The BMW E30 is still a very loved and sought after car in the used car market. A modern classic definitely and with values that seem to be hovering around what sellers and buyers can agree on. The BMW E30’s styling offered significant aerodynamic benefits over the older and more stylish E21 (pictured above), however the E21 had to much rust issues. The grille on the E30 was less radically angled and the headlights were almost flush with it. In contrast to the flat hood of the E21, the E30’s sloped gently and the car was otherwise more rounded. There wasn’t much difference in size, either, with the E30’s wheelbase stretching a mere 0.3 inches from the E21’s 100.9 to 101.2, and overall length actually dropping slightly.
BMW engineers at the time knew that the Mercedes 190E was on the way and so the E30 engineering team had redoubled their efforts on build quality and dependability, which were traditional Benz strengths.
With 101 horsepower from its 1.8-liter injected four, the 1984 318i two-door was the most popular E30 powerplant for local distributor Auto Bavaria. The four-door arrived for 1985, and along with it came a new four-speed automatic transmission available with either the four or the six. By 1986, the demand for the four-cylinder 318i had slowed down and buyers wanted the 6-cylinder 320i.
The E30 really came of age in the 1987 model year with the appearance of the 325i. BMW’s Motorsport division had gotten its start in the early ’70s creating high-performance street cars, as well as race cars. By 1987, the reputation of the Motorsports division for building brilliant sporting machinery was well established. And yet entering 1986, it had never really played with the 3 Series.
The original E30 M3 was the ultimate sedan. Originally built to take on Mercedes’ Cosworth-tuned 190E 2.3-16 in FIA Group A racing, the M3 employed a 2.3-liter four-cylinder capped with a twin-cam four-valve head that was essentially one of the big six four-valve heads less two cylinders. Dropped into a modified 3 Series two-door body shell, the Bosch fuel-injected “M Power” four was rated at 192 horsepower at an impressive 6,750 rpm. The 2,857-pound M3 would do the 0-100km/h run in just 6.9 seconds, hit the quarter-mile in just 15.2 seconds with reach a 141mph top speed.
