One of my friends is looking for an e36 M3 coupe hopefully in Southern California...Would prefer all original under 100,000 miles.

Anything he should be warned about with this car? I haven't done much research but off the bat I'm concerned about reliability/maintanence. My e46 has been a dream, but something about a 10 year old German sports car scares me.

 

Nothing to be scared of with the e36 m3. They are bullet proof. Many cars have above 100k mileage, and run just as strong as they did with 20k, if not better. Just make sure they have replaced the water pump with a metal one, as the cheap plastic ones fail, and cause major problems.

 

Funny you mention the water pump, I've looked at a few ads and it seems like a majority of them have the water pump replaced with a metal one. . .

 

This should help you out some....

http://tedserbinski.com/files/e36m3faq.pdf

That said...waterpump, radiator neck, thermostat are 3 things to look for.

I have 110k+ on my car and I have put over 500 track miles on it in the past 6 weeks alone. Runs like a champ and was still able to smoke lesser drivers in cars with 2x the horsepower.

I have replaced pretty much everything but the motor as I plan on keeping the car. I did powerflex bushings all the way around, changed all belts, hoses, powersteering pump, etc.

All I can say is that the E36 M3 is the best value or bang for the buck. You can pick up great cars in the 13-19k range. Then, if you really want, you can put 10k into them and have one amazingly fast car that handles like a champ and brakes like you wouldn't believe...but then again, I'm a little biased

SoCal