E85 Dead or Alive

[Big Bad Boris]

Interested to know thoughts on when early E85s become worth more in parts than as a whole car.

Prompted by another thread on here in which a fellow member is breaking a (Very nice looking) 2004 3 litre. As well a my own car which is a 2005 20i with 102k on the clock and is in fairly good condition. Given these cars are getting a little long in the tooth and BMW spares a not the cheapest, when does it become viable to sell off the car in bits rather than as a whole?

Just to take my own car as an example. I want to buy an E89 as soon as we get out of the current mess. Body wise it is excellent, it has pretty much a FSH, roof operates perfectly and hood is in good shape, it has a relatively new Kenwood DAB radio, plenty of tread on the tyres (non premium), nice alloys (107s), a new clutch and DM flywheel fitted less than 1500 miles ago (£800) all Cats replaced last year with used ones sourced from a 65,000 donor car (if you ever looked for those you’ll know how rare and expensive they are for the 2 litre version), all O2 sensors are less than a year old... I could go on.

The point being is if I px this against an E89, what will I be offered..maybe £1200 ? If I Ebay it in the current climate what will it fetch, £1500-1600 ? So back to my question, when does it become worth selling as individual items rather than a whole car.

 

[enuff_zed]

Gut instinct is to say NO! don't do it. But it comes down to financial sense at the end of the day I suppose.
You could maybe find a new member on here, looking for a first Z4 and walk away with a warm feeling that you've introduced a new enthusiast, but with a big hole in your pocket.
Or if you had the time, knowledge and patience you could break and sell the parts and fill that hole in your pocket.
Bit of a conundrum.
Of course, you could sell it cheaply, only to discover some enterprising soul has bought it off you so they can break it for a profit.

As an aside to this I wonder whether people who intend to keep their cars may at some point start to look for another one to use as a donor? Would make sense if you had the storage space.
Back in the 90's I think my record was 4 'spares' Capris at one time, to keep my daily hack running (plus the weekend toy 2.8i in the garage)

 

[Smartbear]

Interested to know thoughts on when early E85s become worth more in parts than as a whole car.

Prompted by another thread on here in which a fellow member is breaking a (Very nice looking) 2004 3 litre. As well a my own car which is a 2005 20i with 102k on the clock and is in fairly good condition. Given these cars are getting a little long in the tooth and BMW spares a not the cheapest, when does it become viable to sell off the car in bits rather than as a whole?

Just to take my own car as an example. I want to buy an E89 as soon as we get out of the current mess. Body wise it is excellent, it has pretty much a FSH, roof operates perfectly and hood is in good shape, it has a relatively new Kenwood DAB radio, plenty of tread on the tyres (non premium), nice alloys (107s), a new clutch and DM flywheel fitted less than 1500 miles ago (£800) all Cats replaced last year with used ones sourced from a 65,000 donor car (if you ever looked for those you’ll know how rare and expensive they are for the 2 litre version), all O2 sensors are less than a year old... I could go on.

The point being is if I px this against an E89, what will I be offered..maybe £1200 ? If I Ebay it in the current climate what will it fetch, £1500-1600 ? So back to my question, when does it become worth selling as individual items rather than a whole car.

With the money that’s recently been spent I’d hang onto it & hopefully run it without more expenditure or try selling it on here. Most traders wouldn’t want a car that old I’m guessing but worth trying a few to get a ballpark figure in px, has it got the M-sport seats as decent ones of those seem to fetch silly money.
You can’t make a decision until you’ve seen the numbers

 

[markplant]

I think Simon on here was offered around 2k as a trade in so he broke his an got well over 6 in parts iirc, I'm sure that was a 2.0 as well

 

[Big Bad Boris]

Just normal seats I believe, sourced them on Ebay shortly after I bought it.
https://z4-forum.com/forum/download/file.php?mode=view&id=81745

 

[enuff_zed]

It certainly does look far too nice a car to break.......if heart were to rule over head.

 

[buzyg]

Almost certainly worth more as parts. Just like most other ageing sports cars.

In fact, if you have the space time and inclination you could go around buying other peoples perfectly good Zeds and breaking them for a profit. That in turn would push the cost of spares down and whole cars up, if you do enough of them. May be why most don't

 

[kis]

Worth more in parts... but that comes with hassle, takes time and the physical parts take up a lot of space! If you don't mind that, then breaking the car is financially more beneficial. Sad, but it's a fact.

Wheels will get you about £200
Front lights about £300 (as a set)

Thats basically half the value of the car there.

 

[skelters]

Looking on Autotrader they're selling for £2k - £3k with similar mileage.

As yours has had a bit of work done you could probably get £2750 on a good day.

With the current pandemic it's probably not a good year to sell any car. Keep it and sell it next spring. By that time the e89 prices will be lower too and dealers will be gagging to sell any car even an e89 which isn't a roadster!

 

[Big Bad Boris]

In all honesty I think I would rather someone enjoyed the car for a few more years even if it did mean I recoup less. Like a lot of us strange car folk I kinda feel a car is a “thing” rather than a collection of parts and would feel really bad about terminating it. I guess I will just look for a first time Zed owner who will enjoy it for what it is, a 15 year old car that looks worth more than you will have paid paid for it. I’ll console myself that she lives to fight another day..... and the 30i on my shopping list should be dropping in value as we speak.

 

[Big Bad Boris]

p.s. is was going to add another photo, but every I tried appeared upside down???

 

[Big Bad Boris]

p.s. is was going to add another photo, but every I tried appeared upside down???

 

[skelters]

The 3.0i e89 is going for £6k - £13,595k on Autotrader.

Mileage from 27,816 to 110,186 miles.

 

[Big Bad Boris]

Yep, and thanks to lockdown boredom forcing me onto AT daily... I am personal friends with all of them

 

[paddy wright]

Glad you won’t be breaking it!

 

[Big Bad Boris]

Thank you sir. This thread seems to have clarified 2 things (i) the car is probably worth more dead than alive and (ii) I don’t think I could bring myself to cannibalise a car that could still bring someone else a few years of pride and pleasure

 

[enuff_zed]

Well it seems the trend of buying the wife a Zed is taking off, so maybe you'll find a home for it on the forum. :wink:

 

[Mr Tidy]

This thread seems to have clarified 2 things (i) the car is probably worth more dead than alive and (ii) I don’t think I could bring myself to cannibalise a car that could still bring someone else a few years of pride and pleasure

Well that is good news - selling a perfectly good car as parts just wouldn't seem right to me either!