Modern-day barn finds don’t come up all that often, but when they do, it’s always interesting to see what caused a car that is otherwise still on the road turn up in a barn covered in dust. That’s exactly what has happened with this desirable 2004 BMW M3, currently one of the hotter generations of BMW’s classic M-car on the collector car marketplace. It’s equipped with the love-it-or-leave-it SMG transmission which has lost all forward gears. The seller intended to convert it to a manual transmission but is now realizing he’s not going to get this project done any time soon. Find the M3 here on eBay with 136,666 miles, a salvage title, no reserve, and bidding currently just over $5,000.

The E46 M3 has become a darling of the collector car world as of late. While it has always been a coveted specimen, the tide keeps rising for all of the classic M cars, but the E46 seems poised to overtake the E36 M3 from a value standpoint, likely owing to the superior driving dynamics and overall day-to-day livability. The E30, of course, has been overpriced for some time now, and while the E36 has had some high watermark sales, you can still find a decent driver for under $20,000. The E46 is reliably north of $25,000 for anything decent, and the best examples are trading hands for anywhere from $45,000 to $90,000 for low-mileage time capsules. Needless to say, most of those are equipped with the traditional manual gearbox instead of the fiddly SMG.

The seller purchased the M3 with a salvage title and the transmission still functioning enough to drive it as needed. However, the car went into the open shed you see it in currently and he never got back to it, noting that now it doesn’t select any forward gears and can only go in reverse. I have seen reports of the SMG cars seemingly being DOA and then a simple fix resolves the issue and it’s back in business. The seller notes it could be the gear position sensor as he can still hear the SMG pump priming, but he obviously hasn’t torn into it at any level to know for sure. The interior still presents well despite having almost 140,000 miles, and Mystic Blue Metallic over black leather is always a good combination.

The good news is this M3 apparently still has a healthy engine, which should make it more compelling to take the seller up on his offer to buy the spare six-speed manual he already purchased for the conversion. The manual swap of the E46 M3 is pretty well-documented at this point, as this generation of the M car wasn’t much different from the E36 in this regard: automatic examples are generally far cheaper to buy, so you can justify the labor and cost involved in swapping an SMG to a six-speed as it will likely be worth more on the other side. Still, it’s by no means a simple process, but it will be worth it if it gets this pretty E46 M3 back on the road. Would you convert it or repair the SMG?