Everyone complaints about high maintenance and repair costs on older BMWs but I just haven't seen it. I've had to replace a set of suspension bushings on mine for about $150, a bad cam sensor for $60 and nothing else other than regular maintenance from 100k to the current 138k miles. Of course, the suspension had just been freshened when I bought it, so if not on an E46 with higher mileage you're looking at new front control arms and bushings for a few hundred bucks. Other than that there's not much that's a common failure on the E46 3 series BMWs. If you're looking at 540s then there's a whole other list of things that go bad on those, but everything's well known about them now, just make sure you get a good inspection done before buying. As for price, a decent 99-01 3 series can be had within your budget.
Scott
