1998 Ti for sale... Unreal
 

So I need a car for my daughter. I find a really nice Ti *ahem... auto* at a dealership locally 122k miles very very clean inside and out. It's in great shape. KBB dealer excellent price says $4500 Edmunds thinks 3K. Asking price 6900$.

I drive it home. It's nice. I stop by my friendly mechanic. We're thinking rough idle, thermostat, dim radio, struts and b pillars suspension and bushing from the look of it. Ok. I think .. not EXCELLENT... 1 to 2K to get her right.

I went in and offered 3500$ with the above information. They aren't interested. I said ok. Quit the BS. The most I would pay is 5K. I offer 5K. Nope. $6450.

Needless to say I walked. Unreal.

PS. as I walked the sales guy says: "This is a rare model". I say. I know, I have owned 2 of them and they are the MOST UNPOPULAR BMW ever imported to the US. Also, the second most unpopular model is the one series that I have parked outside your dealership. I love car shopping!

Yup, I am still emotionally attached to this model. I really still want it.

PPS it was Avus blue.. like my first Ti... ugh.

Do an Autotrader search for the whole country. There were about ten that showed up on my alert yesterday and some of them were reasonably priced and looked to be in OK shape from the pictures.

It's sellers like that who helped me get a fair amount of money when my '95 ti was totaled last year (there were only a couple for sale in the LA area at the time the ins. co. was estimating value, so they cast a further net and found a few at dealers that were waaay overpriced) but all that tells me is that there is this perception that these cars are rare when infact they really aren't... yet.

Sure, clean, low mileage examples are becoming harder and harder to find, but that would be the case for just about any car that is over 10 years old. The sad part is, someone will eventually come along to that dealer's lot and the dealer will also feed them a bunch of BS about how it's a rare model, yadda yadda, and the person will bite. I see these cars from time to time at LA area dealers that are asking $6500-7500 for the same car you can buy from a private party for $2500-3500 less, and often times they are in better shape because the people that owned them actually knew how to care for them and fix the things that were wrong, unlike many used car dealers. Be patient- the right one will come along for the right price...

Could the value go up on these cars?

When I was looking for mine over the last few months. It seem anything decent is people are asking $4-$5 with some asking $6+

If you look at 318ti for sale ads back in 2008-09 or so they are about the same price as they are now. Could that have been the bottom?

There aren't many options for RWD, fun and fairly reliable cars that get 30 mpg. The 318 might be a hot commodity

could be worth more eventually, not likely though.....i see this car a lot like the VW Corrado, it didnt sell very well(in the states) but has a very passionate cult following, and is a pretty great little car.Because of this, i think the value will stay about the same for a while. Also,in the paraphrased words of Richard Hammond its one of the only cars from the 90's that isnt wholly embarrassing to drive.....i wouldnt look as a car as an investment though....thats part of the reason i am "ruining" any collectors value it might have with my swap

about a year ago i was toying with the idea of selling (now is) my ti so i chalked her up on craigslist for $5k knowing full well the car wasn't worth that but was much closer to $3-3.5k. I put the ad up going on about stuff that made it seem better than it actually was. For example, I stated that unlike the rest of the E36 line the ti came with a semi-trailing arm suspension, which of course we all know its the older suspension used in the E30. I basically just made the car sound different and people bought it, thinking it was actually worth a bit more than it was. I admit i used questionable tactics in my ad but if someone asked about it i was completely honest with them and if they knew their stuff i was more than happy to negotiate. I even got a guy to offer me 4k cash on the spot for the car but i couldn't sell it to him, i knew he was gonna beat it into the ground and couldn't sentence my baby to such a fate. what I'm trying to say is people really need to do proper research before buying and selling their cars, and its scary to see what some dealers get away with.

That asking price is out of control.

Currently they are standing at 6K.

Thoughts?

See what they say at the very end of the month.
Maybe they will be more interested in moving it then.

Did I mention it's incredibly clean, the rear seats look new. The original leather key holder is in a plastic bag in the glove box. ??

I'd make your offer and give him your phone number unless you really, really want it now.

How much is that worth? I got that:tongue:

The leather key cover is worthless. But the fact that it's in the car in the original plastic bag along with all the manuals, a pristine interior, no smell and a very clean body, indicates that the car was well taken care of.. and that's worth something. Sorry I didn't make my point clear. Hard to keep my emotions out of it. It's the same color combo as my original baby. Jan 08 calendar. Gawd I miss that car.


PS. What a great forum to get advice from .. Thanks all!

I know I know. I was being sarcastic. :smile:

Good luck with the car. Hopefully they will bring the price down a bit if it doesn't sell. Keep reminding them you have the money and it is there if they want it.

Good Luck!

i pray that it doesn't get sold at this price for two reasons. one-the poor person who bought it has no idea what they did. two-a ti is a great car for an offspring, as my parents refer to me, and you are an enthusiast who will care for it.