It’s tough to be a sports car enthusiast these days. If you want something fun and sporty, it can get expensive, even for moderate performance. Admittedly, the internet hasn’t helped. As good value sports cars are highlighted by the community, their popularity rises and so too does their value. Many BMWs have fallen into this trap, as almost all generations of M3 have shot up in value. That doesn’t mean there aren’t still good deals on M3s, though, and Cars & Bids recently highlighted one in its latest video: the E93 BMW M3 Convertible.
Right now, the word is already out about how good the E92 M3 is. Most really clean, sorted ones are fetching around $50,000 – $70,000 on Cars and Bids and Bring a Trailer. That’s a lot of money for a nearly 20 year old M3, and almost as much as a brand-new M3. And E46s have been pricey for a long time. The E93, however, is essentially the exact same car as the pricey E92, but around half the price online. You can snag a nice one in the $20,000-range, which suddenly makes it very attractive.
The E93 might actually remain a good deal for some time, as it was never the most loved Bimmer. It’s an unusual car in the M3’s history, as it’s the first hard-top convertible and it’s also the last M3 convertible, since the drop-top M3 became the M4 with the next generation. But that folding metal hard-top’s extra weight and funky looks when it was up turned some enthusiasts off. However, it’s still an E90-gen M3, which means it comes with a 4.0-liter naturally aspirated V-8, one of the very best to ever wear a Roundel. And new customers had the choice of either a six-speed manual or a seven-speed dual-clutch, so it has a great gearbox regardless of which transmission you can find.
BMW
While the E93 was never the fastest or sharpest of the E9X M3s, it did have one advantage over the rest of them: the sound. Few engines in BMW’s history sound as good as the S65. It revs to 8,250 and makes the most glorious noises on the way there. It’s deep and guttural at low revs but screams as it reaches the “8” in the tach. It’s a raw sound, too. It doesn’t sound like the boomy turbocharged Bimmers of today, nor does it have any fake crackle tune. It’s just pure, unfiltered V-8 noises and the E93 doesn’t even have the filter of a roof. It may also hold the distinction of the best-sounding convertible M car ever, as all convertible M cars after it had turbocharged straight-sixes that sound OK at best. And, I might be in the minority for saying this, but I think the S65 sounds better then the iconic S54. Also, if you put a Dinan exhaust on it, it’s one of the greatest sounding engines ever. Now imagine piping that straight into your ears.
