1998 BMW M3 EVO Convertible

This car has been owned for the last eight or nine years by a gentleman who lives in California, but has an apartment in Somerset and visits the UK for extended trips twice a year – in non-Covid times, anyway. When he moved to the States, he soon discovered that renting a car in the UK for more than a month at a time was an expensive pain in the neck, so he did the sensible thing and bought a suitable car for using when he was back in Blighty.

He bought the car with a complete service history and has since MoT’d it every year, fixing any issues that arose with a money-no-object attitude: it had to be right so it could fulfil its duty when he was here. Its mileage in his ownership has been fairly small, as you’d imagine, amounting to around 1000 miles a year and bringing it to the current low total of 72,000. However, at the age of 75 he is de-cluttering and after the last 18 months of disrupted travel, he may not keep a residence in the UK much longer – hence the sale.

It presents very well, everything works (yes, even the power roof – just as it should) and it comes with a hard top in contrasting silver that the owner purchased from an acquaintance who sold a similar car.

This car has the SMG gearbox, which also functions as intended. M3 afficionados will be reassured by the receipts in the history file for jobs that kept the engine’s VANOS system, the roof and the SMG ‘box in fine fettle.

This car wears its original shade of Techno-Violet, a deep purple-ish blue. It’s not totally unmarked but it’s very good, with only a few tiny stone-chips down on the front spoiler, minor scratches here and there and a scuff on the rear valance near the exhaust tips. There’s also touched-in scrape on the offside-rear wheelarch. We’re told the Georgian stonework of the car’s cramped storage space bit the M3 during a low-speed manoeuvre. Other than that, the hardtop shows some minor scuffs around its lower edge at the back.

The five-spoke alloys are in excellent shape are shod in 225/45 (on the front) and 245/40 (on the rear) R17 W-rated Continentals, and for those of you who don’t speak tyre, that means they’re rated safe to 168mph. These are the correct size and type for the M3 Convertible. Such things are costly but it’s another sign of the owner’s free-spending approach to looking after the car.

Otherwise, a close look at lamp lenses, glass and shut lines reveals nothing to suggest the car has ever had a thump. Peer down the flanks and you’ll see a reassuring lack of parking dings.

The black hide seats (electric adjustment, of course) have worn well, looking mellow rather than tired, though if you were being picky you might want to feed and re-colour the right-hand bolster of the driver’s seat – always the area that sees the most wear.

It’s quite a trip back in time to see a BMW dashboard from this era, as it’s a real button-fest in the best Munich tradition. The original radio cassette player is still in place, which is good to see. No in-car compact disc unit by 1998? No, the Germans were Europe’s greatest fans of the cassette tape and hung on to them for a while longer than we did.

The varnished veneers around the centre console look undamaged, the carpets are clean and in the boot you’ll find a very hygienic-looking liner and an apparently un-used spare wheel. The drop-down tool tray has all of its original items, too.

The headlining in the hard-top is in good shape and with it fitted, the feel is remarkably like that of a proper coupé. The folding roof, smart and undamaged inside and out, disappears entirely under a hinged tonneau.

That potent, tuneful straight six starts obediently and idles quietly, with none of the lumpiness or rattle that suggests a lurking fault with the VANOS variable valve-timing system. Likewise, the SMG ‘box does its job properly, with the gear indicator on the dash telling you which ratio you’re in…and there are six, plus reverse. No jumping into neutral either.

It sounds great and pulls as it should, but an M3 at full chat with the wind in your hair is better experienced than read about, so you’ll have to make it yours to understand the full glory. There’s a slight squeak from the steering column.

The engine bay is smart and clean but not prepped and polished like a show car. What it does show us is a lack of any worrying drips or leaks and a smart new oil filter housing, replaced not long back at a cost of £200.

BMW 3-series from the E36 generation can rust, typically in the boot, rear wings, jacking points and some suspension mounts. This one, however, has never had so much as an advisory for corrosion in all its years with the vendor, and why would it? It spends nine or ten months of every year asleep in a dry garage.

We like a big, fat history file with an exotic German performance car – it’s not the same as a stone-simple classic British roadster where you can judge everything on condition and appearance. For any species of M3, printed evidence of expert care is vital.

We have plenty of it here. There are stamps in the service book from new up to 2012, shortly before the vendor’s ownership, and since then the annual mileage has been so small that the vendor has chosen to have the car maintained with everything it needs by a local specialist, rather than stick to the book’s intervals.

There are various receipts covering the E36 M3’s fallible items such as roof control units, SMG pressure accumulators and VANOS seals and bolts. Piles of old MoT certificates confirm the mileage history.

This car has been registered on two private plates in the past; it’s now back on its original 1998 S-plate. There is a fresh MoT, expiring August 2022. We only have one set of keys for it currently, but the spares haven’t been missing for long…and they have the vendor’s garage key on the same keyring, so here’s hoping they will be found and included! There is, at least, the original block-type fob waiting in the rear ashtray, though in need of a new battery.

Gone are the days when four-door E36 M3s were offered at £3000, bouncing from one abuser to the next. Even the convertibles and coupés were a good deal less than they are now, which is why you should be wary of anything with a double-figure ownership count.

This car had just four owners before our vendor, who’s looked after it with the commitment you only get from an emotional connection to a car. Despite this, we think this M3 Evo convertible could be yours for only £8000 to £12,000, and remember - it’s being offered at no reserve.

It’s never been lowered, drifted or embarrassed with a set of aftermarket alloys and a Nürburgring sticker. It’s done a very moderate mileage for a 23 year-old car and it doesn’t come with any needs. If it were ours, we would make the touched-in scrape on the wheel arch disappear and then just relax and enjoy one of the all-time great engines in an affordable, useable package.

Viewing is always encouraged and as stated this car is located at THE MARKET headquarters near Abingdon; we are open Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm and to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing to make an appointment. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.