Summer is coming, and although today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe BMW convertible needs a new steering rack, you’ll have plenty of time to replace it before it’s sun’s-out, buns-out time. Let’s see if its price means it’s the real daylight savings time.
Riding the Pink Piaggio totally sounds like a euphemism for getting down and getting dirty. While there’s a certain appeal to that, fully 69% of you deciding it was better keeping it clean, and gave yesterday’s sixties-something pink Vespa a Crack Pipe loss.
Another kind of pink is the Pink Slip. Now, I find it interesting that pink slip means the opposite thing when used in describing employment and automobiles. When you get a pink slip with a car, it means a new relationship as pink slip is another term for title. In contrast, when you get a pink slip at work, it means the end of the relationship. Oh, and we’re going to need that Blackberry and Dell back now so you might want to start madly erasing all those JPEGs you saved on them.
Today’s 1989 BMW 325i is claimed to come with the good kind of pink slip: a clean title. It’s also perhaps the least desirable version of the 3-series E30 models to your average Jalop- a convertible with an automatic. At least it’s conceivably cheap enough that you could afford it even if your employment situation is tenuous.
The seller of this Alpine White over tan 325i counts among the car’s pros a set of H&R springs and dampers, and I do like the idea of being able to tell people it’s got H&R Shocks during tax season. It also rocks Ireland Engineering sway bars, HIDs, and a convertible top that’s less than two years old. The motor is claimed to be only a year older than that.
There’s also the tidy plastic bumpers on each end and the car doesn’t look too terrible in the ad either, although the fit of the front end is a little wonky. I’d want to bring a tape measure to the test drive to check on that.
You might not like the Avid alloys, but that’s an easy fix. Less easy will be the steering rack, which the ad notes has gone south. That will add another $400 to $800 to the purchase price if you’re the DIY sort.
Other issues include an odo that stopped working at the 189,000 mile marker (don’t they all do that on these?), a bum coolant level sensor, and an interior that’s seen better days. At least the torn up leather is on a nice set of sport seats and there’s quick fix for those in the seat cover aisle at your local Pep Boys.
Who would want an E30 so spec’d? Well, a lot of folks actually. In fact, if this car were in LA instead of the Bay Area, I’d probably go and at least take a look at it as a possible ride for one of my daughters. It is in my price range - at least while I’m still gainfully employed.
That price is $2,500 and that seems to me to tilt the car towards the side of good and away from evil. Sure it has some issues, but those are addressable, and the important points - engine, title, solidity of the body - seem to support the price.
On the other hand, it’s a floppy autobox that’s old enough that there will likely be disappointments to be had by the bushel down the road.
What’s your take on this E30 with summer fun written all over it? Is $2,500 a seemingly fair price for the car as it’s described in the ad? Or, is that just too much for an E30 without the right bonafides?
You decide!
San Francisco Bay Area Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to eddiebrannan for the hookup!
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