Why is bagging my e30 so expensive? Cheaper routes?

[seven-57]

My deal right now is that I have an '87 BMW 325e that I'm looking to bag. I just moved back to DC for work and city driving is killing me. Roads are terrible and every entrance has a speed bump or a 45* angle. I'm currently on D2 coils and camber plates. I'm thinking that bags are really a matter of survival for me here, but I'm short on money as it is. I'm pretty set on running e-level since I'm just looking to take stress off my drive as a whole and I don't need to be adjusting pressure at every convenience. The issue is, the e-level management happens to run a bit high for my budget - $4,690.00 with Bagyard Supremes up front and back, dual 444C Viair Compressors, and the raw aluminium skinny 5gal tank. Even without all that though it's still $4,525.00. This is the price for the full kit from BagRiders.com.

A good handful of my personal friends have bagged their cars economy style with e-level without spending much more than $3k+ which is where I'd like to shoot. There's a guy on vortex with a bagged A3 in the Audi classifieds and his system ran him shy of $4k full kit. So I'm kind of wondering why his 5 year old car is cheaper to bag than my 25 year old e30? Here's the link to his sale thread.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...forms.-Florida

Any light you guys can shine for me would be awesome. I'm not completely opposed to running V2, but I would absolutely prefer e-level, especially after all the positive testimonials. So I'm really looking for more info on V2 vs. e-level as well as some advice on what you think I should do. I'm wondering if I would really be okay with running a single compressor? Will@BagRiders said it would be good to have two in the rare case that one went out, but also recovery time would be quicker.

I can't entirely buy the kit outright on my budget, so I might just buy things in pieces and build a kit. I really want to install it myself to save money, but to be honest, I have zero experience with electrical and plumbing, so I'm a bit nervous about taking this route. Although I'm trying to use it as a learning experience too. I don't know much about bags at all, so I hope I'm making sense.

This is my child that I'm hoping to bag.

[NegativeCamber]

The issue is the struts. Those bagyards are overpriced and overrated imo. If you can fab or know of a fab shop,you can make your own front struts and rear bag cups for far less. Regardless, bagriders will set you straight on anything you need if you go that direction.

[seven-57]

The struts ARE crazy expensive. I tried pricing things individually to see what the difference in price was between building my own kit, and buying a full one.

Built Kit (all from BagRiders):
-Buying full e-level management with the touchpad + dual 444c compressors would be $2,150.00
-Bagyard Supreme Front Struts ($1,571.00) + Bagyard Supreme Rear Struts ($971.00)
Total: $$4,692.00

Full Kit (from BagRiders):
Total: $4,525.00

So the only amount I'd be saving in the short run buying the kit would be $167.00. In all honesty, I'm not saving enough buying the whole kit to not simply piece it together gradually. I'd save more money in the long run I suppose. I just wanted Bagyard struts because I'm pretty convinced that they're some of the best struts on the market. I'm a strong believer in, "You get what you pay for." so I'll usually put out the money for the better product unless there's something on the market that I know will do the same job. In terms of fabbing my own struts, I just don't know how to compare a custom fabricated set of struts versus Bagyard struts.

[Average_Jerk]

just a heads up. those bagyards dont actually exist

[seven-57]

Whaaaa?? They don't exist? What is this trickery?!

[Average_Jerk]

Whaaaa?? They don't exist? What is this trickery?!

you can pay for them and hope BY decides to build them.

[seven-57]

I'm glad that makes sense...I mean, I guess that's why BagRiders says they're "Made to order"?

[Average_Jerk]

I'm glad that makes sense...I mean, I guess that's why BagRiders says they're "Made to order"?

yea. they arent in stock anywhere in the world. The guys at Bagriders will do anything they can to help get them. But at the end of the day, Bagyard sucks as a company

[seven-57]

I think it's weird that they offer a full kit with those struts then. I mean, I guess that means I would go with Airlift XL's or something?

Bagyard's site has been a mess for a while now, right? Maybe they just need to get their shit together before they start pumping out struts again lol

[Byron]

Its because god doesn't want you bagging his chariot

[seven-57]

God's chariot isn't properly equipped for the roads of Hades in Washington DC.

[NegativeCamber]

The struts ARE crazy expensive. I tried pricing things individually to see what the difference in price was between building my own kit, and buying a full one.

Built Kit (all from BagRiders):
-Buying full e-level management with the touchpad + dual 444c compressors would be $2,150.00
-Bagyard Supreme Front Struts ($1,571.00) + Bagyard Supreme Rear Struts ($971.00)
Total: $$4,692.00

Full Kit (from BagRiders):
Total: $4,525.00

So the only amount I'd be saving in the short run buying the kit would be $167.00. In all honesty, I'm not saving enough buying the whole kit to not simply piece it together gradually. I'd save more money in the long run I suppose. I just wanted Bagyard struts because I'm pretty convinced that they're some of the best struts on the market. I'm a strong believer in, "You get what you pay for." so I'll usually put out the money for the better product unless there's something on the market that I know will do the same job. In terms of fabbing my own struts, I just don't know how to compare a custom fabricated set of struts versus Bagyard struts.

you would be saving alot more than that if you went with airlift universal struts up front and a bellow bag of your choice for the rear. look at the price of the bagyard rear setup. its almost a grand alone. you can use some konis and slam specialties bags on a cup for way less. airlift strut bags are under 800 for the pair. you just need to fab the mounts.

[Alex@BagRiders]

According to BagYard, there is a massive shortage of e30 spindles in Europe to the point where they are almost impossible to find in junkyards. To build an e30 setup BagYard needs to refinish a set of OEM spindles and then build the struts from scratch. The reason they are built to order is because we actually have to send them one of our own sets of e30 spindles first before they can start production. As you can imagine, when people hear this, they aren't too keen on waiting 6+ months for the struts to show up.

Like some of the guys have mentioned previously, your best bet would be to build your own suspension using Air Lift's Universal struts. I would say about 95% of the bagged e30's you see on StanceWorks are using those struts. The rears are pretty simple with a universal bag and aftermarket shocks.

[seven-57]

I'll definitely look into that then. If I still ran the e-level management with touchpad controller and got dual compressors, how much do you think it'd run me altogether?

[Alex@BagRiders]

With the Air Lift struts up front, universal bags in the rear, and the eLevel management with dual compressors, you're looking at about $3000 depending on what other options you choose