As of this year's Detroit Auto Show the 3-series coupe is effectively no more in the US. Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe E30 represents one of the most beloved 3-series coupes, but is its price a coup de grâce?


Holy cat sqeezin' Jebus, the vote on yesterday's old school 1968 Corvette convertible couldn't have been closer. In the end, perhaps this week's debut of the new ‘Vette added a little shine to the old, as that past imperfect walked away with a narrow 52.80% Nice Price win.

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Along with the new and wildly divergent Corvette's arrival this week, the North American International Auto Show was the scene of a passing, that of the BMW 3-series coupe. Here in the US, BMW's 3-series has been the company's bread and butter model for decades, and for all of that time it has offered a two door option.

The original Neue Klasse small-ish Bimmers came in both 2 and 4-door editions, but by the early '70s the latter versions were phased out here in the US. The E21 was only available with two doors, while each succeeding model took the Burger King approach by letting you have it your way, depending on whether you wanted two or four portals for all your ingress/egress needs.

That all stopped this week with the US debut of the 4-series coupe concept which we all know presages the replacement for the two door 3 here in the States. The iconic 3-series coupe, which provided the basis for the original M3, will be no more. Pour out a 40 on the curb in its honor.


Of course at the moment there are still plenty of two-door 3s to be had,on the used car circuit. One of the most beloved of the series is the E30, of which today's 1989 325is is an example. Let's see if this E30 two door will salve the wounds of no more 3 coupes, or if it suffers a fatal flaw.


Painted Laguna Seca blue and dropped on Eibach springs, this E30 also has seen all of its brightwork - what little there was - converted to dark matter. They say once you go black you can never go back, but I'd still prefer the double kidney up front to be shiny silver. Of course, here there's gold in them thar wheel wells, in the form of a set of BBS basketweaves seemingly free from curb encounters, and with their center caps.


As far as the interior goes, well there's not much to go on other than the seller explaining what leatherette really is and that the headliner is dropping like the bass. There's also some yada, yada about the stereo, but who really gives a crap?

Mechanically, there also doesn't seem to be much ado about mutton here, the 170-horse M20 barely warranting a mention in the ad, other than the fact that it has at least 194K on the clock as that's when the odometer broke, as these things inevitably do. Sporting far fewer miles is the transmission, which the ad claims was replaced just 5,000 back. That's all well and good, but then you come to the part about that transmission being an automatic. Yep, that's right, just like Grandma's car, or that awful piece of crap you might have taken your driving lessons in from a place like Dootson.


Oh noes!

Okay, now that we've had our buzzkill, let's get on with the hanging, er, I mean voting. The seller of this clean and two-dooriffic 325is is asking $5,200 for the honor of keeping the 3-series coupe dream alive. What do you think about that, based on the pictures and his description, is it a worthy torch bearer? Or, does that price and lack of row-yer-owness make this a 3-series you'd as soon just torch?


You decide!


Western Slope Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to xsnowpig for the hookup!

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