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An 81-year-old pilot bought a Salmon Silver BMW M3 new in 1988. Yesterday, 38 years and 51,100 miles later, he sold it on Cars & Bids for $120,000. It's the highest price any M3 of any generation has reached on that site.

The car

It's honest rather than perfect. The paint is original apart from the wing, and there are a few chips, a door ding and some wear inside. It kept its factory build sheet, Style 5 wheels, sunroof and leather. The owner added a Metric Mechanic blueprinted gearbox, a Dinan chip and a Z1 steering wheel, with every factory part included. He did all his own work, with the same care he gives his airplanes.

The auction

For most of the week it looked like a normal E30 sale, sitting around $70,000 as the final stretch began. Then it took off. The seller lowered his reserve at about $92,000, and two bidders traded $500 raises until one gave up at $120,000. Roughly $50,000 was added in the closing stretch alone.

The two highest M3 sales ever on Cars & Bids are now both E30s: this one at $120,000, and a modified 1988 at $110,000 in 2024. Every M3 below them on the list is a modern car.

Meanwhile, in Fresno

The same day, a Cinnabar Red 1988 M3 with 71,962 miles sold for $93,000 on Collector Chassis, a platform many of you might not know. Its 15-year owner sits on the BMW CCA's Executive Board and started Legends of the Autobahn, where this car won its class. What a result for a smaller platform: $93,000 without the audience of the big two.

Was either a record?

Not overall. Bring a Trailer holds that, and the E30 owns the top of its M3 list: 7 of the 12 highest M3 sales on BaT are E30s. The standard-car record is $250,000, for an 8,000-mile 1988 in 2020. A 1990 Sport Evolution made $256,556 there in 2021, and another made over $540,000 at RM Sotheby's this summer.

What E30 M3s actually sell for

Over the last twelve months, most E30 M3s sold between $60,000 and $80,500. Mileage does most of the sorting.

The takeaway

The right E30 M3 now clears six figures without a Sport Evolution badge. One owner from new, a clean story and two determined bidders turned an $80,000 car into a $120,000 one. As one commenter put it, all you need is two bidders.

Thinking of selling yours? Ask Sam at goasksam.com and he'll tell you where it should go. (all based on data, not AI).

If you've ever wanted a twin-turbo V12, there has never been a cheaper way in than an old S65. And this 2006 on MB Market has caught my eye for one reason: somebody else has already paid the bills.

It's a W220, RENNtech-tuned to a listed 670 horsepower, with 76k miles, and it's sitting at $11,500 with a week to go. The current owner has put more than $30,000 into it since 2023. That's nearly three times the current bid, spent on exactly the things that frighten people away from these cars, the ABC suspension and the transmission included.

Why does that matter? Look at what happened to a newer W221 S65 on BaT this week. It sold for $24k. The same car sold there in January 2022 for $46,350! That's about $400 a month in depreciation, before you've paid for a single repair.

Most W221s have sold between $22,500 and $27,500 over the past two years, so this wasn't a one-off.

It's not perfect. There are three minor damage reports on the Carfax, repainted bumpers, and the tune and Supersprint exhaust won't be for everyone, although the stock exhaust comes with it. The transmission has also only just gone in, so I'd want to know how it drives.

But with these cars, the purchase price is the cheap part. I'd rather buy the one where the big bills are already sitting in a binder..

Anyone who reads this newsletter knows I'm a wagon person, so there was no way I was scrolling past this 2018 Jaguar XF Sportbrake S.

A supercharged V6 with 380 horsepower, all-wheel drive, air suspension at the back, and the kind of long, low shape that makes most SUVs look like fridges. Jaguar says it sold fewer than 250 of these in the US. They almost never come up, and when they do, the wagon crowd notices.

What really sold me is the seller. He was a senior Jaguar technician, and he did the pre-delivery inspection on this exact car when it arrived at his dealership in 2018. When it came up for sale again last year, he bought it. He's only selling because of a 90-mile daily commute, and says it's too special to use as a commuter appliance. I believe him.

So what should it bring? The sales so far sort themselves pretty neatly by miles:

30,000 miles: $34,000
32,000 miles: $33,250
36,000 miles: $33,500
44,000 miles: $26,500
45,700 miles: $33,250
55,300 miles: $35,500
69,900 miles: $25,600 (2019 model)
95,000 miles: $25,500

Under about 56,000 miles, most have brought $33,000 to $35,500. Past about 70,000 miles, they settle around $25,500, and the 69,900-mile car and the 95,000-mile car sold just $100 apart. At 84,200 miles, this one sits in that second group.

It isn't perfect. There are dings and scratches up front, creased seat bolsters, some corrosion on underbody fasteners, and a couple of oxygen sensors and a diff seal in the history. There's also a loan on it, so the title follows the payoff.

But a rare, fast, beautiful wagon, with a previous owner who knew it from day one? If it lands anywhere near the numbers, someone's getting a lot of car. I'll be watching.

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