Classic car roulette? Sleeping BMW E30 M3 with no reserve

I’m not quite sure this car falls into the full on project car roulette category, but there is enough sketch to raise my eyebrow. However depending on where bidding ends up there could be a decent upside. It has been parked, sleeping (or is it hibernating in Canada?) for eight years.

This 1990 BMW M3 showed up with a sparse description on eBay with no reserve and a low for an M3 opening bid. The car is in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, the seller is in Taiwan.
The car is a Canadian model with 120,000 kilometers, 74,500 miles.
The seller is clearly motivated to sell the ride and seems responsive to the questions he’s been asked. He has owned the car for 18 years.

The sketchy factor comes into play when you see that the car has been parked since 2002 and that despite “new battery, spark plugs and etc last week. The engine started but car runs rough.” Apparently whatever falls under “etc.” did not fix the rough running. After letting a car sit for this long the problem could be as simple as bad gas or water in the tank or rust that clogged the fuel filter. The seller isn’t clear as to whether it ran rough before it was parked. [DANGER]

The original paint looks decent in the photos, but the seller says “needs work to make it shine again.” A good rubbing compound and a proper buff out could do wonders if it is just cloudy from sitting or even age crazing, however later in the responses to questions the seller says it needs new paint. The car also was broken into through the driver’s window and had the radio stolen.

There are only 4 small pictures included with the ad, and the hood isn’t even closed all the way on the only exterior shot that would show front panel alignment.

Hopefully this really is a case of an honest enthusiast who loved the car and wanted to keep it, but just can’t and needs a hurried sale. Our experience with minimalist, vague, seems too inexpensive, used car offerings does make it a necessity to be particularly skeptical thanks to a few shady folks. Honest or not expect to spend some time on this ride to get it sorted, I wouldn’t want to fly in and drive this find home. Who knows what the salty sea air of BC has done to the brakes.

The M3 comes with original rims as well as the 17″ Racing Dynamics wheels it currently sits on.

The bidding is up to $10,000. With the Canadian dollar strong against its American counterpart now, shopping up north isn’t inherently thought of as bargain hunting as it once was, but perhaps this is a deal in the making. If two folks feel they both have to spin the roulette wheel on this one I could see the bid price getting dangerously high for what may turn out to be trouble. On the other hand… wishful thinking doesn’t make this one out to be a basketcase like other beaten and customized into an inch of their life E30s we’ve seen. If you buy this let us know how it turns out.

~Evan