e36 Prices/Rarity

Hi,

I've gotten it into my head that I want an e36 coupe (not M3) as a mini-project car. I assumed I'd be able to pick one up for relatively cheap, because the last time I looked at these cars in any meaningful way (about 18 months ago), DoneDeal was full of them for <2k. Now they seem to be much rarer, and any decent ones are in the region of 4-5k or more. I even remember not too long ago seeing a Meergrün one on DoneDeal (I recall it was tarted up with some stickers and an aftermarket exhaust, but still). Now there doesn't appear to be a single car in that colour for sale anywhere in Ireland or the UK.

Cabriolets seem to be more common and better value, though.

Have e36's gotten significantly rarer as recently as in the last year or so, or is this just my imagination?

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Originally Posted by CitizenKane

Have e36's gotten significantly rarer as recently as in the last year or so, or is this just my imagination?

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Cant say for sure, as I never really kept a close eye on their availability or pricing, but I assume the train of thought has shifted to the future classic status. The owners of the very good ones wont want to move them on, so at best you'll be trying to find a solid one, in need of some work. The majority of E36's all are into the classic insurance, so arent so much of a financial burden for folk to hold onto them.

I'd like a coupe, but wouldnt really suit my needs, so I recently picked up a 323i M Sport Touring (which for most are less desirable than the coupe) with 121k miles, decent spec and in good condition :)

The supply of proper unabused, low mile and good condition cars has seriously dried up. To find anything decent is a hard task and even much more difficult if there is a particular model, spec, colour etc that you want. There are still a good few about in various body styles but have big miles, lots of owners and would need serious spending to get to top condition.

I am lucky with the two I have, there would be few around in the condition, Miles, owners, history these are. The price i was happy to pay for them reflected this. An M car stands a chance of being kept right though. I did have a couple of people asking to buy my coupe. And I do like the tourings Dave [emoji3]

What you're seeing is just fairly normal lifecycle stuff. Remember that the youngest e36 is fast approaching 20 years old now and they had a relatively long lifecycle. It sometimes seems as if a switch is flicked and suddenly they all disappear, but its a gradual process. A look at the graphs on www.howmanyleft.co.uk for something like the 318 IS will show what I mean. The number of these left on the road is about 10% of what the peak number was around 1999. The figure remaining on the road has dropped by about 2/3rds in the past 5 years. In fact there are now more on SORN than on the road.

The very best cars have gone in to long term ownership and by definition won't be appearing too frequently on the market. At the other end of the scale, a lot of the used/abused/drifted/crashed cars have been thrown away or broken for parts. In the middle is a group of usable cars that don't yet fall in to either of the other groups, but these are the ones that are used, so less than 6 figure mileages are rare. Most probably don't have the history or fundamental condition to be "improved" to the standards of the long term keepers yet still have much to give. For the most part even these have moved out of the daily driver function. The best of this middle section will eventually be SORN'd and stored away, owners will forget about them for a while until they hit the lower end classic radar (mags like Modern Classics may well accelerate interest sooner than for previous generations) and the point that they can see it worthwhile spending a little bit of time and money improving them. The rest of the middle section will be the fodder for parts, etc. for the people rejuvenating the better of this section and supplying some of the originality to keep the keepers going. In the case of the e36's, the numbers remaining, especially of the 6 pots, hasn't been helped by the issues with Nikasil, etc. back in the day that meant a lot of them weren't viable to repair when these issues cropped up at 10yrs/100k miles and BMW were long past doing goodwill.

In the UK these days a well documented all original 60k 328i Sport, when they can be found, is a £10-12k car and creeping up. A similar M3 Evo is a £20k car. Half that mileage will probably add £5k to the value of either and they'll both probably continue to creep up gradually over the next few years. These values have, and will continue to, inevitably pull up the cars in the middle group a bit. Scrutiny and high expectations will force the lower end of this middle group in to the breaker/abandoned category.

I sourced my E36 back in the summer of 2017 and paid in the mid 2k range and I had some "know it alls" tell me I had paid way over the odds but trying to find a 6 cylinder M sport at the time was pretty hard and I was happy to pay that money for a one owner from new car as well as it being Irish and rust free. They are definitely climbing in value, including parts prices as many have been wrecked due to drifters and rust.

