I always saw look at a cars condtion before you look at its millage.
There are many that will tell you 200,000 Km is considered a baby motor. The motors are bullet proof as long as it has seen the avarage maintenence.
You need to do a lot more homework,( not saying this in a way to sound rude) But check the cars service records. I guess at this point of life it doesn't matter too much if its Jap or Euro import but a owner who has taken care of the car as changed all fluids and coolants between intervals as they should. See if the car had any overheating issues and if the owner has overhauled the cooling system, if not you can do it yourself. The radiator, fan clutch, tstat, water pump. Hopefully the differential was also taken care of and saw fluid changes.
The interior is what I cared about the most, the E36 is notorious for the crappy interiors but once its done its done. depending on the car you may beed a new headliner, A & C pillars, door cards and sagging glove box redone. I did most of those stuff myself on my previous e36. Currently I own a 328i which unfortunately ran into some problems I am trying to figure out,
This forum has 2 and a half camps, 1 is the E30 Camp and the other is the smaller E36 camp. IMO brother, The E36 M3 is one of the best drivers cars out there along with the E30 but I rather pass that since I prefer the looks of the E36 more and it has the better engine. Buy it, you will love the car, for 16K I think you should be able to get a VERY good E36 M3.