MotorWeek | Retro Review: '90 BMW E30 318iS

Anyone watched all so far?

[Gentleman...Driver]

I am racing an E30 318iS on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Strange to see one of those in factory new condition. Greetings from Dortmund, Germany. ;)

[TheTechCguy]

These days, the E30 is now considered a classic. That older gen 2002 he showcased, in the beginning, now antique.

[syrgrad]

That video makes me miss my '91 318i convertible. I averaged 27MPG pretty consistently, and that was with a 4.21 rear diff versus the 318is' 4.10 gearing. Best improvement I made to my car was replacing the dual-mass stock flywheel with a single-mass unit from the M20 powered 325i. Another option (maybe it was a dealer installed option) was fog lights which I retrofitted to my car.

[whoohaaXL]

60-0 in 100 feet was KILLER in that time. Still is now actually....New Corvettes with Carbon Ceramic brakes only do ~92 feet or so.

[patrickmichaellangan]

The song playing on the radio during the audio segment is Midnight Oil's 1988 hit "Beds Are Burning".

[SPFanatic]

This really was the successor to the beloved 2002 and earned its nickname as the "Junior M3."

[MetikalMan]

They really should have named this 320is. It’s a 1.9L 4 cylinder. It deserves the higher badge number it’s sooo good. That braking performance is insane. I think the E39 M5 does 60-0 in 95ft.

[willzer]

Christ I God damn love car reviews of last millennium's vehicles

[UrbanSophistic]

Crazy that this model was only available with a manual -- and today almost every BMW can only be had with an automatic.

[getdealtwithquick]

My favorite model in the series, the M40/42 was a fantastic motor. Only one with 4 valves per cylinder in the E30s, made it rev-happy, comparably powerful & more economical than any other motor for the chassis, M20s all rev'd like molasses. I managed to get 41mpgs once - with 2 people and luggage (we were trying)! The M40/42 also didn't suffer from the dreaded oil starvation that caused many of these cars' cam-shafts to wear out resulting in annoying diesel-like motor sounds and poor performance. These can easily go 200k+ miles.

[pagodacloud]

E30 is historic car forever on the road ❤

[threeer]

Glorious that it came with ONLY a manual!  I've been looking off and on for a three to five year old used BMW, and it seems like 99% are now all automatic.  Sad...

[bvedant]

The G42 230i captures most of what this E30 318 gave us back in the day.

[TimSlee]

2:22 The M40 318i from the same year is just half a second slower to 60mph and has a very similar quarter-mile time

[koneking]

Just bought one, pick it up tomorrow :)

[KingCast]

Guys.... where are your E28 tests??? I had a 533i and still have a 535is. I know you love the E34 535i but the E28 is still a great car and stays together better than the newer car.

[barryervin]

Back when 0-60 in 9.7 seconds was fast, and people didn't obsess over "hard touch surfaces".

[adammarkowitz]

Different time on Planet Earth. These cars were slow by today's standards, but had beautiful styling, little jewels, they were. Does any modern BMW have beautiful styling?

[losangelos]

so funny how they rant about the "confusing ventilation system" in each E30 video...maybe E30s should have come with an instructional WW2 cartoon on VHS.

[landyachtfan]

WTH is up with the audio on this one?!!!!