e36 M3 for daily

[ELIXIR]

get an e39 530i. The m54 is super reliable. EASY AS pie to work on. I do major services on those all day long and they are cake to work on. People say the e30 is easy to work on. The m54 motor for me is my bread and butter and I find that a lot easier to work on (cause im used to it)

lol good luck with the buy

[rThor432]

The E36 M3 is a great car. I paid $10k for my sedan 5 years ago and it has been an excellent investment. Even with 202k miles it drives like new. I average 25mpg driving daily with 75% of that being city driving. I can manage 30mpg if I maintain a 65-70 mph cruise on the highway. A/C system is ice cold and the heat is hot. My interior is solid other than the sagging headliner and splitting stitches on the rear seat.

Basically, it's a great dd for me. I bought a Mini Clubman for dd duty last September and I'm getting rid of it now because the M3 is just more fun to dd.

For what it's worth, I mixed daily duty between me E30 318is, S52 E30, and E36 M3 for about 3 years-- they were all great daily drivers for me..

[nrubenstein]

I DD a 1995 M3. Besides it being clapped out from the PO not taking care of it, it's pretty nice.

Basically, get the nicest one you can afford. 1995/96-99 debate will pop up. Who cares. If you drop a nice dime on one you'll get a good one. Service history, like any car, is a must.

Danny pretty much covered it. Also look for the vanos rumbling. Sounds like marbled being ground around in the top front of the engine.

RTABS too. They'll wear tires like a mother fucker.

The basic advantage of the '95 is that it's easy to get away with an engine swap in it. Other than that, the 3.2 is slightly better, but condition is really the only thing that matters.