The original BMW M3 has become a deified car. Since its release in 1986, values have crept ever-higher each year and, now, we’ve reached a new peak. A 1988 E30 M3 with 8,000 miles on the odometer has sold for a quarter of a million dollars. What a time to be alive.
I was going to apologize before telling you, the reader, that this car isn’t worth that kind of money, but I’m not going to. This is pants-on-head moronic. This car isn’t worth anywhere near that much money. I don’t care if it’s clean enough to eat off of-that’s too much.
You could buy an absolutely spanked shell of an E30 M3 somebody found magnet fishing and source every single part to restore it for less money. And don’t talk to me about the heritage or any of that nonsense. It’s not an actual DTM racer. It’s a street car. It’s meant to be driven.
The looks are iconic, and nobody’s denying that. The 2.3-liter S14 engine is also dope. But what’s so special about this car’s looks in particular? What makes its powertrain better than the rest? Nada.
The new owner of this thing will likely drive it another couple of hundred miles-if they drive it at all-before they sell it to the next polo-wearing, khaki shorts, transitions lenses “collector” who will do the same thing. Eventually, it will end up in some sweaty hangar in Florida until the next big hurricane washes it out to a Caribbean island.
Above is a video of the newly-sold M3. And yeah, surprise surprise, there’s not a fingerprint to be found anywhere on it.
Hang on, let me just do some math real quick. If this car rolled off the line in 1987-since it’s an ’88 model year-it’s been driven a total of 242 miles per year. That’s roughly the equivalent of driving from New York City to Washington D.C. Again, I was about to say “I’m sorry, but…” However, I’m skipping that. This is too dumb for apologies.
There are 21 photos just like the one below included in the listing for each panel.
If you’re curious about the details of this car, or the exact specifications of the tires and their interesting history, you can read the listing on Bring a Trailer here.
