M'kay, here we go. This is my father's 1992 325i cabriolet, and I'm selling it for him...or maybe I'm keeping it. That's why I'm here...looking for opinions.
I've been driving this car around for a couple of weeks, and I like it a lot. I'm not much of one for convertibles, but I'm liking the feel of the car, the classic look of the E30, well, the whole package....and I've really missed having a stickshift. Dad's offering it to me at a reasonable discount to what he wants it sold to a third party for, but I still don't know if it's worth it. If I ended up keeping it, it would share time as a daily driver with my 1994 Honda Accord (meaning, it would be the fair-weather driver).
Here are some details:
110,000 miles, five speed manual. All stock, that I can tell. Idles a little rough; probably just needs valve adjustment and new plugs, which I'm capable of. I'm not experienced in analyzing engine performance, but it seems to run just fine...it accelerates smoothly, has
nice power above 3000 rpm, shifts fairly well, and feels pretty bulletproof. The last inspection was a II, about 7,000 miles and (believe it or not)
five years ago. I got the oil and filter changed (at a dealership) immediately. The service record book is spotty, but I think it's just because my father didn't know to hand it over to the service guys. There are like three stamps in there.
The body is in overall good condition; it doesn't appear to have ever been in any sort of mishap. All of the VIN tags match. There are a handful of sheet metal dents, but nothing horrific. The rear deck has a number of spots where the clearcoat has peeled off, but the paint beneath it seems fine...see the pic below. There are two spots on the hood and rear deck where the paint has chipped through to the metal, and those points show rust, but no spot is bigger than an eighth of an inch in diameter. There are scratches in the topcoat / paint, but nothing that can't be fixed with elbow grease.
The dash is perfect. In fact, the whole of the instrument cluster / radio / climate control / glovebox area is in excellent shape.
The A/C works fine. The cruise control works fine.
Vinyl interior parts are not *awful*, but are probably the worst looking parts of the car. There are several nicks, slits, holes, divots, etc., and the door panels are starting to separate on the driver's side. The e-brake trim has three screws driven through it where the cell phone used to be mounted, and looks like shite. Rear ashtray is broke.
The leather is, I think, in overall great shape, considering it's 12 years old. The standard split at the back of the rear seat, where the tops of the seats are also dried. The outer side supports of the front seats are getting wrinkled / dried / showing some white, but there are not rips or tears anywhere.
Convertible top is genuine BMW, and has been manualized. The fabric itself is in really good shape, except for a small spot of wear where the storage compartment lid rubbed on the top when it opened, and some frays around the rear window. The window itself has a dark spot on each side (see pic), is moderately foggy, and has one or two short hairline cracks.
What I've done since picking it up: oil and filter change, new Yokohama Avid H4S tires (the old ones were dry-rotted), and a detail.
Things that I believe need to be fixed (and part cost guesses): guibo ($30), brake sensor ($10?), OBC light panel ($30), power antenna insert ($30), fog light ($50), various switches (~$70), driver's side lock cylinder ($40), front and rear emblems ($20). I don't think any of these are beyond my abilities...I've changed out timing belts and done cylinder head sets before, and the M20 looks, well, less complicated.
Pics...
Some dents visible in front fender...
Rear window foggy, and surrounding top fraying a bit...
That lower lip is missing, isn't it?
Clearcoat peel spots...
Just detailed...need to replace those awful carpet pads...
Driver's seat...not worn too bad...
Small split and dryness above the rear seat...
The console...factory radio (no CD)...all glisteny from an overapplication of vinyl "protectant"...
Go topless!
So, I haven't told you how much dear old Dad wants for it yet. I've put $600 into it so far (tires, alignment, oil & filter change, detail, MD state inspection). He wants $4,900 after my expenses. He'll sell it to me for $3,900 (with no credit for my expenses, so it would cost me, actually, $4,500 as it sits right now).
So? Whatcha think?
Thanks!
--Chris
im tired of all these kids getting easy street when i had it like you 
the danish goverment loves taxes and so on 
n 
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