I rarely make an irrational decision. You can find me at the grocery store analyzing the price per ounce of peanut butter, just to make sure I am actually getting the best deal. That’s why I surprised myself when I decided that I needed a second car—this one just for fun!
My E46 M3 is an awesome car to drive. I have it set up just the way I want, and it always makes me happy when I get on track or round some cones at an autocross. But about a year ago I had to replace my brakes—competition-package spec, too. Those cost me a whopping $1,100 to do myself! I definitely needed a cheaper car if I wanted to keep enjoying the Ultimate Driving Machine.
Since I can’t afford an E30 M3, but I want to start growing my M3 collection, I decided on an E36. Parts are cheap, they’re easy to work on, and they seem to have bottomed out on their price. With no rush in finding one, I started searching for a good project-car starter. All I wanted was a manual coupe, but for months I struggled to find one with mid-to-high miles. Sedans? No problem. Automatics? Plenty of them to get me excited before crushing my hopes.
I thought Craigslist would be a good place to look, since I wanted one that needed a little love, but I kept striking out. Usually, cars posted to the BMW CCA classifieds are in great shape and well cared for—same goes for some of the chapter Facebook groups.
But a couple of weeks before I was to travel back to San Diego, one popped up that perked my interest. It was a 1995 in Cosmos Black with 158,000 miles. The body looked to be in decent shape, and the post said that the car ran really well. Plus, it was posted at a decent price. There was no way this car was going to last until I could look at it! But as I said, I was in no rush, so if it was still around when I was in town, I’d go look at it.
To my surprise, it was still available a few days before I was to fly down, so I chatted with the guy online and we set a time to meet. When I arrived, I really liked what I saw. The car was sitting under a cover, the paint and body looked decent, and it fired right up. I took a look around it and noticed a few things here and there, but nothing major. So we took it out for a test drive.
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That’s when I noticed that the suspension was completely blown!
Other than that, though, the engine sounded good and felt healthy. Even the A/C blew nice and cold! Why was this car priced a little bit low?
It turned out that the car had failed smog, and its registration had expired. The owner had taken it to a local shop to get it fixed, but he hadn’t had the time or money, so it was just sitting.
My rational mind really wanted me to get a pre-purchase inspection done so I’d know exactly what this car would need to get it where I wanted. But as we kept talking, he mentioned that the shop he had taken it to was my good friend Neil Daly’s Oceanside Motorsports just down the street—the place I would have gone! I met Neil through the club quite a few years ago when I asked a bunch of members where they took their cars for service, and they all said, “Neil!”
Neil’s shop implements a great digital inspection service, and every time a car comes in, they take their time to go over it completely and e-mail you the inspection for your records. Knowing this, I asked if I could see the report, and he gladly brought it up on his phone.
I read every detail and instantly knew what the car needed, which wasn’t much besides new shocks and struts and a pair of rear tires. So I offered the guy a thousand below what he was asking and he reluctantly shook my hand.
I was now the owner of an M3 “collection”—time to drive the newest addition 1,100 miles home…
Project E36 M3 will be an on-going series where I bring you along on my journey of making my new M3 ready for the track. Stayed tuned, because in the next edition, I drive it from San Diego to Portland, Oregon, by myself in two days through some crazy hot temperatures!—Nate Risch
