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You know the market’s fucked on Miatas when a clean Z3 might be worth less than a running Miata. In theory… that is. Before someone says “this one isn’t clean?”
Since I can do all my own work I would have been salivating at this car. If you are like Hoovie and pay others, but unlike Hoovie don't get paying content out of it, this is a car to stay away from.
Exactly. There are many, many Z3's available on the used market in very good condition. The values have shot up. If he puts 10k into this one then 12k is still less than what he'd pay for an already sorted out example with the same year, engine and features and colors, and his would have new tires, suspension and basic tune up.
@@jbrian53 Yeah, and also, if he buys a sorted one, he can't make content on a sorted car. Sorting it out brings sponsors, views and money from the video series.
@@mro4ts457 - "There's nothing more expensive than a used BMW..." But I hope yours pays you back. That drivetrain maintenance sounds insane (I replaced a whole Honda engine for a few grand FFS, low mileage unit from Japan, car ran just like new.)
@@revmatch4515 He can make content about the Z3, but the content he has made doesn't match his stated goal. He simply needs a good example car for his collection and fix a few quirks. They're widely available. But, saying that would be inconsistent with his assessment of the Z3.
@@mro4ts457 For sure. It makes way more sense to buy a solid example for a fair price and then address a shorter list of issues. That trashed Z3 can help keep a dozen others in great condition (like mine).
Yeah you never know what to expect when tyler is involved. I dont blame him though, hes worked hard to earn his money and he enjoys throwing it around for youtube videos. That's why we love him lol
Are they REALLY bad decisions? Let's be honnest: IF Hoovie was making such bad decisions, he wouldn't have the money to buy cars anymore and his channel wouldn't be THAT big. He branded his channel as a "bad decision" channel. BUT, he know what he is doing. And that's why he's making money with his channel. He know what it take to entertain the viewers and do it. All of the risks he take are calculated ones. And they pay.
@Darrin R. - EV battery technology is a heavy, expensive, unreliable and environment-destroying fiasco... plus where will the generation and charging infrastructure be for all these cars? Argentina is getting ruined by massive polluting ventures of lithium mining. We should just have an alternative combustion fuel.
Tyler’s account when it sees those beaten cars: *Oh crap, there we go again* The beaten cars when they see Tyler: *Thank God, I will survive* It’s practically a REBIRTH.
Gee, Hoovie. You purchased this heap specifically for the additional content it will provide. Yet you still pretend you are having second thoughts on the purchase and whether it will be "worth" your time and money to fix.....oh, my....the repetative, contrived drama lures me back every time.
What I love the most about your content Tyler, is that no matter how much you’ve made (enough to afford most of your dream cars) you will still happily spend what most of your watchers could afford and use them in your videos. Thanks for not forgetting where you came from man. Cheers
That happened to me with a Lincoln Continental for $3k. The owner told me the transmission was bad but it turned out to be a misfiring motor which confused the ECM and TCM. 1 $80 dollar coil later and 8 new spark plugs for about $50 and the car ran like butter.
Full set of sparkplugs for 50 bucks? Jeesh how times have changed, my lowered 2wd ranger xlt is only a 4 banger but has dual plugs per cylinder and recommended plugs are around 18~ a piece lol
@@tbozzz8785 They were Motorcraft spark plugs too. I have a habit of buying certain things from the dealership or from an OEM supplier. I do like American cars for their abundant and cheap parts. The Bosch platinum plugs for my Mercedes on the other hand worked out to $80 for 6.
It's going to bring a stack to Hoovie as well. He'll recover all the repair costs and most of the outlay with his track day etc. The Magazines will come for it and it'll draw a lot of sponsorship through the YT and connected network he has put together.
Realistically you could have gotten a nice one instead, but this one deserves a second chance. The fact that it's in that bad shape and still driving fairly nicely is proof it should survive
This thing is worse than a hoopty, this is a gigantic pile. This car is going to take at least $10,000 even make a presentable condition car, not even restoring it to decent condition.
@Jeff Mac In Johnny’s defense, at least he doesn’t sit there in front of Tyler after he hands him the bill looking at fantasy/luxury items on his computer like David likes to do.
6:20 FYI Hoovie, the sorry state of the interior (and the car in general) is a result of crappy choices of materials made by BMW and poor care, not where it was assembled.
@@fit_pharmd4830 call me a gluten for punishment but id be very happy to spend a week digging that Cherokee out to see what's left. Where I am in Canada the cars melt in barns so that seems pretty good haha
@@sleedog11 I'll admit part of me wants to see someone try! I didn't realize Canada was so hard on vehicles? I guess it's bc of the fluctuating weather...
