putting an e30 325i into perspective

[anton]

Hi guys,

i've read alot of post rating the e30's build quality... speculating about certain design flaws etc etc...

just thought i'd remind everyone what a e30 actually is...

well.. limited experience with e36 or any higher.. but word has it.. or so i hear that the e30 is apparently better in some concerns... kinda "they dont make em like they used too" kinda thinking..

but i basically see it as a poor mans bmw ;)

you want a decent car... dont want vehicle installments etc... want a full house vehicle.. buy a good used e30...

come to think of it... hyundai getz, daewoo matiz, golf mk1(still can buy em brand new here)

are all cars costing 2/3 times that of a e30 2nd hand. the e30 is BY FAR more car than that found in the above examples...

but lets face it.. there are some oaks.. not technically inclinded. folks that NEVER want to get there hands dirty. that i would not recommend buying a 18yr old car. me, i dont mind... something goes wrong. i just fix it myself... simple...

i think its important to put it in perspective, its an old car.. fact
its sporty and fairly quick.. fact... they age much better than certain other cars. hell.. ive seen many 10yr old cars looking far worst than a 18yr old e30...

also being into competitive sound quality car audio, when tinkering around the dash and taking things apart. i love the way it all fits together. so solid. so snug etc.. its a well built motor car. in 1989 i was a mere 8yrs old (that makes me 25 now) so i cant think offhand what was THE BEES KNEES at the time... but i reckon it was ahead of its time...

i saw an e30 325i the other day at a garage with 490 000 odd kilometeres on its clock... thats about 305 000 miles!!!!

the car was started and still sounded good..

call me old school.. but i reckon an 1989 e30 325i is even a better car than a 2005 hyundai tiburon v6 2.5l. definitnabtly faster!!!

ok. the e30 isnt a looker as far as modern styling is concerned..
but hey, i like the wolf in sheeps clothes things.. by trade im an I.T consultant. got my own lil business, so i cant rock up at clients in jap vehicle full of wings and spoilers council style.. so the car is conservative looking...

as far as the e30 325 vs 2005 tibby 2.5 v6.. to think here the tibby costs 190 000 south african rands 2nd hand.

the e30 minter cost me 40 000 south african rands.. i could afford to buy the e30 cash without having car installments etc... the tibby i would pay my ass off for 54months<no thanks>.

but if ur technical and like tinkering.. and love cars and passionate about them.. my feel is that e30 is cool. as theres lots u can do to them..

but then not all people are into cars.... i am.. so e30 for me.. but in the bigger picture its a good solid car... at a cheap price. to find em in good nick is difficult.. so its kinda got exclusivity about it in a way i suppose..
there are many e30 318's and some e30 320s available.. but a 325 in good nick is almost impossible to find over here.

any comments?

cheers

Anton

ohyeah... many of u are probably thinking .. what is this man on about..
well.. basically.. a e30 325i is not some supercar etc.. and i suppose in many many ways very very dated. but for what it is its damn fine..

see it for what it is.. value for money perspective i suppose..

[kam-325i]

Over here, when the E30 325i was new, it was the favourate car of the "Yuppie"

[nwmlarge]

have you been smoking?

[oguz327]

have you been smoking?

who?

[nwmlarge]

anton

[kam-325i]

Oh yeah...forget that bit......

BMW = Drug dealer
Merc = Pimp

[Nelly]

God Dam!!! That was a tuff read - must of been induced by some thing and the answer to your question is = Red LOL - fcuk knows, lost interest in text after about 10 mins (i'm not the quickest of readers!! Sorry)

Neil.

[jog5000]

The E30 is a good car in general. I was 12 in 1989 and I can still remember looking at an E30 and wanting one. I used to have the Scalextric E30, used to race all the time. I think the E30 back then epitomised the quality car. It was a beaut back then and it is today. As for the looks - cmon- when you walk out the door in the mornings, and you see those four eyes glaring at you, with the rad gril snarling - you want to wet your pants. At least I do. I love the aggresive look of it. Looking at the kidneys from the front makes me wonder - The Audi add, where the car comes out of the darkness, and you see the headlights and grill etc - that add was thought up by an E30 driver when he saw his car on the darkest of nights and got scared. It was meant for the E30.

I love the E30, mine and anyone elses. I cringe when I see what happens to them down here in SA. I think Anton would agree with me, but in SA the E30 is seen more like a "lower class" car. Not sure if those are the right words, but to put it in perspective: think pikey with their pugs. Because they are so old, people are willing to part with them cheap, and unfortunetly there arent enough "lovers" out there, like us, who want our E30's to be THE car.

Anyway, my two cents worth.

[e30bmlover]

mate, we know the e30 is better than the e36, we know its got design flaws, we also know that they dont make them like they used to and the fact that they are a poor mans bmw, my friend you are preaching to the choir.
you been smokeing some bud or what?

[SCOTT325SE]

To me, the Acid Test of a car is if you stick it into a wall/tree/motorway reservation, roll it about 8million times, and still manage to crawl from the wreckage, its a bloody good car!!!!
When i first got into E30 ownership about 4 years ago, I was driving down the motorway at about 90mph (private motorway of course) in my then new Renault Clio and there was a red 320 a few cars ahead of me. Ive always been a fan of e30's since my mum bought one when i was about 8, so i 'clocked' the car and took notice of it.
Anyways, a car pulled out on him and smacked the front end. He lost control, hit the barrier, the car rolled over and over down the motorway gradually coming to rest on the hard shoulder/banking. I managed to avoid the carnage and having not long done my life saving certificate, I pulled up and thought I'd be putting a fire out or seeing a dead man in the drivers seat.
Alas no! As i was running up to the car, the guy got out the window (door was decked in) and walked away up the banking, sat down and had a fag!

