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Originally Posted by W///
What a great insightful video. His videos are super well done
I've owned mine for almost 10 years and I've considered selling it many times to fund other M's or a Porsche and I've yet to be able to do it. This car, out of all the M's I own, is definitely the car that's so much more than its performance on paper. What no one ever tells you is that this car has got really good torque at midrange. Never got into it and thought it was slow. As a matter of fact, it's got just the right amount of power that you can really redline through the first few gears and enjoy.
Ironically, this is the least maintenance heavy car I have (apart from crappy interior) but also the only one that's ever left me stranded when the slave cylinder blew 
This video just highlights everything. Long live the US M3:
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+1
I've had my E36 m3/4/5 for 5 years now. I got it by chance because my E90 was totaled and it was the only BMW I could find at the time that had a manual transmission in the area. I never liked the styling of the E36 prior to owning it, but when I went to check it out and took it for a test drive, I fell in love with how it drove. I've also come around on the styling, and its between that and my E39 M5 for my favorite design...Interestingly, they were both designed by the same guy, Joji Nagashima. You simply can have fun at normal speeds without going crazy and its just so enjoyable.
Since I got the E36, I leased a G30 530i (turned in, boring car), bought an E39 M5 (still have great daily), bought an E46 330xi (would be great but 200k miles and not well cared for so I've got a bad impression of it but it was cheap), and bought an E90 335i M-sport.
I still have all of those cars except the 530i, but the one that I enjoy the most and feel the most connected with is the E36 M3. The E39 M5 is a great all around car, but never gives you the emotional connection or road feel that you get with the E36. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to drive the E36 on a long trip...I've taken it from California to Colorado and my back was killing me...the same trip in the E39 M5 and I was way more comfortable.
Regarding reliability, the E36 has been the least troublesome out of all my cars. I have 160k miles, and aside from the clutch slave cylinder that also left me stranded, its been perfect. The Interior isn't the best quality, but aside from sagging headliner, I haven't had issues. I replaced the original headliner with Alcantara and it looks a lot more upscale with the black Alcantara headliner and Magma leather.
Cant say enough good things about the E36 M3, and out of the 4 cars currently in my garage, its the one I'd keep if I was forced to sell 3 of them.