I can make your wish come true. I have an e36 that could use just a few things before driving it home. Bonus is I am not horribly far from him to get it there for you.
Half a lifetime ago I lived in Columbia, SC, not too far down the road from where these were put together. I was good friends with the sales manager of the local Bimmer dealership & got a phone call that they had just received the very 1st 6-cyl version of these of these made. I hot-footed it down there, she threw me the keys & said have fun. It was arrest-me red & the most beautiful car I'd seen in my then 24 years existence. I hooned around in that car for an hour or so, filled it back up & wiped it back down. I never wanted anything so bad in my life save for the E30 M3 that an acquaintance of my mother let me hot dog once. Good times and a part of me still wants 1 of these. I think these were among the pinnacle years of BMW reliability vs looks vs performance.
IMO the condition of the vehicle at this age has less to do with WHERE it was made and more to do with ownership and the care that the individual invested in it. After all the Accord and Camry are both built in America and they are benchmarks for quality, but you can still find ratty examples of those too. Just saying. 😉
The American workers were building these with what the German engineers and designers specified. It wasn’t like a bunch of Americans got together, held a gun to the Germans head, and said, “let’s make a crappy BMW “!
@@TheRealDougEstale No, but I know especially the quality of the Z3, which was the first one to come out of the new US factory, and this was made "american style", with the attitude "Its good enough..." The quality in the American plant got better over time however. The Z4 was a total different car from a quality point of view for example. However on top of this, this specific car got threated like shit by a person who obviously didnt even had enough money to buy new tires. Those cars got abused a lot.
The 2.3 badge comes from the e36. In the early 90s they sold the e36 with the m50. The top of the line non M was the 325i with a 2.5l m50b25, and it made around 192hp when they switched to the m52 all the engines made a little less power. the m52b25 (2.5l) only made 170hp. they introduced the 2.8l 328i m52b28 with 193 hp to replace the 325. but because the new 2.5l made less power than the original they marketed as the 323i, so people wouldnt be disappointed when their new 325 was slower than the old one. And that naming scheme carried over to the z3
The glovebox thing is a design issue, not an assembly issue. Don't blame US workers for BMW's failure to properly design the latch and/or source a part of sufficient quality.
I have to say, he talks about USA build quality but the cars were assembled in SC from global parts. BMW is still the owner company who designed and made/purchased the parts. So its still Germany Quality just cheaper.
@@johnplovanich9564 Don´t cry buddy, if everybody would get offended like you, a "proud" American, he would get offending when he moans about other cars. And of course itś about buying a hooptie and taking it to the mechanic. What do you think this channel is about? Should he start a cooking show? Or walking in the American flag and glorifying anything? Grow up.
That's rough... really rough. The interior alone, even with the cheap 2nd hand seats is going to be insane. The bodywork seems good, so a paint job wouldn't be too bad. The drivetrain seems really solid though. It's almost a choice of ripping out the drivetrain and finding a better body/interior to shove it in. But this is Hoovie.
I haven't looked since the market went crazy, but I'd look for a better example. He's already at 5,500 and it would still look like crap. Spending more for a nicer example is almost always worth it, unless you just like doing the work yourself.
I don’t know, a quick search I did showed nice ones are 12k-15k now for one of the six cylinder ones. There are a couple in the 6k-8k range that look pretty good but even a totaled one was selling for 5k. Really his only problem is the interior and with new-ish seats and some glue it might turn out okay for a while at least
@@MrRedcon1 Tyler will make money off the 2 or 3 videos this thing is in, so it doesn’t matter much for him. It fits his gimmick, but I don’t think you could make that car nice for less than buying one.
Thanks for this video. I have a new to me z3 that has a small punch list of things like the sagging glove box and a few other things. So far I have enjoyed the simplicity and fun of this car, not to mention the good gas mileage which we can all appreciate these days. Keep up the good content!
I feel like at this point we are just enabling him and we should all agree to stop watching these videos. On the other hand though it is rather entertaining.
Yeah I thought he was joking when he first mentioned the dream team. Literally the car guy version of walking around downtown with no shirt and pants around ankles, whipping yourself on the back saying hail Mary's
The M54 engine is excellent as long as you keep up with the cooling system and don't run it hot. One positive is many of the parts on that car are shared with the E46 3 series and are readily available and fairly inexpensive. The oil leaks it has are all extremely common on those engines. I think this whole BMW thing might buy the car ninja a better yacht than the car wizard has.
