e46 or e92 M3

[Moe]

(no less sense financially than her getting a huge extravagant wedding and diamond engagement ring mind you, but I don't know if that's a fight worth having...).

Defo not worth having

Agree with your assessment. e46 m3 will be a 20k car for clean examples. e92 will bottom out at 18-22k, F82 will go to 50k, the sub 50k one will all have dodgy history's, I know of 3 for sale at the moment that I would touch with a barge pole, and because of the styling and tunability they will stay in high demand