Last year, I had earned enough money from buying and selling cars. After some late nights exploring Craigslist, I found out that the E36 M3 was now within reach. I was specifically looking for a manual sedan, or the M3/4/5 as it’s known in enthusiast circles. I spent the next month looking for a nice example in my budget and even went to look at some coupes. I found a very clean example with 141,000 miles, but because the pricing was out of the budget I had set for myself, I book marked the car to keep an eye on it. Within a couple of days, the price was lowered to the point where it was within a stone’s throw of my budget.
Picture from the original ad.
Picture from the day of the test drive.
I looked through every picture that was in the ad. It appeared to be a Luxury Package car, as seen in the side skirts and in the interior’s wood trim. After much back and forth in my head, I emailed the owner, and scheduled a time to meet up on a Sunday. I met with him, Harold, and we went for a drive around the San Francisco State University campus. Harold told me that he had purchased an S2000 and that he only had room for one fun car. When we returned, he pulled a folder with records going back to 1997. This was not featured in the original ad, so it was a pleasant surprise. It highlighted everything from yearly registration to transmission services. It was not without its faults - the car is missing the Luxury Package lower grille, missing wood trim around the shifter, and sagging headliner. With all of this, I gave Harold an offer that I figured was fair and stuck with it. Because I was under his asking price, and we went our separate ways.
A couple of hours later, Harold rings me up, we agree on a price, and we schedule for a time for the sale. The following Monday, I obtained a cashier’s check, met with him at my office, and we made the exchange. I drove it straight home and detailed the car. Thankfully, the car was well taken care of, so I did not have to do any iron decontamination or compounding.
Downtown San Mateo.
The trim must be removed to pull the headliner.
This was the hardest part of the job.
I have done a number of restorations since then, including fixing the headliner and sourcing the incredibly hard to find Luxury Package trim around the shifter. The car has been reliable, with the only issue being the brake light switch throwing a fault and then being replaced. I’ve put roughly 3,000 miles on the car since taking ownership and while I’ve enjoyed my ownership, I’m wondering what to do next. I’ve been considering selling it via Bring a Trailer as this is the type of car that does well on that site. However, after this COVID-19 pandemic, I figured I’ll drive the M3 more and revisit the idea later this year.