For good reason.
I had the coveted 325ix that looked almost exactly like the car pictured above.
When this car came out, it was an amazing car and it actually aged like a fine wine. This thing has an inline 6 cylinder engine that isn't FAST stock but definitely quick. That is not to mention it sounds great.
Bear with me for a few paragraphs and we can get to the good stuff.
To this day, the car is gorgeous to me. Look around on the street next time you drive. Notice the new cars and how most of them have no style whatsoever. Why does a headlight have to have nore curves than a boomerang and why does a van need to look like a fish (some of you will get that)? They have way too many stupid lines.
Some manufacturers aren't too bad with it like Volvo, Lincoln, Lexus, and I'm sure there's a couple more. It's hard to think of more but let me throw out an example. Honda made good looking cars in the 80s and 90s, even early 2000, but now... Well, just look at the new Civic V-Tec and notice how many parts the oversized wing is made out of. My wife says these new cars look like spaceships which would be cool except it's not.
The point is that I feel cars from the 80s and 90s not only looked better but are nore reliable, easier to work on, and have just the right amount of 'stuff' inside. I want AC, maybe a CD player, power windows, and that's it.
All of the electronics completely screw these new cars. It makes them unreliable after 100k miles because electrical components start going bad and that's a problem when the whole frickin thing runs off of electronics (there's a video on Youtube where this guy scans a few year old Mercedes V12 Bi-Turbo and it had 25 [twenty-five!] codes, mostly electronics). Maybe I'm biased - I don't enjoy fixing electrical problems.
Back to the review. I had to preface this with my thoughts on cars in general so you can better understand why the E30 is such a great car.
Starting with the interior, it is spartan if you need a navigation system but if you're like me, you're gonna love this car. You got your clutch, shifter, the instrument cluster lights up an awesome red at night, and you're sitting on these nice seats that have sustained practically no damage after 20-some years. What this is, is a sports car disguised as an economy car.
It is surprisingly small in person but has plenty of room inside. It doesn't have much airbags if any. You do have some amenities such as heated seats that still work (in an '89?). The rest of the car is really pretty simple. There's nothing of note that I can think of although the trunk has a good amount of space. The interior is well designed and looks great.
The car I had was the 325iX model. There was 1500 of these sold in the United States. They came with all wheel drive from the factory. This car was originally purchased by my father to rally race and was handed down to me.
Even on asphalt, it was doing the same time as Miatas and beating Mini Coopers left and right. Not too bad.
The clutch is pretty heavy but it is easy to drive either way. It never bothered me but the person who bought the car from me seemed to care.
The good stuff. This blog is about awesome cars that are available on a budget and are easy to work on. This car is SO simple to fix. And everyone loves the way the hood opens.
The engine in this little beast creates a wonderful sound. One of the best engine notes ever, in my opinion. Can you imagine if it had a Flowmaster exhaust?
Since I mentioned the fact that I rallied the car, I figure some people may want to know how it does. It does great on dirt but this IS the all wheel drive version. It has pretty high clearance aswell.
Everyone is now wondering how it is to daily drive. Let me put it this way. Manuals are fun - especially in this car - but they are NOT fun when you're in stop and go traffic. However shifting feels right. You don't have to put effort into finding the right spot. It's nice and tight.
Mileage wasn't bad for a car this old and came out to about 20 city and 25 highway.
Overall, this is one of the best cars I've owned. Everybody that has owned one of these and aols it says they regret it and I do too. It gives me some peace, however, that it went to a BMW enthusiast who is going to take care of it.
Mechanically this car is not only solid but simple. It barely has any bull-doodoo electronics (remember what I said earlier?) and most things are pretty easy to get to and diagnose. If you want to learn to work on cars, this is a great choice.
You might not get to work on it too much because it's extremely reliable. It went over 200k for the few years I had it and not one thing broke except part of the AWD system which was fixed by adding a spacer. The driveshaft (I think I'm wrong on this - it's the part AWD cars have that links the front and rear wheels; it's a shaft with teeth) had worn down the teeth that allow it to spin. The spacer essentially pushed in some of the good 'teeth,' acting as a temporary fix.
If you want one, get it as soon as possible. I sold mine for 1.7k and I don't even want to look at the prices they're at now...
This car gets 4 out of 5 gold stars. If this was an AWD M3, well then it would hit that special 5 stars. Here are the factors I base this on.
1. Cost and value
2. Reliability
3. Cool factor
4. Mechanically - easy to work on?
5. Quality
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