Why The e30 Is The Perfect First Car
I know Fastlane Blocker already did an article on why it shouldn’t, but I feel its only fair to have an article explaining why an e30 is the obvious choice.
It is worth mentioning that I’m from the US and my facts, findings, and experiences are based from US car culture and the cars that BMW brought to the US.
You just got your license and now you need to get your first car. Well the obvious choice is the Ultimate Driving Machine, but which one? In the early 1980’s BMW came out with the 2nd generation of the BMW 3 series and with it a newly developed 6 cylinder called the M20. The put a 167 hp engine, in a 2,700 lbs car, with an ancient rear suspension design that had been around since before the legendary 2002. So why should it be your first car? Well because as hard as it is to believe that little recipe works and it makes a great car. BMW might be referred to as the Ultimate Driving Machine, but the e30 is God’s Chariot. Its light weight fun and nimble, and that 167 hp isn’t enough to get you in trouble ad long if you are smart and understand you’re not Ken Block.
So that all sounds fun, but why should it be my first car and not my second or third? Well in today’s society it seems knowledge, wisdom, and skill seem to happen with age and not with experience. Before I bought my e30 I didn’t even know how to do an oil change without my dad’s supervision. Now I’m prepping for my first engine rebuild, can do timing belts in my sleep, and have learned many useful skills along the way. This isn’t because I got older, this is because I taught myself. The same can be said about my driving skill, I wasn’t born with it. It took some trial and error on an old run down military base by my hometown. I was smart about it, I didn’t go drifting on some mountain roads, I started in a parking lot and feeling the car out.
Well I don’t have a lot of money, why should I buy an old car instead of a newer one? Many broke high school and college kids have bought e30’s and have built fun and amazing cars, I’m sure you’ll have no problem budgeting out your car expenses. It’s going to come down to how well you manage your money. I could have taken my car to the shop and spent a pretty penny on getting simple things fixed, but instead I grabbed my tool box and did it myself. I’ve learned things I never thought I’d be doing because of these cars. Now I’m not going to cover the cost of insurance, gas, or taxes because well #Murica!!! Gas is cheap, insurance is low, and ever since 1773 we haven’t been a big fan of taxes.
I urge anyone who is looking to buy an e30 to just do it. Life is too short to drive boring cars.
Comments
well, made some good points, but 167 hp (171 as I recall, though) get you into trouble fast and easy in a lightweight car like this. You also forgot the point that you have great visibility while parking, you can go over narrow roads without thinking the car is maybe to big there…. and that the chasis is telling you where to stop. But still that car is in most american cases bad maintained, got no safety features and it will get you into trouble.
Theres two different numbers 168 (oops) and 170 hp, maybe its cats versus no cats? I know all cars over here had to have them. Either way its never been enough to catch me by surprise. Its been enough to get me in trouble with the law, but I’ve never been driving put my foot down and have the back end accidentally pop out on me. I’ve always actually had to try to break the back end loose.
I should have put visibility in my write up because its the best visibility of any car that I’ve personally driven. Theres no need for blind spot monitoring like in newer cars and with the tight turning radius parking lots are a breeze. I never considered the roads being to narrow to be a thing, that might just be a euro thing. Over here even our tight city roads are huge, you can have a row of cars parked on both side and still get a big old SUV through there.
I’ve never felt the e30 to be unsafe, the most unsafe part about the e30 is the other drivers and thats true in any car. As long as you’re mature enough to understand your and the cars limits you’ll be fine and in my opinion if you can’t do that it speaks more to you as a person than the e30 as a car.
It is the best chassis of car ive owned and ive owned many cars outside bmw
The only thing that comes close in my opinion is the Z3 and if you look at the suspension design its easy to see why, but the Z3 being a 2 seater it doesn’t make a great first car or an only car.
The perfect first car is the opel corsa 😂
Cheap in everything!
Djosjoewa
Thanks for the tip!
Anyone else do this?
