Keeping up with a car you sold can be painful!

[bhh1989]

I recently sold my '99 M3 coupe as I moved to Ireland to get a masters and didn't want the car sitting for two years at home (plus it had 170K miles... just time to let her go I thought). I had the car since 2008, bone stock, took immaculate care of it.

Kept up with where it went. Who bought it. Always looked for it back on the market just in case I could snatch it back up much cheaper for whatever reason.

TWO months later he totaled it. And I mean he totaled it. Even ruined the mulberry interior. Went off eBay for $1000 bucks. What a shame.

Point in case, if you have a "baby" and sell it - don't keep an eye on it. It may not be worth the heartache.

Just wanted to rant. Our cars become more rare every day....

16681511_10210791673321745_7558439964107938859_n.jpg s-l1600.jpg

[typed by ben]

would you know my name
if i saw you in heaven

[AJLM34A]

It's reassuring to see that the drivers airbag did not deploy

[Braymond141]

It's reassuring to see that the drivers airbag did not deploy

Based on the hit I'm not sure it needed to. The airbag deployed in the passenger door possibly being detected as a side impact only.

That's a shame to see and follow. Certain cars are hard for me to follow after being sold. I've never seen one turned up wrecked just abused.

[rajicase]

It's reassuring to see that the drivers airbag did not deploy

Rofl right!

[JayhawkM3]

I had a black 1987 300ZX that I was in love with in high school. Did what I had to in order to get through college and put it up for sale. Never saw it again until a year later I was sitting at Vine & 27th in Hays, Kansas and low and behold; that ZX ran a stop light 10 feet in front of me and got absolutely T-boned to bejesus by a 2500HD GMC truck. It took everything I had to not go pull that guy out and give him his 2nd a$$-kicking of the day.

[LockDots]

I remember selling my first E36 a while back only to find it on craigslist less than 6 months later with a carbon fiber hood, M front bumper and pictures of the engine bay showing off the CAI I installed, only this time it (and everything else under the hood) covered in dried coolant...

[notMpowered]

It's reassuring to see that the drivers airbag did not deploy

It actually is. When a car gets hit it isn't just supposed to fire off every airbag it's got.
That's a scary way to get hit. My e30 took it exactly the same when I got hit by a red light runner.

[AJLM34A]

Based on the hit I'm not sure it needed to. The airbag deployed in the passenger door possibly being detected as a side impact only.

Hits? To decimate the front like that too, it was multiple hits.

It actually is. When a car gets hit it isn't just supposed to fire off every airbag it's got.
That's a scary way to get hit. My e30 took it exactly the same when I got hit by a red light runner.

^^^^

Passengers side would only go off if there is a passenger sitting in the seat. Thats why there is occupancy detectors to keep repair cost down from replacing needless parts. The damage within the blue circle would have and should have deployed the drivers airbag, if the slipring was not defective.

m3 hits.jpg

[rajicase]

^^^+1

[notMpowered]

Impact hit driver fender.
Front damage is due to the torsional force likely.
Door damage is likely from car spinning and clipping the rear of the car as it carried through the m3s front corner.

It doesn't look like there was any front ---> rear direct impact. Either way, I'm trusting BMW engineers more than you guys.

[rajicase]

I wouldn't ever count on a 20 year old air bag deploying as designed...

[jvit27]

would you know my name
if i saw you in heaven

[Botoja]

I used to own a 93 300zx twin turbo completely stock and meticulously maintained. Silver with black interior. For some (insane) reason I finally gave in to an offer from a guy next town over. Over the next year I saw my baby basically getting raped by his son. Crazy Wings West body kit, stupid wheels, black cheap hood with vents, lambo doors, basically anything he found on eBay. He totalled it eventually. This was approx. 12 years ago and to this day I regret selling it. OP is right, don't stalk your sale, and def DO NOT sell locally.

[AJLM34A]

Selling a vehicle is like a break-up, focus on the next one.

[Alpine 318is]

Selling a vehicle is like a break-up, focus on the next one.

Yup and its sorta the opposite of a girlfriend too. If you see your ex with a lessor "owner" all haggered and not looking good you're probably gonna be happy. See your old car all beat up and driven into the ground you're gonna be sad.

[bhh1989]

I tell you what though, the whole ordeal has made me ever so anxious to get another one and start again. I can't get off CL and eBay looking for them now... I'm even buying up euro-spec parts while I am over here like I have one waiting or something. So far got mudflaps, rear powered vent kit, headlight washer setup - you know, all that unnecessary stuff we didn't get in the states.

Also, that 25 year rule for imports has finally breached into the E36 group... I'd love to bring back a '93 or '94 when I return next year.

[Siberian]

In 1974 I bought my 1st "sports car": a 1970 240Z. It had some Bondo along both sides, and the tires rubbed because of the aftermarket rims, but it ran, and I loved it. I drove it until 1989, doing all the maintenance myself, because I was as poor as a churchmouse. Then I parked it in my garage, and drove a K5 Blazer that actually had air conditioning and would start in the winter.

There she sat for 10 years, semi-forgotten, but dry, when one of my customers, who passed himself off as a Z car collector, offered to buy it. "I will restore it", he said. Unbeknown to me, he had a field with about 20 Z cars parked in it. There she sat for 15 years, getting rained on, sun baked, and rusting, until 3 years ago, when I suddenly thought: I wish I still had my old 240Z.

It took me a week to remember the guy's name and another couple of days to track him down and call him. Yep, he still had it and would sell it back to me......for double what he had paid me. I went to look at it, and the rust was horrible, but fixable. The interior was too far gone, so I almost walked away. The neglect by this "collector" was sickening, and I had left all those Z cars there just to rot away.........

Then I had a thought: Why am I tracking a 1984 Porsche 911 and a 1999 BMW M3 when I could be tracking a 1970 240Z with no a/c, no power steering, and no ABS?

As should be obvious by now, sometimes our thoughts are not always our friends. Three years later, I have repaired all the rust, strengthened the frame rails, stripped the interior, added a full cage, had the motor rebuilt to race specs, installed a 5 speed transmission, replaced the struts with coil-overs, replaced the braking system with all Wilwood stuff, yada-yada, and I still don't have a driveable car. Two more years ought to do it.

[TH3 Shifty]

I've sold and bought mine back not once, but TWICE! Lol, both times the other owner calls me back cause they f'd something up and didn't know how or had the money to fix it, made money both times lol. Now I'm keeping it for good and doing an S54 swap, I would see the car around town and just get super sad

[tokbandit]

my other e36 went through two owners...originally I sold it to someone on the other side of the state...then years later randomly I visit my home town sitting in my buddy's garage drinking a few beers and behold an e36 rolls up...and I was like man that looks familiar and sounds like my old one...young kid gets out and said he saw the M3 and wanted to check it out...we talk for a bit then I ask if I could see his...and he opened the door and I saw my crafty work ...no freaking way...yep it was my old car...turns out he buys BMW's strips them and sells them...but has kept my old car intact just how I sold it...thought it was funny how my old car found me years later...