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Written by JST
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Wednesday, 27 November 2002 |
Went to Heishman, and after about 10-15 minutes of convincing them I
was serious and not just some punk, managed to get a drive in a 2002 M3
coupe, with 2K miles on it.
Let me preface by saying that I checked my biases at the door. I've
been trying to talk myself into ordering a new M3 for a couple of
months now, and as a result I really wanted to like the drive.
But it's fair to say that I didn't.
Don't get me wrong; the M3 is a great car. It's just simply not as much
fun to drive as my current car. The conclusion was inescapable, and as
much as I want a new car, I can't convince myself that the new M3 is
worth the money over the old one.
There are two main areas of concern (and these will be familiar). The
first is the steering, which feels overboosted and lifeless compared to
the rack in the E36. There is a definite video game element to dialing
in lock, as if the wheel isn't really connected to anything more than a
servo. Not good.
The second is the throttle. I've often thought that TD's anti-DBW
vendetta was a bit extreme, but after driving the E46 M3, I'm not so
sure. Throttle blips that would be perfectly timed in the E36 resulted
in no engine activity in the E46; I would blip the throttle pedal, and
even though I could *hear* the pedal moving, nothing would happen with
the engine. Blipping the throttle for downshifts was an effort
involving predicting the delay, rather than second nature. FWIW,
engaging the sport button reduced this problem, but made the car
unacceptably jumpy in stop and go traffic.
Other than that (or maybe including those things), the car is a very
fast E46. It's substantially quicker than an E36 M3 (especially my
convertible), but it's not *usefully* faster around town; low end
torque is not dramatically different, although there is a bit more of
it. The interior was familiar from my 323, which is not a bad thing,
but there were no surprises. The handling, of course, was superb,
although I didn't drive anywhere near the limit.
Other, little things: The lack of a spare tire, and the provision of
18" wheels, means that I'd never be comfortable on a trip. The
driveline clunk was both noticeable and a bit irritating.
In short, I can't justify the extra expense for a car that has
performance I'll never use but is less fun to drive in the kind of
driving I do every day. Moreover, given two cars with the same mileage
and wear, I'd take the E36 over the E46 every time. The E46 just
doesn't advance the ball in the right ways.
The dealer told me "most people who buy these cars don't need to drive
them first." Maybe if they did, the E46 M3 would be a bigger step
forward.
Originally posted on bimmerfest.com.
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JST's Cornered Test Drives 
