One of my favorite new search criteria isn’t for a particular model, but I’ve taken to scanning the local Craigslist adds by the term “BMW manual”. It returns an interesting assortment of cars rather than a specific chassis; cars, SUVs, and motorcycles all fit the bill. And while truth told most of the cars that fit the criteria of a manual BMW are pretty tired and rusty E36, E46 and occasionally a 5 series or an outlying E30, once in a while something pretty nice stands out. An “El Corazon” in my Romancing the Stone search this week was this Boston Green M3/4/5:
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We have 15 years of archives. Links older than a year may have been updated to point to similar cars available to bid on eBay.946 search results for "bmw e30"
April 2017 update: The seller of this car has relisted it HERE!
It’s very interesting to me to look back and compare the 1980s offerings from the big three luxury producers in Germany. In many ways, BMW lagged behind the competition early on. Audi launched the B2 chassis in 1980, and it revised the standards of the near luxury market for Germany. There were diesel and gas motors, two or four-door configurations, and even a wagon from sister company Volkswagen. But the real addition gearheads loved was the wide-winged turbocharged and all-wheel drive Quattro, the first of the hot versions that would come to the market for junior executives. Indeed, it was the Quattro that changed the future of the W201, as Mercedes-Benz changed the mission of the future 190E 2.3-16 Cosworth from rally to circuit racer. So, Mercedes-Benz had a track version of the W201, and it also set the standard in build quality. Bringing those reputations to the small luxury market meant a whole new class of clientele and the W201 was massively successful thanks to a bunch of factors. While VAG produced about 1.6 million B2 chassis cars between 1976 and 1987, an amazing 1.8 million W201s made it to market. Those successes put more pressure on BMW, and it responded.
The E30 was without doubt the sportiest of the three out of the box, and just like the B2 is was amazingly versatile. There were sedans and 2-door sedans, and BMW was able to match the Volkswagen Passat with a Touring offering. Hot shoes liked the addition of the Motorsports division M3, which not only met the challenge of the Quattro and Cosworth but exceeded it by nearly every measure. Build quality was great but performance was even greater. But BMW wasn’t done, as it took the versatility – and the small executive market – to a new level. Not satisfied with the diversity of the range already, the Munich engineers introduced a trump card over its rivals by removing the roof. An often overlooked development in the hot E30 market, the ic models would set the standard and demand responses from its rivals.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 BMW 325ic on eBay
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After the super, extremely, silly low mileage of the gold 325i I posted the other day, we now have a high-mileage black example, this time with the orders of magnitude-better 5-speed manual, that looks perfectly maintained. If you want a blank-slate E30 to perhaps eventually make your own choices on, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better middle ground than this. Nothing’s out of place or modified other than a couple minor 325is upgrades. The perfect daily driver, your first E30, and/or a car to gradually improve and modernize, this looks to be the Goldilocks of the breed.
Click for details: 1991 BMW 325i on eBay
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