Haha. BMWs are weird. Typical BMW sensor that isn't happy with life.
Seems like you found the right car for your needs. If the family like it then you're definitely winning.
The E46 is my 'daily' but I only do ~1k miles a year. Just need to decide if I should spend big on the 46 and make it factory fresh or sell it and replace it with a 440 or another model (F06/F13 M6s are tempting)! Not much price difference between an M6 and a 440 but obviously running costs will be a lot more on the M6. In an ideal world I'd keep the 46 and buy another car but then people will think I'm a BMW collector. Lol.
I don't think I've ever met anyone that doesn't like the E46. A few weeks back I had a long chat with my postman... He said he likes the coupe shape and how clean it is. He looked at the reg and said ''oh, it's a 2014 model.'' I said no, it was built in 2004. He was genuinely shocked.
Yeah, I've seen the prices climb recently. Quite a few 330s have sold for £10k but that's nothing compared to E39 M5s... Can't find a low mileage, low owner example for less than £35-40k.
P.S. as a dad, you need to do the right thing and make sure your kids own an E46 when they're old enough to drive etc.