having 2 doors makes them cooler / more special

Soni, you need to stop messing with your medz dosage

[HairyScreech]

Christ, What's so hard to understand the value order goes: M3, sport, normal 2 door, touring, 4 door.

Why? simply an aesthetic thing as none of the cars are significantly different from the others (M3 excluded).

There's nothing really "wrong" with the OPs car but it will always be the bottom of the order and it's not just E30s that are like this, pretty much any 3 series after the E30 is the same.

The trouble with the 4 door 3 series is that the car itself is not large enough to look right with 4 doors, the glass area gets busy and messy, the touring models get around this by being longer in the roof.

Something like the 5 series is a physically bigger car so the 4 doors look less odd.

[stew72]

I'd just like to add that in the world of classic cars 40k isn't especially low mileage.

[pacerpete]

I'd just like to add that in the world of classic cars 40k isn't especially low mileage.

In the context of main stream mass produced 25+ year old cars it is. If in doubt, check all the E30s currently for sale and see how many have sub 43k.

[RetroAde]

First thing you need to do is tidy it up a bit, it looks solid but a bit scruffy in the pics. As a buyer I'd either be put off or looking to pay low money. A little effort making it look pretty will go a long way.

There's a market for low spec cars, Old Colonel recently sold a poverty spec saloon for 325 Sport money, but it was timewarp condition. There are fields full of Austin Maxis and 1.6L Cavaliers every weekend at local shows where the appeal is originality and what were the neglected common models rather than the halo models that were more cherished. On the plus side you have mileage, history and originality. It's a limited market so it won't be an easy sell, but that's where the value is.

[RetroAde]

Looking at the pics again what jumps out..
* vent in front valence
* grubby under boot rubber seal
* paint looks flat
* kink in front bumper

All can be fixed easily, and cheaply, and would transform the appearance of the car. At the moment it doesn't look like a 43k car to me. Interior looks tidy though.

[pony]

I'd just like to add that in the world of classic cars 40k isn't especially low mileage.

In the context of main stream mass produced 25+ year old cars it is. If in doubt, check all the E30s currently for sale and see how many have sub 43k.

I want to keep the CS till the end of my days !

[HairyScreech]

Modern classics all have significantly higher mileage than what people would deem the more traditional classics.

Fact is cars do more annual mileage than they did in 1960.

For 1980 on cars if it has done less than 8k a year then its lower than average mileage.

Average for an E30 is now around 150k with a lot of cars having been occasional use cars or cherished examples for about 10 years now.

Those that have been daily driven for the whole time are on 200k+

40K is low.
Even 60K is still low for a modern car.

40K means it has done about 1600 miles a year.

[pony]

My 1987 Sport is on 172k mileage allegedly
My old man's 2000 E46 323Ci is also on 170k mileage (well except the engine)

[HairyScreech]

^^ as you say, its now not unusual to see a car thats 8 years old with 200K on them now.

Saw a very tidy audi the other day no more than 5 years old with a phone number for an odometer. I think it was on about 230K.
46,000 a year!

Modern cars are so much more reliable that we just drive them more.

5000 miles is a lot for something with a splash lube oil sump from 1920 but not even half a service interval for a modern turd.

[Andyboy]

I like it.

There's something about a bare stripper 4 door on steels with those wheeltrims. Shame about the cam ticking as it's a pricey job to do. As an F plate it should have central locking, PAS and electric front wiondows so it's not misery to drive. With everything done and the car minted, £2500 isn't out of the way as long as you are patient.

[Speedtouch]

Modern cars are so much more reliable that we just drive them more.

5000 miles is a lot for something with a splash lube oil sump from 1920 but not even half a service interval for a modern turd.

Most modern cars, perhaps, though you do still hear plenty of horror stories, even with the so-called 'premium' brands.

Older cars can be perfectly reliable - it's all down to maintanence and the way they're driven. My old 1970 Minor Traveller is now on 156,000 miles and still used daily. I try to keep on top of the servicing, but do occasionally slip over the prescribed mileage intervals.

[pony]

This is nice interesting machine
Worth preserving
You won't find many Sports or M3s with this mileage !

[darkchild]

I like it.

There's something about a bare stripper 4 door on steels with those wheeltrims. Shame about the cam ticking as it's a pricey job to do. As an F plate it should have central locking, PAS and electric front wiondows so it's not misery to drive. With everything done and the car minted, £2500 isn't out of the way as long as you are patient.

I'm with Andy on this. It's not the most exciting E30 car on the planet but it looks infinitely preferable to some of the cars in the For Sale section on here that people cream their pants about. My first E30 back in 2001 was practically identical to this with the exception of an extra 100K on the clock.

With the cam fixed that will be a pleasant enough daily tram. 316i's aren't a bad steer and are quick enough to get out of their own way.

[Greeny89]

Cheers guys with abit of work it could be a real gem , I am tempted to keep it but I think it needs an owner who will look after it abit better than me and will have space in a garage for it ! As for the 2 door/4 door opinion that's a matter of opinion and taste , just because somebody said that 2 doors were better doesn't make it gospel ! Just look at the Toyota hilux , just because Jeremy clarkson said they were epic everybody agreed and the price of them went through the roof ! He didn't mention they rot like a bastard ! Don't be a sheep , love the more door !