If I had THAT crash in that brand new Clio, I would have been dead, Airbags or no airbags!
E30 is a solid car, even when its got rust, steelies and keep-fit windows! Long live Bavarian engineering IMO.

[Simon13]

i hit a tree once in my old 318i round a fast bend on christmas day, it was wet hit the tree at about 55-60 with the passenger front after a valiant attempt at keeping the back end in check fishtailed along the road about 4 times! clipped the tree and that guided me onto a tree stump!

it bent the wishbone big time and chassis leg. plus bonnet,valance,headlamp,wing,fog light.
Got her jigged and new wish bone, wing and headlamp and it was on the road again! This was in 2000 when they were still worth Ԛ£1500

My bodyshop guy said if i had been in a escort,astra or some other similar heap it would of been a different story!

325i's are the best imo, one of the most fun chariots about

[oguz327]

amen

[dark_sounds]

olg german cars full stop

e30 bug was caught when i was 12 too dan! cousin rolled in his sport picked me from school, the smooth 6 note, bad ass gangsta look. loved it and the drive cor wicke fun!


thought german cars in general are very very strong.
my old 70Ԛ£ 1.0 polo got hit in the side at 60-70mph the car spun several times and rolled over compleatly had 4 passengers, girls so they were all more fragile lol... they are all here today,,, alive and well. the car was absolutly MULLERED still managed to get stolen by a addington pikey on a trailor!

[EThreezero]

ohyeah... many of u are probably thinking .. what is this man on about..

Your damn tootin my friend!! That was a post and a half full of what i think was subliminal advertising, do you work for Hyundai?? fair enough post, in parts, but why do you reckon this was a place where people need reminding of what an E30 is??

"Mon the Special brew"!!

Ive just thought, there should be a new section added to the forum index directly under Pub Talk called....Chucked out of the Pub Talk

No offence intended btw dude.

[fuzzy]

what was the point that weve to comment on?

[jon_pure_british]

[quote="SCOTT325SE"]the guy got out the window (door was decked in) and walked away up the banking, sat down and had a fag!
[quote]

mate in ANY other car after a bad crash you'd be coming out the roof in a coma

i bet that fecker had more than one fag though

[SCOTT325SE]

YEA, he had about half a pack i think. he was sitting there a while. he was hurt, but only had relatively minor marks on him - bruises, and small cuts from where the glass smashed.

[anton]

toitliketoiger, non taken
there were no special brews involved... come to think of it... maybe its all the fumes from spraypainting

The OTHER vehicles that i mentioned were just a couple of budget "affordable" vehicles which are came to my mind...

ididnt use any decent makes as an example, basically saying that in many ways a 18yr old beemer is better than some brand new cars.

I used to have a toyota corolla RSI 20valve 1600cc, a 1997 model. it had the factory blacktop engine.
put out 123kw, 170odd NM of torque... paid R70 000 for it second hand, paid R40 000 for the bimmer.
bimmer is similiar power specs.. more grunt though(more torque) and ive got more car for me money.
bargain for me!

i suppose the e30 bmw could be better than many newer bmws... but thats a whole different topic..

money money money.... i suppose most of us round here either cant afford a new bmw or dont want to... same diff.

some that can will rather do that and buy a new one than a old car... but imho those people are COMPLETELY in a different financial league.

thing is.. i like modding and tinkering especially as far as car audio is concerned, why buy a new vehicle, maxing out ur budget.. nothing left for GOODIES.

my audio equipment just waiting on the shelf here are as follows: to be installed in e30.

JL AUDIO E4300 AMPLIFIER
JL AUDIO 10W1V2 SUBWOOFER
NAKAMICHI CD-400 SOURCE
STINGER HIGHQUALITY LOW-ESR CAPACITOR
WOOFERS,TWEETERS & CROSSOVERS from KEF CODA 7 loadspeakers
2 gallons of secondskin audio spectrum spray, 40sq'ft of damplifier pads
----

the audio goodies for my pickup are as follows:
JL AUDIO 300/4 AMPLIFIER
CUSTOM DECWARE 10" SUBWOOFER W/ 18" SUSPENSION PAPER-PULP CONE - 273W RMS SOUNDQUALITY SUB
NAKAMICHI CD-700 headunit - IMHO - THE BEST SOURCE UNIT EVER!!! HANDS DOWN..
VAN DEN HUL CLEARWATER AUDIO CABLES
CUSTOM PAIR COAXIAL INTERCONNECTS w/ 24k gold nakamichi connectors and almost lead-free solder
WOOFERS,TWEETERS & CROSSOVERS from KEF CODA 7 loadspeakers
CUSTOM 4.5litre kickpanels
copious copios copious amounts of sound proofing!!! just about 0/zero wind noise

---

i think most folk that spend high dollar on their vehicles would please poverty and never want to spend money on the above equipment... tooo expensive.. blah blah

myself, rather buy a cheaper vehicle and fit the best in audio gear..

everyone please note, this is not council audio... this is sound quality.

once all of the above are done... i am like a pig in shit!!! to put it mildly.

the stuff from the pickup is currently out, as im re-spraying the pickup. so will re-install as soon as its done.

cheers all
Anton

[jog5000]

Can anyone here, (besides Brianmooore perhaps) actually work on a new BMW. It involves removing all the covers and then basically climbing into the engine to change anything, whereas on our little beasts, its a damn side easier.

As for cash - yes, its true, here in SA, the E30 is the poor mans BMW, but then buying a new 3 series is basically the same as buying a house - you tell me - what would you rather do?