New daily driver - e36 M3
 

Another car that has been on my busket list is the e36 M3. After searching for a few weeks, what I found was mostly junk, riced to hell, too far away or way too much $$$. Friday night, looked on Dallas craigslist and a near perfect car showed up. 97 with 59K miles in a great/unusual color, owned and maintained by the same adult for the last 10 years, and only 20 minutes from me. The car runs great, has near perfect, all original Techno violet paint, near perfect black leather interior, comes with all manuals, tools and spare. The only thing I would have changed was it be a 5 speed instead of auto. The condition of this car trumps the tranny type. I pick it up first thing Monday.


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Very nice!

Very nice but I think the steering wheel is upside down.:D

Nice ride, my lady's M3 is also techno violet. Dont see too many of them around.
You will love that car. Very civil when it has to be, but is an all around serious sports car that does everything quite well.

You don't see many E36s in that condition these days. Enjoy!

Nice. Throw on some CSL wheels!

Nice car, I've been driving mine daily for 3 years now. They're inexpensive to keep running if you don't mind getting your hands dirty. Mine's a five speed. If that auto pukes, consider converting it. You've already got the better rear gear. 3.38 as opposed to 3.23. A five speed will wake that thing up.

My new to me daily driver is also a 4 door M3 -- Cosmos Black with Dove interior. It has been terrific so far, and I've been pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive parts are for it. Since I also plan to use it for HPDEs I've been spending some extra money on tie-rods, wheel bearings, and brake lines. I have never seen that colour in Canada.

I love it, and it feels faster than my 92 LT1 six-speed Corvette in the first two gears at least.

Picked it up today. Really great driving car. The condition is amazing!

that is a great car. i almost took a dent out of my house down payment on the exact car. coworker slapped me back to reality. phew! moment of weakness!

congrats.

Score!

I like the OE wheels. Period correct, and all.

NNY ?

Nice! I daily drive an E36 325 with 305k on the clock.... Just great driving cars.

+1. Great car. Also, definitely keep those wheels. They are starting to become unobtanium.

Also curious about "NNY"?

I was thinking more along the lines of "Barney" :D

...or "Obarney" --Barrey's darker cousin. ...no wait; too Irish sounding. :D

Not Named Yet

The car will stay in it's original condition.

The wheels are one of the best things about those cars. You'd be crazy to change them. Nice score!

I run Kosei K1's in the summer. They're cheap, I think they look better + they're super light. Many club racers use them too.

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M - love the blue. Those wheels do look great. My goal is to do maintenence only on this car. I'm going to do a cooling system rebuild, suspension bushings, rear shock reinforcements, and a couple of minor things only as preventatives and use it for DD. I need to focus my car time getting the restoration of Annie strted this year.

Blue, Purple & Red those are the Motorsports colors. I think all M cars look good in those colors. My former M5.

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Ah, but the CSL...

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Now you guys have me wanting one of these older M3s. In particular, the picture of the estoral blue car.

OK - that's a great looking wheel!

I've seen them on E36 M3s. Great look.

So what does something like that set a guy back? And I don't have to have a showroom car... just a good runner...

Sweet car! Same as what my wife drives.... 97 Cosmos black auto trans. I love driving it!

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Prices are all over the map from really cheap for junk to maybe in the teens for low miles mint cars w/ records. They sold quite a few of these and most of them are still on the road. A lot of them are junk at this point but there are plenty of good ones as well. Highest percentage of salvage cars of any car I've ever searched.

I see people asking $15k for good ones but I think they're dreaming since higher mileage E46 M3s can be had in the mid-teens w/ a scuff or two in the paint.

Seems like nice ones go for maybe $9k out on the street. (Or less). :cool:

Hmm... I'll have to wait a few more years...


Maybe I should just hold till I get my DpH and go get me one of the latest ones... :cool:

Denis is spot on the pricing. I saw worn out cars @ 6K to low mile pristine cars in upper teens. Unfortunately, a lot of them have been owned by children and have been really dogged and riced up. A solid driver that has been maintained is $8- $10K.

The e46 is a whole different car. All the electronics scare the shyt out of me.

Josh - really nice!

Mark... I will remind you to be careful with the children comment... It hits close to home with me being 18...


I know some people my age are chodes.... just don't group me with them... I take care of stuff....

that bimmer is ok like the other 9,000,00,000 on the road, the 944 is awesome!
That first picture shows how much sportier is the Porsche.
More pictures of the Porsche please!

No offense intended.

I know... I just like to remind everyone that kids aren't the only ones that rice up nice cars... I know of a few 944s that have been riced by adults....

Thanks Mark. Good luck with yours. I've found the bimmer forums not to be of the same caliber as Pelican and Rennlist.

The M3 sedan was only made in 1997 and 1998 and there were just 7760 brought into the states. I've parted two so that makes it 7758:)

Here is a thread on Rennlist where some other M3/Porsche owner chimed in with more pics.

Any 951 and e36 M3 owners? Pics... - Rennlist Discussion Forums

Don't want to hijack the thread but here are a ton more pics of the 951:) http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-cars-sale/485316-fs-1987-porsche-944-turbo.html

Tim,
Reading of your experience with the 3 series helped in my decision. They certainly have their weak spots, but those weaknesses are pretty easily identified and repaired.

I was really surprised how easy my E46 was to work on. It gave me the confidence to move up to an E90, knowing I could do most of any work that came up myself.

Make that 7757. there's a .gif version of this out there but I can't find it. This happened at Gingerman.

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Oh yeah . . and they don't have the really low CG of a 911.

Try to keep the shiny-side up . . on your daily drive. ;)

Good score Mark. That car has aged very well. With the earliest models now over 15 years old they still look modern and give up very little performance-wise to contemporary cars. There are lots of exotics in my neighborhood but its the 96' Estoril blue coupe with CSL wheels a few doors down from me that always turns my head - beautiful car.

Yeah, the E36 M3 has aged very well. It's proportions, wheels, etc. are "just right" for a small Euro sport sedan, IMO.

Love the Techno Violet, TV and Dakar Yellow were kind of the "signature colors" for the E36 M3. The automatic is a deal killer for most used E36 M3 buyers, but as long as it works for you.