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Originally Posted by James Bond Junior

wrecked due to drifters

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Wankers the lot of them.....:p

solid well looked after ones are becoming harder to find
were still getting lots of people looking for bits and pieces for ones so parts are still in good supply and not as pricey as people may think
general build quality was always good with these cars but keep in mind rust is an issue with these cars as of late especially ones that weren't looked after

I will give you a heads up that a convertible could prove costly if anything mechanically happens as parts for them are still priced high and there is a few bits that are no longer available

imho there the best looking coupe you can get weather its an msport or not
and there relatively easy to work on and you can get any host of modifications (they really were a car made for the boy racer generation from a customisation point of view )

I had a 323i msport back in the day with a full ac schnitzer exterior and interior done to it through work
regretting selling it these days as it would be great to have a car like that to drive around in the summer

great car to drive and can take a bit of punishment when you find the rite road
though that also means alot of what your gonna come across on the likes of done deal have probably been punished aswell

suspension components like shocks,rollbar links and bushings and wishbone bushings don't get on too well with some of our roads so be sure to check them when looking at any car you've your eye on
316 and 318i coupes are a bit underwhelming to drive and as stated above the 318is is becoming harder to find these days

6 cylinder cars will put a smile on your face but there becoming harder to find

A very similar story really to the way the E30 went some years ago. My two

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f0c46abc09.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...53c9f69f84.jpg

I still regret selling my 318iS! Maybe it's because there are so few about on our roads, but they do command a road presence. It's just a shame the E36 M3 didn't stand out form the non-M models. I read an article last year about a possible plan to ban petrol cars across a number of cities in Germany and that it would be the death of the E36 & E46 models. Hopefully this doesn't happen.
Edit: it wasn't a Yahoo article but this is what cropped up now:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1990s...162200107.html

A few cheap LHD E36s on the go then perhaps! :p

Why can't governments have a bit of linked up thinking when making these kind of decisions.....Diesels are the worst terms of people's health. If banning anything, it should be anything bought from that day forth. There's more emmisions on producing a car to replace one that's already on the road....when you calculate the delta between the new and old. Alas, it's all a money making scheme versus the claim "we're doing it for the environment"

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Originally Posted by Curran

.....Diesels are the worst terms of people's health. If banning anything, it should be anything bought from that day forth.

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I'm a diehard petrolhead and its my intention to always keep 1 gallon of fuel for a last hurrah on the day when all other fossil fuels are gone, but we do all have acknowledge that changes are acoming, re. climate. While I'm fairly evenly sceptical about both radical climate change doomsayers and those that deny it, the reality is that we have to consider and contribute to reducing the impact we have on the environment around us and the rate of our use of finite resources. If the climate change folks are right, and if we can't make hard decisions, the only choice may be to decide whether we want to choke (Go Diesel!) or burn (higher CO2 Petrol).... Either way, we're dead :).

I have no objections to changing how things are done going forward. For example, banning the production of combustion engines, fair enough. But to penalise a person because their car is old, is unfair; be it, considerably raising a tax on it (considering it's already paid a hefty contribution in its 10, 15, 20 or whatever years it's been in use), banning it from a city, etc. It is also not fair to take someone's interest away. For the car enthusiats of the furure, they'll be raised on EV or whatever. Incentives to move to newer, cleaner technology, not heavy penalties for not...they'll phase out eventually. Anything that remains is a part of motoring history and as such should have a place forever.

There's talk of global cooling. And if it's only a claim from the opposition, I suppose it's a possibility it we all seek a ban on anything that is considered contributing to global warming. What's likely happening is a shift in climates, but this isn't anything new historically.

Anyways...There's a lovely Red E36 M3 3.0 beong prepped for sale by Old Colonel Cars, according to Instagram...if anyone's interested...£14 Stg, plus VRT :( Let's not get into that either! :p

I kinda miss being able to buy them cheap as they're a really fun car to work on and there's so many options for mods, E36s are the sole reason I took an interest in BMW.

But as with most 90s RWD they go through that not new enough but not old enough no man's land where they begin to get treated as a throwaway car and hit rock bottom then the numbers dwindle to the stage where a GOOD car is now appreciating in price.



I gave €400 for mine just over 7 years ago, Had a near full BMW history and was a standard/unmodified m sport.

