If you don't worship at the altar of BMW then you might have a hard time knowing why people go so damn crazy for the E30 M3. For starters, it's a rare car in the US with only 5,300 examples making it stateside. Outside of its rarity, the E30 M3 was designed purely for performance. In fact, the car is considered a homologation because BMW made it so that it could run a 3 Series in Group A. Most of the time automakers build the race car first and then begrudgingly build a road-going version to satisfy racing rules. But not this time.
Powering the E30 M3 was a 2.3-liter four-cylinder rated at 192 horsepower. It could complete a run from 0 to 60 mph in 6.9 seconds and was able to top out at 146 mph. Not bad for a two-door four-seater first offered in the US way back in 1988. Given the E30 M3's rarity and its performance capabilities the cars are quite pricey on the resale market. Sure, you might get lucky and find an abandoned one but if you really want to own this piece of BMW history you'll need to fork over a pretty penny. That's what makes this 1988 M3 such an oddity. It's listed for sale on Craigslist in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for $43,000. According to the seller it is all stock and has 80,000 miles on the odometer. Okay, that's not exactly true.
The seller does mention that an aftermarket radio was installed. The original R12 air conditioning unit was swapped for an R-134A unit. In terms of recent maintenance the body underwent a full restoration in October of 2015 and there's an extensive list of new parts as well. Those include: new tires, brakes, brake booster, ebrake shoes and blower motor. The only bad thing the seller has to say about his M3 is that "the interior could use some updates." But on the flip side the ad mentions that the dashboard is in perfect condition and that the power windows and sunroof work just fine. The photo quality here is pretty damn bad, but this car looks about as good as you'd expect something from 1988 to look, both inside and out.
The VIN registers for an '88 M3 and the owner says there were only two previous owners. All of this makes us wonder what the hell is wrong with this guy or this car. Not to say that the seller is shady, but a (mostly) bone stock E30 M3 for $43,000 is a hell of a deal. A quick search on eBay Motors shows a few E30 M3s for sale but all of them are more expensive and the pricier ones are obviously the stock ones. We found a 1990 M3 for sale on Craigslist for $85,000 and with only 49,000 miles on it but it was modified and none of the original parts come with the car. The point is that this car is a hell of a deal and if you're anywhere close to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and have a spare $43,000 lying around this ad is worth investigating.