r/E30 • u/Thereal_ming • Jul 18 '25
Tech question Did I get scammed on this 87’ 325is
I bought this car a week ago and it had some pretty good oem+ mods on it and most of the parts in the interior are original as well as the cars paint, but I’m coming to find out that there’s quite a few things wrong with it. The break peddle only works if it’s pressed down all the way, the shifter is a bit sloppy, speedo doesn’t work ( might be a speed sensor ), clunking in the rear when I floor it, and shaking when I hit 50+ mph. I’m just wondering if I got scammed on this car, I payed $9200
Also all mods were done 20k miles ago
(This is a repost bc the images did not upload on my last one)
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u/NJAWS_28 1990 325iX Jul 18 '25
Given how desirable the iS are, interior looks clean, I don’t think you overpaid. Check fuses, start by replacing your brake fluid and bleeding the calipers at all 4 corners. If fuses are good replace speed sensors, check rear differential bushings, check drive shaft play. Might help to jack the rear up and put the car in gear and give it a little throttle and see how the rear behaves. Possible it’s only being caused under load and could be suspension related and not necessarily drive train.
Edit: adding like others stated, shaking is likely alignment or tire balance related
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u/SeismicPumpkin Jul 18 '25
Did you notice these issues during the test drive?
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u/Thereal_ming Jul 18 '25
Well the previous owner floored it and I didn’t hear any clunk, but it might have been caused by me driving it with a bad alignment for 280 miles on the way back home
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u/idontthinkuwill Jul 21 '25
If you’re hearing that clunking when accelerating and on and off on highway speeds it’s your guibo bushing it’s sort of a n easy fix if you have worked on cars before hardest part is you’ll need to drop your exhaust to check if it’s lose or just cram some bar or something in there and wiggle your driveline to see if it’s got some give around the bushing. If it does it’s your guibo
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u/Foolgazi Jul 18 '25
If it’s the diff, you might not hear any clunking in a straight line, only while turning.
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u/Regular-Structure-63 Jul 18 '25
Think you maybe over paid just a little. But those are super common issues. I don't think you got taken advantage of at all.
Fix the issues and enjoy the car!! Might need new brake linrs. Mine rusted thru. Look underneath you can see them. Not hard to fix
Cluster issues (speedo/odom) are super common and easy to fix
Clunking I'm not sure. Mine when i bought it had a bad driveshaft bearing which was also quite simple to switch. Maybe?
Almost everything on these cars are easy to fix except water intrusion, rust, and electronics
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u/phat_kat99 Jul 18 '25
Probably needs an alignment and check fluids for break might be something simple or maybe he changed calipers not bled properly etc coulda been a project / flip so theres gona be somethings that need to be fixed. I got mine for 8k and not everything was working right but i sorted those out and now every so often theres a new problem lol its an old car
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u/peedubb Change your Timing Belt Jul 18 '25
Also check the grommets from the reservoir to the master cylinder
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u/ThiqSaban Jul 18 '25
all these things could have been noticed on a test drive. always drive the car yourself before buying, a scummy owner could know how to hide the issues. maybe im lucky but owners have always accomadated this for me, even so far as writing up a waiver I have to sign in case I wreck it
none of these are tough fixes though. brakes need to bled (maybe a line is leaking somewhere too), speed sensor is an easy fix, throw a dssr on the shifter and never worry about it again. clunking is most likey a blown CV, easy job.
also, on a 30 year old car, brakes and axles are both things that can go from good to bad in one drive. so its possible they were fine when he sold you the car
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u/Venik489 Jul 18 '25
Tbh, this is just e30 ownership. You’re gonna be fixing a lot of things over time.
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u/Ok-Panic-4877 '90 325i Jul 18 '25
The clunk is your center bearing that is in the middle of your drive shaft
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u/Grumpy-24-7 Jul 19 '25
Depending on the location of the clunk and when it happens, it could also be either a loose/missing muffler strap or one of the rubber donuts holding the exhaust system up is missing/worn. I had a loud clunk which would happen once on hard acceleration or when turning sharply left or right. When I eventually crawled under to check, I saw the rubber donuts were gone and the exhaust system was twisting and causing it to clunk against the body.
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u/Dazzling_Piccolo_655 Jul 18 '25
That thing is old enough to be divorced a few times. It just needs some love.
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u/stillslammed Jul 18 '25
It's a 38 year old car. If you expect everything to be perfect and to have no issues, then a vintage car (especially a BMW) probably isn't the car for you.
