325ix,is, or m3, what would you do in my situation??

[ihavefingers]

i have a 325ix i bought recently, mostly to be my winter car. i was expecting to sell it after like 8 months after i found myself a new car. i have around 15,000-high teens to spend on a car. before i got the ix i was almost set on an evo. but after driving the ix i lost so much interest in straight line acceleration, so that gives me alot of options.
sooooo, if i kept the ix, id put some money into it, fix up the paint, a good suspension setup, some skid plates, put a little into the engine. etc... and id have a fun street/dirt /winter car (there are amazingly fun dirt roads around here, but some get kinda rough, which is why id make some skid plates)
winters around here are pretty cool too, your driving on snow like 90% of the time in winter, though i drove around in an early 80's mercedes with bald tires for a year and i could take it, so awd isnt required, but it is pretty fun.

my other option is get another RWD e30, one in great condition, maybe spend around 10k-13k total, includes, buying car, and mods. and have more of a road specific/track dayish car.

next idea is to buy an e30 m3. for around 15-20 grand i figure i could buy a pretty good one, the e30 m3 is my dream car, and it would be the greatest thing in the world to me if i had one, though im not sure if i have the money and time to own one. id want a little more power, more around the sport evo power, but stock wouldnt be bad, just dont want it to feel too gutless.

but my main concern is reliability, and ive gotten mixed answers on this. ive heard they are extremely unreliable, and ive heard they are like normal european car reliable. so if someone could help me clear this up, that would help my decision making quite a bit.

or i could just get an evo, and keep it mainly stock.

so any help would be great!

[whiltebeitel]

With that much to spend, I'd suggest getting a non-M e30, either the iX (harder to find some specific parts like transfer case and oil pan) or the 325i. with 15k, you can make a very nice e30, but that won't leave you much room for the e30 M3. Plus, who would really put an e30 M3 in the snow and dirt as a daily?

e30's as a general rule are dead-nuts reliable.

oh, and DSM reliability FTL!!!

[archemedes]

you want to answer a question on reliability, as a salvage yard to ship an engine, BMW (no matter what) they will ship with 200k DSM if it has 100k not shippable too many failures (sold used parts for a while, and there were more of them and subaru transmissions than every other brand combined requested, both are low throw away)

[devonjordan]

If it was me, M3 for sure, but Im in socal...

[cferb]

I'd do the m3, a 325is with 10k dumped into it is still a 325is, you'll be wishing it was an m3. Especially if you aren't looking for straight line acceleration. BMWs in general are quite a bit more reliable than other European cars, VW is really the only other German company and they, well, suck for reliability, other than that you're left with a some of the most expensive cars to maintain, ie French and Italian.

It won't be as reliable as a Japanese car, but it will still go forever, the m3 will cost more to maintain, but if you're gonna spend 10k on a regular e30, I have to assume you're gonna do some intensive engine work, and depending what route you go with that, you could end up with something more expensive to maintain.