Bought a garage find Z-3 Feb. 2022. Only 43K miles. It was covered with plastic tarp covered with bird turds. It was knee deep in Cooper Zeon tires. Had the cooling system rebuilt. New Bilstein shocks and struts. Drove from KC area to the Fla. Keys, then to North Shore of Lake Superior. Soon going down Rt.66 to the Pacific Coast Highway. Have owned over 100 cars in 65 years of driving. Never had a sweeter car to drive. Can set the cruise on 80 and still get 27 mpg. Bought this for my wife for Valentines. Hid the keys from her. I'm cold blooded.
I'm 6'2" and I honestly don't fit that well in the Z3. If you want a convertible get a Z4. I had a Z4M for a couple of years and that is a great car for taller folks.
@@macattack57 Totally agree on this, 6'5 myself and test drove the Z4 several times and a perfect fit compared to any Miata, Solstice or Elise (not bad actually but awful to get in and out of). Have yet to try a z3
The average back yard mechanic could have a good time fixing this and save a lot of money using aftermarket parts. Everything the Ninja found was relatively easy to fix. Doing it yourself would also knock at least a grand off the estimate.
The irony everytime I see these videos is that people keep coming to the Ninja's shop and spend thousands of dollars to fix their $800 - $7K worth of BMWs, while the mechanic himself is driving a Ferrari 360 to work. Can't they take a hint?
@@BillLaBrie I wasn't talking about Tyler, who obviously is doing all this to make money. I was talking about the Ninja's other customers, who go to his place spending a lot of money to get their cheap BMW fixed, just so they can commute.
@@aabidamn My point still stands. Lots of these guys with $800 cars intend they fix up know the project can pay for itself (or more) if they put it on RU-vid.
Of course you can save a BMW. To save something you just have to make sure it never suffers once again. You quickly and painlessly put it out of its misery.
I have a ti silver 2001 330ci slicktop, with a manual gearbox and the sport package. Manual heated sport seats, bone stock except the piano black trim was replaced with cube trim, a Bluetooth interface, and a quafe limited slip.
A good friend had a 528 of that period, and it was really great for road trips. We used to drive from Norway over to Sweden several times per year and that car held up very nicely indeed. Plenty of power and good handling made it a fun car to trash around bends and good comfort and quite silent made highway cruising quite nice.
My first thought seeing Johnny on the computer -- financial planning, Wizard style. Precious metals? Light aircraft? Objet d'art? It's a much bigger world when Hoovie is paying the tab.
That is the kind of project that you take to a shop to evaluate (codes etc) to see what it needs and then learn how to do it yourself, saving the $200/hr. shop charge. As long as it doesn't require special tools, it should be able to be done. It would make a cheap and fun car. Not worth doing a restoration on as it would cost more than it's worth.
Tyler may well value his time at far more than $200/hour. BMWs always require special or proprietary tools. He won't lose money when the value of video content is considered.
I knew a guy who had one of these back in the day. I was a kid and I thought it was so cool. He had a sub in the trunk, and a PS2 Slim in the center console hooked up to an aftermarket double din radio.
Sorry for your Z3 Dude. I bought a 2000 M Roadster in December of 1999 and have babied her since. ONLY 135,000 miles and the only problem I relate to yours is the glove box. You might be able find a kit to fix it though. There's some easy to replace bushings for the rocking seat too, (find the YT video on them). I also recently found someone who sells custom leather seat replacements. Clean her up and you'll have one of the most fun cars to drive!
Johnny is such a great addition to your channel! How you found two great mechanics in the same city who also run great RU-vid channels is amazing! Must be something in the water...
People in Kansas are pretty honest. My girlfriend’s dad is a big BMW fan, I got him to start seeing Johnny. The guy is just as polite and charismatic in person as he comes across on camera. Guy does massive business, stuff will be scheduled a solid 2 weeks out
I've owned 2 z3's a 96 and currently an oi in the bond color.got it at copart for 1,250. 160,000 miles on it now.i replaced passenger side and full paint in original color everything works and interior is great.im in it for about 3,500 bucks but I love my Ziva(thats her name)its a 2.3 manual most beautiful car in my stable and most fun to drive.thanks Hoovie john from arizona
Fix everything that's wrong with it. Where I live the cheapest is $12,000 cdn so if you put 7K into it you'll be breaking even with the cheapest. But you'll have a well sorted car and you'll get top dollar for it which is closer to $22K and they are even listed for $28K. If the engine and drive train is good you've got a TON of meat on the bone to move for a change.
I had on of those a project car. The interior it’s mostly junk plastic everything rattles like crazy. Working on it was a literal pain and blood sport! Every edge of Metal is honed to a fine edge! On the plus side I had the standard 6 cylinder. That engine is smooth with a very flat torque curve. It just keeps pulling. I was in love with that engine. I no longer have the car as I have passed it on.