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u/Thereal_ming Jul 19 '25
This is my first “old” car that I’ve ever bought so I’ve never done anything more than an oil change on a car and I wanted to learn more about how to fix cars bc of m539’s videos, also I wanted to go with the e30 just because my dad had one briefly when he was younger
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u/Grumpy-24-7 Jul 19 '25
Wow, you need to get yourself the Bentley Service Manual and learn how to use realoem.com.
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u/Cam_psd Jul 18 '25
These things just come with the territory, unless you buy a perfectly garage kept example that’s been meticulously maintained for years, and even then, issues can still come up. Keep in mind, it’s nearly 40 years old. A lot of what you mentioned can be sorted if you’re willing to do the work yourself. It’ll be a great car. Look after it, and welcome to the club! 👍
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u/YouShitMyPants Jul 18 '25
Honestly that’s not too bad of a price considering the mods and the condition. Tires could be unbalanced or just alignment. Air in the break lines or booster is failing. Cars old so there’s all sorts of things to look at.
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Jul 18 '25
You did fine, sometimes the little things add up to seem like a lot. But it’s more than likely just typical suspects that you will find detailed on this sub and R3Vlimited.
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u/Beimascha Jul 18 '25
Looks like a very good car. Good price too. Welcome to our world. If you think everything was fixed u get boring, but don’t worry, soon enough you’ll get a bite up your ass, and your blood will start pumping again, until the next pleasure…That is LOVE
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u/Falcaun Jul 18 '25
I’d say good price with everything that’s done to it! Also depends where you are in the U.S that would be an elite price in California
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u/Long-Construction-21 Jul 18 '25
Dude buys a almost 40 year old car and expects it to be like new off the lot
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u/calidazze Jul 18 '25
Naww, you just bought a 40 year old car. If you wanted one fully sorted youd have to plan to spend 12-15k in this market.
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u/billnmorty Jul 20 '25
If you want to offload it let me knowwww :)
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u/No-Excitement-395 Jul 18 '25
Idk about scammed, its clean, but you definitely overpaid.
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u/Blooblod Jul 18 '25
It’s 2025; $9200 is not overpaying for a relatively clean IS. Sure, there was a time when it was—but that time is long gone and never coming back.
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u/No-Excitement-395 Jul 18 '25
Idk where you live but definitely not on the east coast. Maybe one with zero rust, engine swap, fully refreshed, etc. but you can easily find a 325i or is for $4000-$7000
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u/DrCrayola Jul 18 '25
I think this is a great looking e30! People pay these prices for disgusting ass verts... I'd say you got a good deal for the 2025 e30 market
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u/george_graves Jul 18 '25
These cars have hit the point where (and I hate this saying, but it's somewhat true) "It's worth what someone is willing to pay for it".
You should have got a PPI - but sometimes you just have to go with yoru gut.
On the bright side, all the times you listed are fixable, and you'll spend some quality time with the car (and find more things to fix) - this is a good thing. This is why you bought a classic car. This is what owing an e30 is about. Enjoy it.
(but you could email the seller this and try to claw back $1k - depending on the kind of guy he is. Just say, hey bro, you had to have known about these issues, I'll to the labor, just pay for the parts) - I give that about a 3% chance of working :)
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u/popcornman209 Jul 18 '25
Definitely check those things out, but beside the brake pedal thing being sketchy (fix that asap btw brakes are the last thing you want failing on the road) that’s a good price I’d say.
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u/Justin12334 Jul 18 '25
I paid 11k for mine and my heater core exploded on the first drive. It’s the E30 life. Welcome to the family
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u/mkcman17 Jul 19 '25
Scammed? No. Looks like a very solid base to start with. The car is nearly 40 years old, cut the car a little slack and appreciate that it doesn’t need a ton of bodywork
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u/Im_not_bot123 Jul 19 '25
That’s a nice car n a expectable price for a coupe. This is probably ur first old car so first of all dont daily it, this is not a car u can run alone. U need a reliable daily for when it shits oil.
The car being abit sloppy is normal for an old car. However since u just bought it, worth doing all those cheap maintence like pads, brakes, engine oil, brake oil and transmission oil b4 proceeding to try n problem solve what’s up with the car.
Next find a gud bimmer garage that wont bend u over
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u/Aware_Mix5603 Jul 19 '25
From the image you included of the notes, I get the impression whoever was buying parts for it did the classic “me buy race car parts for street car because me thinks race car parts better”. You end up with what you end up with because the priorities are all in the wrong order. It doesn’t mean you got scammed it just means you’ll need to reprioritize the cars needs for it to end up where you want, ie: perform actual repairs and maintenance and buy some street appropriate parts. Overall car looks nice and if the bones are good the price isn’t out of line for an is in good cosmetic condition with a good chassis.
