1998 BMW Convertible 3 Series

It is with a heavy heart that I am selling my beloved 1998 BMW 3 series convertible, especially on its 25th birthday, which in California officially makes it a “classic car.”

The only reason I’m selling it is that my dad gave me his old car and it’s become impractical for me to keep parking two cars on the street.

It’s a beautiful car, it gets great gas mileage for a car its age, and I’ve taken great care of it since I bought it ten years ago. It has 150,000 miles on the odometer, which is practically nothing for a BMW engine.

Of course, its best selling point is that nothing beats driving a convertible with a fast engine on a sunny day in Southern California.

Some caveats:

— According to CarFax, it was in an accident before I bought it. The person I bought it from said it was a fender bender in a parking lot and the only reason he reported it was so his insurance would pay for the cosmetic repairs. I have no way to verify this, but I’ve owned the car for 10 years and it’s never given me any trouble so I don’t think this is an issue.

— It needs a new water pump. Mike at Johannes’ Independent Mercedes/Volvo/BMW (corner of Santa Monica and Fairfax) quoted me $300 for this repair.

— The driver’s seat has a rip (shown in pictures). You wouldn’t need to fix this, it’s just cosmetic, but, if you want it looking like new, Sophie’s Seat Covers on Vine Street quoted me $400 for this repair.

— All the motors that control the automatic convertible top work, but the elastic is shot in places, so it takes two people to put the top up or down. Personally, I don’t mind this because usually I only want to put the top down when I’m going to the beach or a long drive with a friend, but it could be rectified with some fresh elastic.

— The back window is made out of some kind of vinyl/plastic material and it’s gotten foggy over the years and hard to see out of. It needs to be either replaced or cleaned with some of that stuff you see on TV that takes the fog out of plastic (like on headlights) or treated/sanded by a professional. Alternatively, you could just put a new soft top on, which would fix this problem and the above problem. From what I understand, the material itself isn’t expensive, and there are some places in the Valley that would install it for you for a reasonable price.

Even before this car was a “classic,” I’ve seen this exact model sell for $25,000. If you are willing to put in a little elbow grease and do the above repairs, you can get one for a fraction of that price at $7,500

Please send me an email through Craigslist or text me at the number below if you’d like to take it for a test drive.

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