It'll be a great car if you catch up on all of the (obviously) outdated maintenance... The 318's are slower... but if you get bored, you can always do an m3 swap (talk to Impulsed7 about that) for some more fun.

The e36's are the Honda of BMW... easily modded... fun to throw around on the road. I doubt you'll be disappointed once you get it back up to where it should be on the quality scale.