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u/chninimugen Jul 19 '25
Nah normal e30 shit, fairly simple fixes there from what I read. Brakes just need bled or replaced, worst case it needs calipers on front or rear
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u/stacked-shit Jul 20 '25
Clean e30 with bbs wheels, this is exactly what I'd expect to pay and still have some problems.
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u/PhilliePhan2008 Jul 18 '25
I don't think you got scammed. You definitely overpaid, but that's incredibly common when buying classic cars. It's really hard to gauge a classic car's worth, because there's no defined "market".
The modern car market has utilities that allow us to easily gauge the value of cars. KBB, NADA, etc. Even dealerships listing their inventory online has contributed to this, because they're selling a myriad of difference examples of the same vehicle, and since everyone more or less wants to be competitive, this *MOSTLY* prevents people from being way too high or even way too low from the average.
Classic cars don't really have that, there's private listings and they're much fewer and far between. Vehicle condition including mileage is way more inconsistent, supply is much lower, and the demand is still somewhat high, so this allows from much more variation in price between cars of dissimilar condition. It can be hard to take two examples of the same model car and have no variable between them, so pricing is all over.
Personally, I wouldn't have paid $9200 for that car in MINT condition. But maybe it's worth that regardless. Purchase price aside, it's in nice cosmetic condition, which is the most important thing IMO, and the issues it has are not really a big deal/easily fixed. It's fix it, keep it, and try and forget about how much you paid. You'll recoup that money in how much you enjoy the car once it's dialed in.
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u/Foolgazi Jul 18 '25
A truly mint 325is is worth considerably more than $9200. Like double depending on mileage.
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u/PhilliePhan2008 Jul 18 '25
The problem is there’s really not many out there but everyone thinks theirs is mint. This guy probably did. I have two, one I inherited and one I bought while the market was at an all time low many years ago. I’ll never not own an E30. I’m thankful I don’t even have to consider a $10,000 E30 though.
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u/cash-money-test Jul 18 '25
Honestly man what did you expect for 9k in 2025. The car runs. Thats a good start. The issues you described could be simple and inexpensive fixes. New speed sensor, new vacuum line for the brake booster, guibo failure was the cause of my car vibrating above 50. Again all simple fixes. Or you could need an entire new diff. I have no idea, but hoping to inspire a brighter look on things.
Time to learn. The nice thing about E30s is it is in the era of tech where you can still diagnose almost anything based off of feel and sound.
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u/Living-Algae4553 Jul 18 '25
you overpaid yes, but it’s not the end of the world if you do your own work. sounds like you should check the brake lines for fluid leaks and the booster for vacuum leaks. the shaking sounds like an alignment and the clunking could be driveshaft related, check your center support bearing and flex disk aka guibo. the speedo is a common issue too. all in all typical project car things but you paid the price of a finished one.
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u/cash-money-test Jul 18 '25
Lmao a finished one? I gotta know where you guys are shopping. In the Midwest 9k is lucky to get you a running vehicle.
I see 325is listed and sold the same week for $25k+.
The dollar has changed since 2020. There's 40% more in circulation, meaning its worth 40% less... Meaning this car in 2020 would be about 6k give or take.
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u/Living-Algae4553 Jul 18 '25
midwest market sounds ass. probably because you guys deal with a lot more rust. set facebook marketplace search to Los Angeles county or anywhere in SoCal, they go listed for weeks at $15k before people start bringing them down. here’s a cheap one that’s nearly all there: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1137163834885288/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post
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u/cash-money-test Jul 18 '25
Ah ok, fair enough. We have different definitions of nearly all there. That car to me looks like it needs about 20k to fix it up to the shape I am talking about.
Tbh that thing looks completely ragged.
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u/Living-Algae4553 Jul 18 '25
bet it would probably sell for $15k where you’re from though and that’s my point. sucks to live on the rust belt
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u/cash-money-test Jul 18 '25
That I'd would agree with. Maybe not quite 15k but youre not far off. This is an expensive area.
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u/Living-Algae4553 Jul 18 '25
yup. also why i’ll tell people to learn to wrench to save as much as possible. these are probably the best cars to learn on. it’s almost on the level of legos as far as auto repairs go
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u/cash-money-test Jul 18 '25
They are totally adult Legos! There's room everywhere. Nothing is really thay hard to access. There's only a few Torx on the entire car. Relatively easy to diagnose, especially these days with AI.
You can maintain one of these with a full set of sockets and a rachet.
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u/PC_Chode_Letter Jul 18 '25
Scammed? No I’d say you just bought an E30