Is this 1989 BMW 325ix Touring worth the money?

If you were to ask me to pick my absolute perfect daily driver BMW, it would be an E30-generation BMW 325ix Touring with a manual transmission. Some folks might go M3 or M5 or something crazy. But I live in New Jersey where weather sucks and I frequently take my dog on trips where he tracks mud in the car. So an all-wheel drive wagon is perfect for me. And my love for old, strange cars added to all of that makes the E30 BMW 325ix Touring perfect for me. So maybe I’m looking at this through rose-tinted glasses but this specific 325ix Touring looks like a great deal to me.

With only 155,000 km, this old E30 actually still has a lot of life left in in. It also seems relatively spot on, with very few things to be worried about. The anti-theft locking device looks a bit suspect but my love for this car might make me gloss over that. After all, it s a grey market car that was imported from Europe. The only other place of worry might be in the slightly bent strut tower cap, which is odd but pretty easily replaceable.

Inside, it looks great, with leather seats that seem un-cracked as well as a fully intact dashboard. And that stick think in between the two seats, as well as the three pedals, make me very happy. I also like that M-technic steering wheel, which looks fantastic.

Now, this is an Ohio-based car, so it’s lived through some harsh winters which aren’t kind on cars. So there’s likely to be some rust somewhere, even though there doesn’t seem to be much. I’d be a bit weary of buying an old BMW, especially an E30, from Ohio, as it’s almost guaranteed to have some rust issues.

Okay, so my love for this specific spec of car might be blinding my good judgement, especially considering that the asking price of this car is $13,900, which isn’t cheap for an old car with possible rust issues. However, it is pretty much a unicorn in the US, so is it worth taking the risk on a high-priced, probably stressful and rare classic?

[Source: Jalopnik]

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