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To me, part of the insanity regarding the E30 M3 pricing revolves around the other important BMW models that you can get for much less money. Take this M6 for example; the E24 was a landmark design for the company, making BMW even more popular in the refined personal luxury coupe market. If the argument is that the E30 shared race-bred DNA, so did the E24 M6; it was the car that replaced the legendary CSLs on the race track, flying the BMW colors in the European Touring Car Championship and FIA Group 2 (later Group A) competition. The motor was also race bred, having derived directly from the original M car, the M1’s legendary M88 mill. It rolled on race-inspired BBS wheels and, like all M-products back in the day, was manual only. The M6 also added a seriously healthy dose of luxury, with leather trimmed interiors, rear air conditioned compartments and fit and finish second to none. This was no buzzy entry-level, junior-executive ride – this was a car designed to grab headlines and attention. Why, then, hasn’t the market on these super coupes appreciated?
Unless there was a surprising flaw in the engine, I’m not sure why you’d pull it and rebuild on a 76k-mile E30 M3 other than the fact that it’s likely to take a car that’s in the top 10% of the market and make it a little more elite. Probably not going to lose you money, as it’s hard to top an M3 this clean with a brand-new engine in a seller’s market. Along the lines of the rebuild, it’s not entirely original with BBS RKs, an Evo lip, and a Momo steering wheel. It’s all nice, though I think it’d be even better without them. It doesn’t matter what I think, however; the enthusiast with this kind of cash can make whatever choices they want.
E28 M5 values are continuing to climb, and examples that are good but flawed are now going for amounts that, until recently, were reserved for nearly perfect, low-mileage beauties. Many enthusiasts and publications have seen this coming for a while, but this past year has seen the largest jump yet. Today, we have two M5s that have covered a little over 150k miles – certainly not spring chickens. We’ve seen well-traveled M5s go for over $30k, but exceptional care and appearance seemed to rationalize such a high price. Both of today’s cars have their flaws, signifying that the 80s ///M appreciation is spreading far and wide.
I’ll continue with the Cabriolet theme, though unlike yesterday’s car which I specifically featured because it was a Cabriolet this one appeals to me for additional reasons and that it happens to be a Cabriolet simply is coincidence. This Cabriolet equipped with the M491 package offers many of the stylistic and handling upgrades of the 911 Turbo, but retains the less highly strung and more maintenance friendly naturally-aspirated 3.2-liter flat-six of the standard Carrera. While accurate production numbers for the M491-equipped cars have been notoriously difficult to pin down for their six years of production (1984-1989) these cars are certainly more rare than a standard Carrera. It does appear that the option was prevalent on Coupes early on and then shifted heavily toward the Cabriolet once the actual Turbo was again made available in the US. Still, as a performance variant the M491-equipped 911s have become highly sought after, especially for the later years that also came with the G50 5-speed transmission.
One thing I really love about writing up these 10K posts is a odd combinations pricing allows me to come up with. For today’s post, I decided to do something a little different. Instead of maximizing the budget, I decided to look at it from the perspective of what was a classic 1980s car that you could buy and maintain well under $10,000. Obviously, if you’re willing to shill out much more, there are countless classics you can jump in to turn-key; but under $10,000 means with almost certainty that the car you’ll be getting in to today will be at least in part a bit of a project. Is there anything wrong with that? No, I think there’s an inherent appeal to trying to save and resuscitate a car that was in part neglected or just needs attention. Certainly I’ve tried to do that several times with 1980s cars – with mixed results. Today, I grabbed one classic from the 1980s (give or take, we’ll see…) from each of the major manufacturers – which is the one you’d like to save?
