I found my dream E30

On April 22nd my girlfriend and I were driving home from my parent's house when we decided to take a different route home. As we were driving my girlfriend spotted a white E30 sitting on the side of a driveway as we passed by. My friend had said something about a white 325iX being around the same area so I assumed that must have been it. We turned around to take a look and see exactly what model it was. It turned out to be a white 1991 318iS. That model and year is very special and I have always wanted a white one, so this was literally my ideal E30 sitting just a few miles from my house!

What makes this E30 special for me compared to other is that it is the only late model coupe with a 4 cylinder engine (M42). My 325iX which I just sold, and most other E30s have a inline 6 engine which is very under-powered. A lot of people opt to remove the M42 and replace it with a later 24 valve BMW engine, but for me, I love the little 4 pot and would never get rid of it. As a bonus, this particular example was fitted with a glass sunroof which was a dealer option you could get when you bought them new.

Needless to say I was very excited to find this car and we drove up and knocked on the door. No answer. My girlfriend wrote a note for me (since my hand writing is garbage) on the back of a Whole Foods bag and we left it wedged in the front door.

The day we stopped and left my number:

The next week I made sure that I was always in ear shot of the phone just in case he called, and would constantly check the caller ID to see if we ever missed a call. Another week went by and at this point I figured the guy had gotten tons of offers on the car and just didn't want to be bothered. then one night just after I got home he called.

He was extremely nice and told me the story of the car; he bought it and used it as a daily for a few years before he had fuel pump issues which eventually let to him taking it off the road in 2009 and getting a more reliable car. The car sat in a barn from 09' until 2015 or 2016 when his family sold the property with the barn. At that point it he loaded it onto a trailer and got stuck going up the ridiculously steep driveway to his house. Since the trailer couldn't get up the driveway they unloaded the car into its current resting place.

We planned for me to come take a look at the car that weekend.

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I was pretty surprised to see just how rust free the car was, as well as how nice the interior was, including the dash which had no cracks in it. My only concern is that there's a musty smell and rodents have been living inside the car which can be a nightmare since they will chew wires, smell awful, and build nests everywhere. There was also standing water behind the passenger seat on the floor.

Off to her new home!