Missus had a 316 e30. Was lovely, little go kart like handling, suprising amount of go from the 1.6 (well, up to 80 anyway). Not terribly refined and the inside looks quite dated now (I think the outside shape is a classic tho). Had 130,000 when she got it and she put another 20K on with no problems whatsoever, it got an oil change every 5K and that was it. She even half filled it with diesel and then drove it, after siphoning the tank and a spell on super unleaded it was fine with no apparent ill effects.
That car was pretty much the sole reason I'm now convinced to only buy german and never ever buy a french car ever again
EDIT: Get a non-chav one, the bigger engine variants (ie. the 325) seemed particularly vulnerable to the neon underlight brigade