It's had a few changes over the years but I'm VERY happy that I held onto it and was able to get some massive bargains over the years to add to it. :cool:

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1922/...058d03a5_b.jpg

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Originally Posted by Curran

.....What's likely happening is a shift in climates, but this isn't anything new historically.

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I'm inclined to agree with this view of the world. Cycles in nature tend to be very long in duration and this could well be the way on this. Its probably only with the benefit of hindsight that we'll know how much we (the human race) skewed the graph on mother nature.

Sorry for the excursion off topic!

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Originally Posted by NickThePartsGuy

I will give you a heads up that a convertible could prove costly if anything mechanically happens as parts for them are still priced high and there is a few bits that are no longer available

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Nick, can you be more specific.

Are you referring to the parts for the electric roof mechanism?

A question I often get asked (including today) is what the plans are for my M3. And it's a question I can never really answer.
I've had it seven years now but never felt the same interest in it as I did with my 318is which I have almost twelve years now.
I often forget I actually own it except for the annual reminder from the tax office to declare it off the road.
But I don't think I could ever bring myself to part with it purely because I know i'd never have the chance to have another one.
And while it does need work and will never be the ideal low mileage, low owner M3 it will always have the ability to put a smile on my face and I think that's why I've loved E36s so much for so long now.

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Originally Posted by Bayerische

Nick, can you be more specific.

Are you referring to the parts for the electric roof mechanism?

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ive only ever seen a handful of the electric roof ones and the control modules on them can work into the thousands if you've to do both

I have had people come in with the manual ones from time to time looking for bits like trims that go between where the rear seat would be and the roof comes down and there about Eur150 a piece
get people looking to replace parts of the rail and there anywhere from 100-300

fabric is no longer available for them aswell

also if anyone has a hardtop for one hold onto it cause there worth a small fortune at the minute

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Originally Posted by NickThePartsGuy

ive only ever seen a handful of the electric roof ones and the control modules on them can work into the thousands if you've to do both

I have had people come in with the manual ones from time to time looking for bits like trims that go between where the rear seat would be and the roof comes down and there about Eur150 a piece
get people looking to replace parts of the rail and there anywhere from 100-300

fabric is no longer available for them aswell

also if anyone has a hardtop for one hold onto it cause there worth a small fortune at the minute

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I’m stockpiling parts at the minute for the electric roof. I’ve a full spare set of motors, control modules and micro switches for the inevitable.

On the hardtop front, they can be got in the UK for around €400. The biggest issue is getting one home. Also nearly all the headliners are sagging now purely due to age as the glue on the foam backing has broken down. Also a replacement headliner is CRAZY money and hard top find someone that can do an OEM finish.

I’d have to agree that most of the good ones have now gone into long term ownership / storage. I won’t be selling mine any time soon that’s for sure.

It’s mad but 8 years ago I literally could not find a buyer for my car. It took me over 12 months to sell it and I took a big hit on it. Now there is a big demand for an E36. Plenty of people wanting to get back behind the wheel or maybe lusted after one when they were younger but couldn’t afford it. I’ve met a fair few young owners in their early 20’s who are mad about E36’s at recent Cars & Coffee events (not drifters but genuine enthusiasts).

The prices at the minute are only heading in one direction so if you manage to find a good one then grab it.


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Originally Posted by ecooney

It’s mad but 8 years ago I literally could not find a buyer for my car. It took me over 12 months to sell it and I took a big hit on it.

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In 2012/13 I decided to sell my 325i (and e39 523i) as I'd just bought a 330Ci (it seemed like a good idea at the time). I sold it back to the UK as there was ZERO demand for a car like it here at the time (for good reasons of course) and I really couldn't face the thought of a car with less that 60k miles ending up as a drifter. Thankfully I got the opportunity to buy it back again a couple of years later, with a few miles added, but other than the radio it was as and in the condition I'd sold it. :)

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Originally Posted by dergside

Thankfully I got the opportunity to buy it back again a couple of years later, with a few miles added, but other than the radio it was as and in the condition I'd sold it. :)

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Same here. There was only 6k miles put on my car and it was exactly the same as when I sold it right down to the key chain. I was very happy that it things hadn’t been added / modified in any way.


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I’ve got my e36 for 18 years. Don’t think I’ll sell it unless I really have to.

