Would You Daily an E36 M3?Anthony's Honest Take
Anthony would happily park an E36 M3 in the garage. Asking it to handle Monday morning is where his answer changes — and where a 370Z enters the conversation.
The E36 M3 still gives enthusiasts plenty to argue about. Whether you should drive one every day comes down to who’s doing the wrenching, what downtime costs you, and how much compromise you actually enjoy.
Transcript
Alright, so for this week, we got a topic of, would you daily drive an E36 M3? E36 M3, awesome car, raw driving feel. That inline 6, true M3. great car, overall.
would I daily drive one specifically? No. Would I like to have one in the garage? Yes, but at the same time, in today's day and age, there's plenty of other vehicles that you can pick up for, you know, a fraction of the price when we're talking about a clean E36 M3.
Uh, you can pick up a 370Z, for example, right? Uh, much cheaper, much more reliable. We can all agree JDM, right? Much more reliable than German power.
Um, is it as fun as an M3? Probably not, but I can, you can make it fast for, you know, a fraction of the cost that you can with the M3. Maintenance wise, it's a lot cheaper than the M3, easier to access parts. there's a bunch of aftermarket parts out there available for the 370Z.
I'm sure there's quite a bit available for the E36 M3 as well. it's just not as much. Prices cost more harder to find. you know, a lot of mechanics aren't really versed in the older vehicles compared to, you know, like something like a 370 or some kind of like, you know, G37 or some kind of VQ or, you know, some type of JDM, newer JDM, or something compared to a Bimmer, right?
New Bimmers, you're taking them to a mechanic, new mechanics that you're going to be taking into is probably going to be the dealership because everything's computerized. Even though the E36 M3 is not computerized. as far as it being a daily driver, definitely not, not the most reliable thing out there. you'd want it to be a weekend car.
You'd want to have a second car that you can daily drive that's more reliable. as far as fun, there is nothing, there's not going to be a car that's going to be funner to drive. Because again, that BMW rear wheel drive feel that's 6MT. Uh, but like I said, reliability wise, big question there, fun wise, no questions.
but again, what you're paying for a clean E36 versus what you're paying for a clean 370Z is day and night, right? Uh, so my personal preferences is would I daily drive one? No. Would I like to have one?
Yes. Would I weekend drive it? Probably yes. More so.
it's the older M3, uh, great fun car. Would not mind owning one. Uh, the 370Z though, something to think about because again, you know, you could buy one for 15, 20 grand with 70K miles, throw a ProCharger on it, throw some big brakes on it. If you didn't get the, you know, get a sport, let's say with the big brake kit in it, you can get, you know, 500, 600 horses out of there, which in my eyes is a baby GT-R.
