In start contrast to yesterday’s very clean but crack-pipe-priced Friday Fail M3, we have a well-tuned, low-mileage E36 M3. The yin to yesterday’s yang, this black 1995 coupe has mild engine mods including a Jim Conforti chip and intake while the suspension modifications are a bit more extensive, dropping it low over the lightweight Fikse wheels. With just 89k miles, it hasn’t traveled that much more than the white devil and is in nearly as good of shape – it’s just not being advertised as the ridiculous creampuff investment that the looney toons at Earth Motors were hocking. With a reserve auction and Buy It Now right under $16k, this is a clean and fast M3 that epitomizes their performance value right now.
Tag: 1995
Happy Friday everyone! It’s time to take another trip down Fail Lane, this time focusing on a first-year E36 M3 that has covered just 57k miles. It’s pretty much perfect in white on DS1s, some of my all-time favorite wheels. Inside, black Vader sport seats flash the M colors and everything looks as good as could be hoped in an E36. So, sounds like a really nice lower-mileage future classic, albeit one of about a million right?
Well, folks, we’ve discussed at length the crazy rise of ///M values, with the early M cars leading the way and just about all the others benefiting from the rising tide. As E30 M3s head to the strong side of $50k, a newer model must be better, right?! We all know that’s not the case, as the E36 M3 has in fact remained amazingly reasonable and is one of the best performance values on the market. The Lightweight models have reached into the $30ks and $40ks, but you can get really nice, standard M3s for low-to-mid teens. One with 20k miles might crack $20k, but this seller is asking almost $37k for a car that is, at best, worth half that. “The prices of these cars are rising everyday,” he says. He also thinks he can throw a football over them there mountains, go invisible whenever he wants, and play guitar better than Prince.
You’re wrong, dude. So incredibly, failingly wrong on this Friday.
Click for details: 1995 BMW M3 on eBay
5 Comments
Welcome back to Friday Fail, our opportunity to provide your Friday with a little more levity as you obsessively refresh your blog roll and count the minutes until the weekend is here. My favorite target for FF is misleading or misinformed sellers, but today we’ll just focus on what looks to be a pretty serious basket case of an E31.
This Friday Fail is quite a head turner due to its repaint in the E46 fan-boy favorite Laguna Seca Blue, a color whose only claim to fame is being obnoxiously bright and having the aforementioned ALL CAPS INTERNET DEVOTEES. Bright colors certainly have their place, but I’ll take Estoril over LSB ten times out of ten. A bright-ass exterior and reasonably low 117k miles appear to be the only high points here. Despite reportedly being “babied and well taken care of,” this 840Ci looks pretty piggy once you get past the lipstick. The interior is beat save the brand new suede headliner(!?), yet the seller gives it 8/10. It should automatically lose an extra 3 points due to that ugly sliding gear selector. The engine bay looks like someone scrubbed it with dirt and shot it with a bb gun. Apparently it has new front suspension and a RACING RADIATOR FAN because Laguna Seca is a race track.
I like the E31 and I don’t actually hate Laguna Seca Blue, but I can’t think of any situation in which I would buy this LSB E31.
Click for details: 1995 BMW 840Ci on eBay
3 Comments
I’ve been seeing a pristine white E36 M3 coupe on perfect Style 22s, looking like a wonderful mix of stock daily driver that gets pampered in the garage every night. Even though history has shown it to be the most banal M3, there are still so many things right about this car. It’s sized right. The simple but aggressive lines perfectly support the car’s ethos. Just as I imagine that white example is cared for, the E36 M3 is the perfect car to dote upon, drive every day, and enjoy the hell out of.
This one-owner silver 1995 coupe is not quite the same stock-queen as the local white one, but it’s has just 90k miles and a host of well-chosen modifications. Suspension upgrades, chip, brakes, exhaust, and wheels complete the standard modification lineup on this now two-decades-old M3 that brings a few nice stock options like the slicktop sunroof delete and Vader seats. For just $10,500, it’s the perfect representation of why the E36 M3 is in the running for best performance value available.
Click for details: 1995 BMW M3 on eBay
5 Comments
Whatever the reason might be, Volkswagen enthusiasts never seemed to hold the third generation GTI in as high regard as some other iterations of this hot hatchback. While the Mk2 GTI 16V seemed to hit the nail on the head in terms of what boy racers desired, the Mk3 fell just a bit short of that mark, in four-cylinder form. No one was complaining about the superb new VR6 engine available, however, US customers were left with a modest 2.0 liter 8V four-cylinder that produced only 115 horsepower. It was a torquey unit, but performance at the top end was less than stellar. Regardless, I enjoyed my time with my final year 1998 GTI 2.0. I miss that car to this day, even if my 2006 MINI Cooper S blows the doors off it performance wise. Like the Audi A8L 6.0 W12 we saw yesterday, this 1995 GTI 16V was a model not offered in the US. Looking great with just over 100,000 miles on the clock, you don’t see Mk3s this nice hanging about anymore.