Anybody see the E39 going the same way ? The newest ones are 16 years old now and good ones are very few/far between (especially M Sports) ?
Will approaching 20 years old (and classic insurance) bump the values up ?

Seeing as they are regarded as the last of the great 5 series drivers cars I think they will start to rise in price once again. The 525i/530i are still a great drive even by today's standards and wear higher mileage well (yes I know they will always be a rolling resto but parts prices are certainly still reasonable & plentiful).

Pick one up while they're still relatively cheap folks....;)

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Originally Posted by Big H

Anybody see the E39 going the same way ? The newest ones are 16 years old now and good ones are very few/far between (especially M Sports) ?
Will approaching 20 years old (and classic insurance) bump the values up ?

Seeing as they are regarded as the last of the great 5 series drivers cars I think they will start to rise in price once again. The 525i/530i are still a great drive even by today's standards and wear higher mileage well (yes I know they will always be a rolling resto but parts prices are certainly still reasonable & plentiful).

Pick one up while they're still relatively cheap folks....;)

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Absolutely agree, one of the last of the classic BMW styles - I don't know how to say this, I'll try - the E39 has without doubt aged really well, I almost find myself thinking that it's like a generational shift on the E30 - the E39 was a big lump of a car in the mid nineties, nowadays it's a standard "sized" car but still displays the functional balanced design that it wrapped up for it's years at the top. I've "retired" my last one and whilst having an affair with another german marque, I'm still married to the E39, can't and downright refuse to part with it.

Thanks for all the input folks!

As it happens I just came across this: https://www.gumtree.com/p/bmw/bmw-e36-coupe/1328802633

Very tempted... worth a trip to Cornwall?

Just had a look on the vin decoder, It's not an M-sport. (Standard rear bumper/eBay diffuser, Standard skirts) Came standard with cloth aswel so I'd assume it has leather sports seats fitted going by the pics.

It is a rare colour though!

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Originally Posted by RossYB

Just had a look on the vin decoder, It's not an M-sport. (Standard rear bumper/eBay diffuser, Standard skirts) Came standard with cloth aswel so I'd assume it has leather sports seats fitted going by the pics.

It is a rare colour though!

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I could live with all of that for the colour tbh!

Worth a look??

The reg looks familiar...was it a member car for a short while!?

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Originally Posted by Curran

Worth a look??

The reg looks familiar...was it a member car for a short while!?

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Same, I recognise the reg but can’t place it


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Found it - http://www.bmwhaus.ie/vbulletin/show...7-My-e36-318is

Camnhoj's (JohnMc's) old motor....believe it was a very good car 3 or so years ago; knew it was a car I had eyed up before. Depends who has had it since.

I think Tony was having a look at it or at least made enquiries the last time it was up for sale

Yep that was mine , Mylese36 prior to that . Still looks good but looks to have done the rounds since I sold it .

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Originally Posted by Curran

Worth a look??

The reg looks familiar...was it a member car for a short while!?

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He is asking 4k for it.

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My God.. is that dreamer territory?

If....
- it's solid, no rust, no major dents/dings and generally presentable
- interior is in good condition
- it is sold as is, with Sunflowers
- passes the NCT on the 9th with no advisories that might be a major issue within the next year

...then it's not too extreme IMO, but open to correction on that.

On 09-10-14, she was at 86k miles....what did you sell her at in 08-2015?? About 93k???

Would suggest mileage adds up, and perhaps the interior might not have suffered too bad in 25-30k miles. Exterior looks reasonable in pics (viewing on phone)
Certainly not to be ruled out????

It’s a little bit vague...

Car is very good there no big rust on the arches few marks on the body car is 21 years old


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Not too vague....it's like saying you don't have arthritis but showing signs of 2 kids!!!
We both know how that feels Shane! ;)

http://www.bmwhaus.ie/vbulletin/show...1998-e36-318is . A bit more history after I sold it .

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Originally Posted by RossYB

Just had a look on the vin decoder, It's not an M-sport. (Standard rear bumper/eBay diffuser, Standard skirts) Came standard with cloth aswel so I'd assume it has leather sports seats fitted going by the pics.

It is a rare colour though!

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I know of a coupe that colour over here. Actually trying to buy it the last while. Genuine msport too