I am switching jobs and the new place has a somewhat ****ty parking situation. I dont want to drive either 911 or 7er to work, so i want to get a daily beater.

It has to be a small coupe. Hopefully BMW, hopefully not very old, hopefully fun to drive, hopefully something dinan has parts for and is a DIY type car. I been debating between MCS vs. 2001 M coupe.

Thoughts on those two? Any other suggestions?

 

The E36/8 M Coupe is too small and has horrible rear-end traction. Wouldn't buy a Mini either, they seem overpriced for what you get.

How about a GTI, R32, Evo, or STI? All somewhat entertaining cars that are reliable, disposable, and cheap secondhand.

 

never been a fan of evo/sti, but R32... man... how could i forget about that as an option. and it would cost less than MCS or M coupe.

how is R32 reliability? any years to stay away from? this one is right next to where i live:

2004 Volkswagen Golf R32 | Red, Cloth

 

E36 M3.

 

R32 is a great daily. Fun to drive, but you don't have to care about it too much.

 

My first thought was E36 M3 as well but I thought the OP didn't want something too old...

That R32 looks good, but I wouldn't pay more than $21K for it. Here's some recent auction activity for 04 R32's:

10/03/07 SAN DIEG Regular $20,500 35,435 Avg BLUE
10/03/07 CADE Regular $22,600 24,639 Avg BLUE
10/03/07 BUTLER Regular $25,400 17,474 Above BLUE
10/02/07 FAAO Regular $21,000 21,124 Avg BLUE
10/02/07 DFW Regular $20,400 54,909 Avg BLUE

 

hmm... i could go for a 1999 M3 coupe with low miles and no mods. but i guess those are hard to find. i would turn it into daily driver AND track car.

 

Here's three in your area - they're sedans, but IMO the sedan looks better than the coupe. It's stiffer too.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/car/441702676.html

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/car/440018233.html

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/car/439777802.html

 

Whats the budget?

 

no budget. well... i'd say $30k is absolute tops. its more about best bang for the buck so to say.

i have found an awesome 1997 E36 M3 - single owner, low miles, no mods. might pick it up for around $15K.

 

Bang for the buck, E36 M3 no doubt. Take care of the maintenance, do a couple basic mods and you've got one hell of a daily driver (and/or track car) for under $20k.

On the flip side, an S54 M Coupe would be one hell of a fun car.... love the clown shoes. It would probably max out your $30k budget though....

 

yeah.. if i get a 2001 m coupe, i will start to care about it too much and that will defeat the purpose of a "beater" car.

now... finding the right M3. this is the description of the 15K local car:

http://camel.ethereal.net/~jkb/e36.txt

 

That gauge cluster and odometer replacement sounds a bit sketchy, but run the carfax and see if the mileage matches up. If it does that'd be a good price for the mileage.

Don't get an S54 MC unless you like your rear-ends twitchy. I had one, and even with TCK coilovers it wasn't controllable by any means. I sold my 2001 with 24K miles for $42.5K so it might be out of budget. It was a very neat car though (here's my old one below...)

 

Dude last week someone was selling an M3 lightweight on SF Craigslist (low miles)

 

well, the seller is an older gentleman, respected engineer in silicon valley. i doubt he would go through mile rollback fraud just to save a few hundred bucks on an old M3. plus, considering he disclosed other stuff like fender getting fixed and stuff (which i couldnt even see when i looked at it).

but.. somebody was telling me that some BMWs have milage counter built into rear axle somewhere... is that true?

i am going to get the car PPI'd by dinan in mtn. view, could be something to have them checked out if it is true.