oh, and about the different forums... Maxbimmer is my local forum, but I harly ever post on there because it's mostly garbage... Here, there are actually some real tests to our knowledge of these cars (BMW's in general).
And I would want an E30 over an E36 any day (M3 E36, over a 1984 318i, obviously), but other than that... There was a E30 318is with a turbo'd S52 in it, and my E30 were two nice clean examples at the spring cruise, and a whole pile of garbage E36's (and maybe 2 nice E36's... both M3's). They (e36's) really aren't aging well, especially the ones that didn't come with painted skirts (What was BMW thinking not painting the skirts/bumpers?)