Haha, they’re definitely fun and the M54 is a lot more fun than the M20, but the e30 is very practical. Between me, my girlfriend, her crap and my stuff the car was packed full on the way to school. Thats why I’m turning my 325i into a “4 seater Z3” M54, Z3 brakes in all 4 corners, Z3 steering rack, Z3 trans, Z3 diff. The whole works.
Finding a well maintained e30 where you dont need to spend tons of money to on repairs in NA is near impossible.
Eh, thats debatable. I went out and bought the first e30 I saw and yeah I had to spend some bucks on it. My friend waited almost a full year to get one and 2 years later all he’s done is oil changes. I waited and searched a bit for my second e30 and I did pretty well on that one.
Now if i had read that about a year ago, i may would have convinced my dad that it wasn’t a bad idea to get an e30 and that i wouldn’t die immediately😅
Good post!
Here’s the problem with E30s. I currently have a BMW E30 318i Series 2. That thing may only have 118hp, but my oh my does it really go! However, that’s not the main issue.
Let’s say, you’re 17 and you just passed your driving test with flying colours. Now you’re subjected to driving around with a Provisional License for two years. As we all know, you can’t afford make any sort of mistakes or get into an accident, whether your fault or not, while under Provisional License, otherwise it’ll get revoked. How is this related to the main issue of the E30? Allow me to explain.
You see, the main point of the E30 is to put a big smile in your face while you’re behind the wheel. It’s okay if you’re facing mid-life crisis, and you wanted to be naughty again after decades of driving a people carrier with a big family and such. But, if you’re just getting onto the road on your own, and you drive something like the E30, you’re gonna end up getting carried away. The E30 just begs you to push it harder, to be naughty, to be Chris Harris, but you’re just a young guy just getting onto the road.
Suddenly, you become too carried away with the joy of the E30, and you started to become a hooligan. You thought you can drift the E30 round that corner, only to fail and crash it. Your P-License gets revoked, your E30 probably gets scrapped, and you have to go through the driving lessons and driving tests again.
Now, by no means the E30 is a bad car, it isn’t. It’s lots of fun, but if you have zero experience behind the wheel, then you really should stay away from the E30. It’s basically a devil calling you to do bad things that you’ll enjoy no doubt. So, yes, you can own an E30, but not as a first car. Maybe as an upgrade or a complement to your first car.
1) That might be a god point for someone, but like I said my experience is based in the States and here you get your license at 16 and you have to mess up a lot and mess up bad to get it taken away.
2) I feel differently about the e30, I think the fact that its so basic and slow makes it harder to get into trouble. I have several speeding tickets and 2 of them are in my sisters Camry and 1 in my moms truck. When I drive the e30 it can feel like I’m going 80 mph but look down and I’m only going 60. In my sisters Camry it feels like I’m going 60 then I’m seeing blue lights behind me.
I still think its a great first car, it actually lets you learn how to drive and just not how to press the brake and gas pedal while steering. Getting a car with sophisticated traction control, ABS, and all of that stuff to learn how to “drive” on is like teaching someone how to drive stick with a flappy paddle gearbox so they can get used to the idea of shifting. The way I look at it if you aren’t responsible enough to know your limits and the cars then maybe you aren’t responsible enough to drive period.
Awsome article. I am moving to germany next month and holly e30 is my dream first car and after some posts on ct i was really doubing my desicion. Bur after i read this post i think i will go for one 3.25 is ok for first timer or something like 3.18 ? But i am really not thinking about getting rid of my first car
Also i have never heard of z3 being such a good car if i can afford it should i go for that one either?
Everyone who thinks this isnt a great first car must be thinking that everyone drives this car like a racecar why? This is a cruise car not racecar and cruising maybe means revving the second gear out but not the 4th .. cmon people
Exactly respect the car and your limits. I like to rev the first two gears out, but I never do anything to crazy. I usually like taking some back roads keep it in 3rd, only drop to 2nd if I need the power, and just have some fun.