I think a lot of posts in here have a lot of merit and good points.
I may be different but I see 2 main things holding the value of the car back.
First is the reliability issue. These cars break all the time. Fuel problems, electrical problems, front end shimmy etc,. They have many notorious issues that common folk just dont know how to address themselves. When you think about taking it in to get fixed and the estimate is 2x the worth of a new one, its just not worth it to most.
I might be alone on this 2nd issue that I see but to me, its 100% real. I think one thing that holds the E21 back is the lack of super cool builds. Most E21 I see are pretty basic and close to stock. 15" wheels, stock or just a touch lower ride height. Just pretty basic cars like they were in the 70s-80s. Nothing wrong with that but when society sees them, I think the response is close to "thats a cool old car... huh".
On the other hand, you have gobs and gobs of cool 2002, E30 and E36 builds. The 2002 is a perfect analogy IMO. If somebody has a pretty stock 2002, people would probably say close to the same thing about it as the E21. "thats a cool old car... huh". BUT if somebody were to see one of the many, many bad ass 2002's around, they would probably think about how cool the car is and possibly think about building or buying one.
To me, its the really cool cars that inspire and create demand, at least thats what it is for me. While there are a good handful of bad ass E21's out there. They are much further and fewer. I have never even seen a super cool E21 in person. Seen more than a couple inspiring 2002 and E30 though.
Saw this article posted on bring-a-trailer yesterday
Middle Child Syndrome: The Underrated BMW E21
https://bringatrailer.com/2019/01/31...ign=2019-02-01
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