For $2k and that mileage that's not a terrible deal. If this was picked up by a weekend mechanic or enthusiast they could have it all fixed up and have a nice weekend sportster for about $3500 all in prob. Throw aftermarket suspension on it, and some Walmart tires and your good to go. All the little things can be fixed over time like the interior bits.
Almost there. Can't wait to see the entire fleet together at the track. Tyler you should contact an automotive magazine to do an article and photo shoot. If BMW won't even acknowledge that era of perfection, then at least we can enjoy your celebration of them.
@@Roderickdl Mostly was just aesthetic pieces. Interior trim pieces were mostly done by Chrysler. Some of the sheet metal and painting was done by Chrysler. However the mechanical components were all Mercedes and those had great reliability
I like how much Ninja's first order of business is to fix what he can immediately before delving into anything else. You know straight away that this is his bread and butter.
By the sounds of it Hoovie isn't intending on repairing the Powered Soft-top Roof then, as he only mentioned the Rear Windscreen to be repaired/replaced in the Soft-top... But personally i think the BMW Z3 would look much nicer with a Removable Hard-top Roof fitted to it over the Soft-top, like that is on to BMW Z8 that Hoovie also recently purchased but that would mean tracking down one of the Hard-top roofs to be fitted which would be a extra expense but i think the BMW Z3 would look better with one fitted!
That interior appears to be inspired by my 1968 2K2. Cardboard hell, same loose and mangled seats. Even new, you had to stand 20' away to appreciate the look.
@@edkalsbeek1765 A clean 1.9 liter Z3 (4 cylinder) with low miles sells for nearly 10k partly due to the currently crazed used car market. Covid also got people buying convertibles as something fun to do locally while social distancing. Very low miles and a manual transmission will top 10k. Clean examples with the more powerful engines sell for between 10 and 20, and the M models regularly sell for more than 20.
In 1996 BMW announced the Z3 would be exclusively built at their new Spartansburg plant in the US. I worked for BMW at the time and anxiety about losing German engineering, build quality and fit and finish was very high. To dispel this BMW created a video for dealers. After glorious aerial shots and impressive robotics, on comes a woman in a do-rag who says " last week on I was schuckin' chickens...NOW I'm buildin' YOUR BMW!... You could feel the air being sucked out of the room. When the first batch arrived, customers kept coming back complaining that the cabins were flooding in the rain...turned out the chicken schuckers forgot to run the drainage hoses out of the chassis....BMW Kwality
as someone with a 2000 Z3, any idea where the water gets into the trunk from? no one, including the dealer, has ever been able to identify the leak.. It mostly lives in the garage so not much of a problem, though sometimes.....
This has to be lost media, right? Please tell me this is actually real lmao. I have an Israeli embassy-owned 2001 BMW X5 3.0i, surprisingly held up well, I guess the US quality problems mostly depend on how the owners treated it.
@@fpnbrian '99 2.8 owner here. - Third brake light gasket - Taillight gaskets - Radio antenna grommet - Bootlid weatherstrip (not too common, but worth checking anyway) - Bad butyl strip between the top and the body* - Soft top leak somewhere else at the back* - Blocked soft top drains behind the seats* * All 3 of those could let water into the top well. If water gets in there, it will find its way into the boot along the rear firewall. Remove the carpet, and see if the boot floor is flooded against the firewall. If this is the case, keep the boot open (carpet out) while someone lets water run down the top at the back window. Then see if water finds its way through the seams under the top well. You can also remove the carpet inside the top well and check there.
I worked at a car dealership in the early 00s and a mint condition 1981 Datsun 280zx came in from a trade in and it had like 12,000 miles. Long story short she got it from her deceased son who collected cars. During inspection I noticed the passenger seat wouldn't move so I glanced to look down at the track and found... a loaded .45 cal handgun. Turns out he was a collector and they "lost track" of that one. Rumor was he had actually been murdered in a drug deal gone wrong. Fun times.
Is the Ninja playing a tape to you at night saying “buy the worst BMWs you can… bring them to me and give me all your money” because it’s working, and we’re right here for this content! 🤣
Tip coming from a $2000 z3 owner: check the driveshaft parts such as center bearing and the flex disc on the output shaft of the transmission. (Edit): brake issues and lights is probably due to the abs module.
Tyler! I have a lead on a 2001 E46 M3 former falken tires show car. It's supercharged, carbon fiber wide body, 6 speed! Annnnnd it has under 30k miles.
Here in the UK, we had a 323i AND a 325i for the E36. Both had 2.5 inline sixes, but the power output differed. I'd bet that's why your Z3 has a 2.3 badge. It was marketed as the lower power model.
