Posted by Frank H on September 26, 2003 at 12:45:07 from 209.216.165.25
In Reply to: agreed, I may be too optimistic about the price posted by Adam Wilson in Chicago on September 26, 2003 at 10:08:06:
Part of that is where you live (midwest == rust) and most 20 year old BMW's are simply gone. Here on the west coast I see a fair number of E12's still on the road. There are 3-4 here locally in my home town of 750 people. In Portland in certain areas I'll see some parked on the streets... and normally one or two being driven every time I hit the big city. I see tons of E28's, E30's they're almost as common as Hondas of the same era. They're getting cheap too. A really nice E30 325is can be had for $4K, ditto for E28 535i's.
As for values of E12's. Yes, they've just about hit rock bottom... but I don't see the prices escalating any time soon. Four door sedans simply don't go for big $ once there this old... even though they get harder to find. Only the tuner cars and the limited edition M535i are sure to become classics. This is no different than any other older BMW's, even the coveted 2002's & E9 coupes are really not expensive cars (most 02's are under $5K and E9's under $12K). E12, E3, E23,E21, E28, E30 etc... normally don't go for big dollars.. and they may never do so! Buy them to enjoy, drive and have fun with.
Frank