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The 318i Convertible may not be the quintessential E30 choice for the power hungry out there. In Brilliantrot and equipped with a 5-speed manual gearbox such as we see here with this 1991 example for sale in Florida, I can suddenly see myself enjoying miles of carefree motoring along a coastline somewhere. By 1991, the E30 Convertible would be on its last legs, but not before it had made itself an icon of the upwardly mobile of the 1980s. Looking over the pictures of this car with a mere 55,000 miles on the clock, it reminds me of what made me fall for the E30 3 series in the first place, many years ago.
The 2001 BMW 325i Touring we featured earlier in the month is back up for sale at the same price, but this time with a few more pictures to tell the story. Those folks seeking a rear-drive BMW Touring with a manual gearbox will want to take a closer look at this one.
The below post originally appeared on our site December 16, 2014:
With Christmas 2014 now in the rear view mirror, did everyone get what they wanted from Santa? If not, here’s something of a late present to make up for it: a Dakar Yellow E36 M3. I’m not typically a fan of yellow on cars, but Dakar Yellow looked a treat on this M3. Much like Estoril Blue, it was a color almost made for this car, accentuating the styling which was a crisp update of the E30 3 series. This M3 with well under 100,000 miles comes to us from our friends at Shift Bespoke Automotive in Laguna Hills, California.
The M3 Convertible. A rather curious beast, no? Especially if one considers the M3’s original purpose of a tool by which to dominate DTM racing. However, there has been a drop top version of every M3 since the original E30, even if we didn’t see that one officially on US shores. With the change in nomenclature, we now have the M4 convertible to compliment the M4 coupe and M3 sedan. Each new iteration has debuted more powerful engines, advanced gearboxes and we even saw a new folding hardtop on the E93 M3, carried over to the M4.
These two M3s are for sale in New York and represent a definite split in approach to the fast convertible formula. First up, we’ll take a look at this 2005 E46 M3, which is armed with the rev-happy S54 inline-6 under the hood that everyone knows and loves mated to a good old row-your-own 6-speed manual.
While it’s still possible to find E30s for reasonable prices, they typically have a lot of miles or serious issues. Prices for clean examples have drifted northwards, following their golden-child M3 brethren. Every once in a while we get a good look at what an “ideal” example costs, which in my mind is a clean, unmodified car with 50k-100k miles. Today’s 325is fits most of the bill, looking impressively stock and well maintained inside and out after just 59k miles. The glaring mark against it is the automatic transmission; it’s like buying a classic piano but installing a self-playing mechanism. While the mileage and condition would put it in the top echelon of E30s, I have to imagine those really interested in the nicest of these cars would spend their time and money finding an ideal, manual-equipped car.
