Just how bad of an idea would it be to get an E36?

>>17229165
>just how big of a money pit am I looking at here?

How much work can you do yourself?

Parts probably aren't amazingly expensive in and of themselves but if you can't do the work yourself a decent mechanic will charge you an arm and a leg.

Also buying a 25 year old car with 57k on it means you'd immediately be up for changing a lot of worn parts. If they run timing belts instead of chains you'd have to do that too, I'm sure someone else knows which one is applicable to these.

>>17229195
Really depends on the amount of skill required. I can change parts and follow instructions but I'm by no means a mechanic and there's a lot I'm simply not comfortable doing. I do have a few friends who are professionals that might be able to help me out for a decent price if I needed them but that's no guarantee.

>>17229165
Life's too short
Get it

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Mileage is pretty secondary at this age, get one that's been well kept.
Parts are cheap and working on the car is dumb easy

>>17229165
>>17229195
>M50B25
>Timing Belt
M50B25 and M50B25TU both use chains. They're incredible durable engines.

E36 parts aren't really much more expensive than anything else now. A lot of jobs aren't hard to do either. It's random stuff that's hard to do for no reason. At 57k miles the only thing that'd immediately need to be done would be coolant piping. The stock system rusts. VANOS seal as well if it's a TU but that's a given and very easy to do.

Make sure you get the 5-speed though. The automatic in E36 is trash.

>>17229165
I'm wondering if the e36 m3 will ever start appreciating in value. It seems to just keep slumping. Realistically it was the last m3 without shoving THIS IS AN M CAR down everyone's throats

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>>17229243
This. Just make sure to do the work yourself and its relatively cheap.

>>17230328
Yes, but not any time soon. They also are the last M3 too not be overloaded with computers. Er6 M3 definitely has the right amount but sometimes less (E36) is more.

>>17231348
E46 not Er6

>>17229165
They're pretty reliable mechanicaly but check if the cooling system was upgraded that's the weak point. I had the camshaft sensor go bad on me and other electrical problems but i think the previous owner fucked around with the wiring

>>17230109
Just how bad is the auto exactly? The specific car I was looking at is a European import that's currently in the US and it's got an automatic shifter.