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A 1973 Tii is the Holy Grail of 2002's. Only a 2004 Turbo is higher up the "food chain". With those optional wheels, fresh drivetrain and upholstery, i wouldn't be surprised if it were to bring mid-$40's in this "buy-it-now-before it goes higher" market.
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...and I remember the Saturday matinee. A double feature with news reel and cartoon for 10¢. I took a quarter leaving enough to buy a box of popcorn and a soda.
As stated by many other here, the rode hard and put away wet R53/52s will never go up in value I am sure they will continue to go down, that being said the value is already rising on sub 70k mileage cars in excellent shape. All you have to do is look at something like BaT or other private listing site to see lower mileage R53s getting 8k$. These are not GPs but usually are JCW or other desirably equipped examples.
At the end of the day are you buying one as an investment? If so I think you are making a poor choice, there are better ways to invest, but if you want something fun with the hopes that it holds its value then buy yourself a unmolested JCW, drive it and have fun.
I think the e30 is a great example, they are great cars, they were at one point super cheap, that is not the case anymore, They are super ease to restore, amazing to drive and have well stood the test of time. Lets not even talk about an e30 M3 (oh how I dream of one of these).
There used ot be a joke in the BMW world where an E30 was a measure of cost. If something cost two E30's then it was $1000. Every E30 was a $500 car.
I own an E30 and I am in contact with the 2 guys that owned i prior to me. I bought it 6 years ago for $12K and would not consider selling it today for less than 20K. It is far from stock and everything done to it, IMHO opinion was an upgrade. It has a 99 M50 engine in it now, no more valves to adjust. While that was being swapped in a E46 M3 6 speed transmission was swapped in too.
It looks stock on the outside and inside, only when you pop the hood or hear it running do you realize there is something going on under the hood.
I just paid 10K for a 2005 MCS that only has 40K miles on it. I am about to start a thread on it soon. I would say if you have a super clean, we maintained R53, they are going to be worth good money in the next 10 years.
I know quite a few people who had them new and are now looking to get back into one. The R53 is the ONLY Bini I would consider owning. Once they started to grow in size and the Supercharger was ditched I lost interest in them.
My E30...
Engine bay has been cleaned up too a lot of stuff trimmed out.
Last edited by Jims5543; Feb 23, 2022 at 12:30 PM.
There used ot be a joke in the BMW world where an E30 was a measure of cost. If something cost two E30's then it was $1000. Every E30 was a $500 car.
I own an E30 and I am in contact with the 2 guys that owned i prior to me. I bought it 6 years ago for $12K and would not consider selling it today for less than 20K. It is far from stock and everything done to it, IMHO opinion was an upgrade. It has a 99 M50 engine in it now, no more valves to adjust. While that was being swapped in a E46 M3 6 speed transmission was swapped in too.
It looks stock on the outside and inside, only when you pop the hood or hear it running do you realize there is something going on under the hood.
I just paid 10K for a 2005 MCS that only has 40K miles on it. I am about to start a thread on it soon. I would say if you have a super clean, we maintained R53, they are going to be worth good money in the next 10 years.
I know quite a few people who had them new and are now looking to get back into one. The R53 is the ONLY Bini I would consider owning. Once they started to grow in size and the Supercharger was ditched I lost interest in them.
My E30...
Engine bay has been cleaned up too a lot of stuff trimmed out.
First some facts:
My 2006 S hardtop had a MSRP of $20,600.
That's $27,580 in today's dollars.
A quick CraigsList search in the LA area found 10 cars.
The average price was $5700, median being $6000.
Min was $3200 with 160,000 miles and appears to be backyard bodywork fix.
Max was $8000 with 120,000 miles -- an asking price that doesn't accurately represent the car or mileage.
One nutter was asking $6500 for a car with 194,000 miles -- Cali prices I guess.
With that, assuming $27k, my car has the potential loss of ~79% of it's value over 16 years, or roughly 4.9%.
Now some thoughts:
Now, has that value increased over the past few years? Yes. Will it increase beyond inflation? Eh... There were 176k R50/R53s stateside. That's a **** ton.
As a relative comparison... There are ~115k RSXs.
It's going to take a long time for R50/R53 to increase in value to a point where it matches the adjusted dollars.
Anyone paying $27k in today's money for a low-mileage R53 is an idiot with money.
.....and got the scars to prove it. By the way, haircuts were 2 bits as well. You just walked in sat and waited your turn.
Ah yes, I remember filling up the family car during the gas wars $1.25. A gallon of gas then was 11 cents. Another example of being older than dirt and just damn happy to still be here.
If I had a talent for predicting these trends, I could have retired a long time ago with a garage full of Europeans for which I'd paid a song.
This morning, I received an email from Hagerty. One of the linked articles focused on cars from the 2000s for those who have been priced out of 1980s and 1990s collectibles such as the first gen GTI. One of their four picks is the R53. If that thinking catches on, prices could creep upwards.
