You’ve missed something pretty basic here. NO ONE is paying that kind of money for an E36 that they plan on driving at all. This is in pure collector territory at this price.

Amen.

Dude, I think you need to check your assumptions.

This thing is too worn to be a garage queen / collector prize, and too expensive to compete with a normal M3 as a driver.

$765-$150 (as if a dealers COST is my RETAIL price at O’Reilly’s, but whatever) = $615.

I totally get it - my comment was for His Stigness, geared around not letting the dealer off the hook just because he has to cover “labor costs, overhead, equipment costs, tools, and parts.”

Are they part of the growing “no dipstick” crowd?

My Cadillac dealer quoted me $765 to replace the HVAC blend motor.

Haha - amen to that.  

Now that it has about 200k miles on it, we get about 300 miles before the oil light comes on and we have to top off the oil.

I’m of two minds on this one.

He didn’t even say he didn’t NEED an SUV - he said he didn’t need a truck or a full size SUV, specifically later calling out no need for a third row.

Dealer told me 80k (thus the problem of it breaking BEFORE 80k). Everything I’m finding online is telling me 90k.

So, I daily an old E36 M3/4/5 and my wife drives an Escalade ESV.

Why don’t you ask all the MkIII Supra people about their head gaskets? People who live in glass houses...

I think you’re confusing SOME German cars with other German cars.

True, but not enough to change the above arguments.  

Given the C8 is only $4k more than the outgoing C7, the C8 Z06 could start as low as $85k and the ZR1 at $127k.

Man, you are quite the unapologetic apologist.

Some of those are fair points, but that fact remains that hardware costs money and weighs real pounds.