[LAP1DOUG]

I have an E46 M3 which has been very reliable. Some folks will no doubt recall the rod bearing problem these engines had when they first came out, but BMW did the stand-up thing and replaced every crank bearing in existence, and gave a 100,000 mile warranty.

The E92 M3 that you are considering is a somewhat different animal from mine. It is even heavier than the E46 M3, and the V8 engine is probably the first and last that you will see in an M3 (BMW seems to be going turbo crazy these days). I know several people who track their E92 M3's regularly, and they are hard on brake pads due to all the mass, but otherwise seem very reliable.

Any BMW is a McStrut suspension design like all Porsches, which has poor camber curves in roll. This combined with all that mass up front will make any BMW understeer like a pig, unless you install camber plates and crank in lots of negative camber. But, unless you auto-x or track, this is not an issue that you will probably ever notice.