Virtually Brand New 1985 BMW 323i E30 With 162 Miles Has An Astronomical Price Tag

What would you give to be able to go back in time to the 1980s and buy a brand new E30 BMW 3-Series fitted with all of the best available factory performance options? Would you give $122,500? Because that’s effectively what one dealer in Austria is asking for the the chance to do just that.

There’s no time machine involved in this sale, though you could probably build one for the €119,950 being charged. But cool old 1980s BMWs are hugely desirable in 2022 and opportunities to buy them with only 162 miles (260 km) on the clock only come round every, well, five years, it seems – we wrote about this car in 2017 when it was advertised for €69,900 ($71k at current rates).

The car in question isn’t a rare M3 Evolution, the M3’s 2.0-liter tax-buster cousin, the 320iS, or a limited edition convertible. It’s a fairly plain looking 323i two-door in Zinnober red and rolling on steel wheels. You’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a lowly 89-hp (90 PS) carb-fed 316 if you hadn’t spotted the twin tailpipes poking out form under the rear bumper. And if it was just a 316, it would still be cool because of its low mileage and immaculate condition. Just check out that un-cracked dashboard in the gallery below. Being a pre-facelift car with the early chrome bumpers, it’s also far prettier than the post-’87 models.

But this E30 is so much better than a basic 316, and not just because it has a straight-six under the hood. The original owner didn’t bother wasting money on alloy wheels, electric windows, power steering or a sunroof, instead spending his cash on a limited slip differential, a sports gearbox with a dogleg layout and 1:1 fifth gear instead of the overdriven fifth fitted as standard, and a genuine Recaro interior.

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BMW replaced the 323i with the more powerful 325i in Europe in 1985, but this car appears to have been registered in April 1985, so maybe it was hanging around for a while before being made road legal. That means it’s only sending 148 hp (150 PS) and 151 lb-ft (205 Nm) to the rear wheels, rather than 168 hp (171 PS) and 164 lb-ft (222 Nm). But the E30 was, of course, fairly light for the time, and ridiculously light by current standards. A low-option Euro car like this tipped the scales at around 2,315 lbs (1,050 kg), and could get to 60 mph (96 km/h) in 8.3 seconds on its way to a 125 mph (202 km/h) top speed.

Those numbers are nothing special these days (and the four-plus turns of unassisted steering would seriously date the driving experience), but we’d love to get the chance to pile some miles on this Bavarian timewarp, which is up for sale with Klagenfurt-based Meyer-Hafner. But not so much we’d spend more than peachy E46 M3 money to make it happen. What would you pay for this rare slice of vintage 3-Series? Leave a comment and let us know.