The last of the Classic 900's were 1993 convertibles as I recall, with the backwards engine...made clutch work a breeze, but timing chains could be a little problematic. I had a 1990 900S hatchback, non-turbo, and it was a strange item, even the way there really was no rocker panel was weird, the doors cut way under the car, so you stepped across a narrow, flat floor to get in. The seats really are well thought out for normal driving, not a whole lot of lateral support though.

If I had a better E30 for comparison I'd feel better about doing a head-to-head, but I bought my E30 for $400, have put maybe $600-700 additional into it, and while I drive it frequently, it still has some issues...it has 220xxx miles on a broken odometer, and it looks better than it is. Another $1000-1500 in suspension and exhaust work would make a much better driver out of it, and $3000 worth of upholstery and top work would make it a nice driver that was pretty too...that would be a lot of money to have tied up in an automatic 325ic with all those miles on it.

__________________
2002 Ford ZX2
2 x 2013 Honda Civics