E36 M3 vs Subaru Impreza??

[screwloose]

Having sold my 205 MI16 track car I am now in a position to buy another 'toy'.
I'm looking for something that can do it all ... euro trips, the occasional track day and some daily duties.
Running costs are not a big issue but grin factor is as is a degree of reliability. Practicality is of no real concern either but coming from a stripped out and caged 205 the ability to just jump in a go with some comfort (stereo etc etc) would be welcome.
Ideally I want RWD or 4WD. I have up to 4k ish to play with.
My feeble imagination has thus far come up with E36 M3 (quite like the saloon) or a classic or bugeye impreza of which I prefer the look of the wagon in both cases.
What are the broad merits and pitfalls of the two suggestions? Once I've made a decision I can ask more specific questions around that particular car.
What else should I consider?

Oh and I'd love it to be as depreciation free as poss!
Thanks

Edited by screwloose on Thursday 16th August 18:54

[Motorrad]

Having driven both the E36 is quicker by quite a margin. We're in banger territory here and the Impreza is tuneable/has been tuned so I'd probably go with whatever the best example was given the budget.

[Rollcage]

Does the E36 M3 have much more depreciating to do at the cheap but useable end of the market? Saw a nice Evo saloon on the bay the other day sold for about £2500. A decent one can't get much cheaper, surely?

[Lennard]

The impreza has far more tuning support, the E36 is much better out of the box and more comfortable.

If you want to tune it then i'd personally get a gc8 type r, if you wanted to keep it largely standard then a m3 evo will not disappoint.