[pyro530]

They also say something about an E36 M3 vs. BRZ. Well, I bought both, FR-S in my case.

I disagree 100% about BMW maintenance costs being high. With the fact that the E36 is so popular for racing there are tons of aftermarket parts being made for the car still, often with better quality and engineering at a better price vs OEM. Also, because the E36 M3 (and E46 M3) shares a lot of common parts with the standard cars, junk yards can be (and are) a gold mine of parts.
With web sites like Pelican Parts, Bavarian Autosport, ECS Tuning and Turner Motorsport the cars can be very inexpensive (cheap even) to maintain.

I also expect that less then half the people on this forum would actually take the car to the dealer service department, I personally do all my wrenching myself when I can.

For the comments about the "Luxury" factor. There isn't much to be had in my M3, which is just how I want it. Manual Vader seats, turn knob (non automatic) climate control, the only upgrade my car has is the sunroof which I could do without and the leather seats. At 3200lbs it's not much heavier that my FR-S, but makes more power. The S50 motor is also much easier to get power out of with simple bolt-on mod's.