This job was on a my Mom's 1989 E30... when we bought it a few months ago, it still had the original tires on it (75,000kms!!)... for all I know, it has the original oil in it, and probably the original timing belt. It had a bit of an overheating problem, so I replaced the thermostat and it still was getting a bit too warm, and the fan clutch had little to no resistance when it was warm. I sent it in to my (BMW only) mechanic to have them give it a good over all checkup. I asked them to replace all belt and hoses (they couldn't get the middle coolant hose in (back/order) , fan clutch, waterpump, belts... basically what a person buying an old BMW should replace, or have replaced when buying one. You never know when the previous owner changed anything, so for "icebrick", that would give him a good idea of what initial cost would be to have the work done for them.
So lets break this down, if you don't replace most of those things when you get the car, you're looking for trouble down the road. At least when you do that sort of work (granted, fan clutch is not an issue), you now have a starting point so you know what intervals you should be looking at for doing the job again in a few years. It's just a good idea, that's all.
Plus, he lives in Sudbury, which you wouldn't want to be caught in winter with a bad belt/hose, so you might as well do this sort of job now, while you have the chance to do it without freezing your hands and face off.
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