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Home  JST's Cornered Test Drives My E36 v. E46 thoughts (very long)
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My E36 v. E46 thoughts (very long) |
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Written by JST
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Monday, 02 June 2003 |
OK, so here are some impressions of the E46 M3 from a dyed-in-the-wool E36 owner.
You may recall, if you spend too much time here, that I took a couple
of brief test drives of the E46 M3 over the past couple of months, and
came away underwhelmed both times. My primary complaints were familiar,
and broke little new ground: Not enough performance difference, too
expensive, too little steering and road feel, sluggish throttle
response, etc.
So, I ended up with one because…
It’s hard to say what the tipping point was, but it had a lot to do
with a couple of long roadtrips I took in the E36 convertible. I
realized that it was just not a car that I derived any pleasure from on
long highway drives. It was too loud, primarily, and with the car
stuffed full of luggage you can’t put the top down anyway. So I started
looking at options.
My price range was 45-55, though the upper number would really have
been a stretch. I looked (and drove) a 540i 6 speed, and looked at (but
didn’t drive) a ’00 M5 (and considered some other M5s for sale). In the
end, though, the 540 was too far in the other direction. Too big, too
loafy, not taut enough. The M5 (at least from the passenger seat) felt
better, but it too was much more car than I need, and very expensive.
Which brought me back to the E46 M3. As with Goldilocks, it sits right
in the middle. The E36 M3 I’ve got was too loud and too small to be a
trip car. The 540 was too big and too soft to be a canyon carver. The
E46 is somewhere in between.
After about 500 miles, I can also give a better comparison of the E46
and E36. The bottom line is that these two cars are more similar than
they are different. The E46 is quieter, more isolated, faster, and has
a much more solid platform, but the DNA is the same. They behave fairly
similarly.
That said, the E46 clearly has capabilities that the E36 just doesn’t
have. At city speeds, the difference in acceleration is not that
perceptible. Sure, the E46 may be quicker, but the E36 feels nearly as
fast, and that’s what really matters. But get the E46 on the highway,
and suddenly you can find the extra 90 hp. The E46 just walks and talks
from 70ish on up, and you can go from “see you in court” to “come with
me while we impound your car” in less time than it took to read this
sentence. The E46 actually has a bit more engine and exhaust noise, and
the mechanical sounds from all those valves and chains and cams
thrashing about is pretty cool. Thumbs way down on the coffee-can
sound-alike exhaust note, though, which intrudes on practicality too
much for the raspy fart-tip sound it produces at WOT.
The handling is also pretty impressive, comparatively. Again, at lower
speeds, the difference is not obvious. But on freeway off-ramps (or on
a wet autocross course) the E46 digs in and lets you do things
comfortably that the E36 feels nervous doing. And that’s even with
Konis on the E36. Believe it or not, body roll on the E46 is also less
than on the E36, or at least that’s my perception. The difference
between the E46 coupe and the E36 convertible in terms of chassis
rigidity is like the difference between uncooked and cooked vermicelli,
but even against the E36 sedan the extra stiffness of the E46 is
noticeable.
The E46 offers a number of minor improvements v. the E36. The seats,
for example, are more supportive, and the steering wheel is thicker and
smaller. OTOH, the E36 has a better shifter, with less notchiness and a
shorter throw. The mirrors on the E36 are smaller, but shaped better
and so more useful (especially the inside mirror—the oval mirror in the
E46 is a triumph of form over function).
I’m not going to dwell on the isolation piece. It’s there, and you
either deal with it or you don’t. You either get used to it, or you
don’t. At highway speeds, it’s nice—yesterday I drove out to Dulles
first in the E36 and then in the E46, and while the drive in the E36
was a bit wearing, I could have done it three or four more times in the
E46. However, the E46 is big and fast enough that it feels like its
idling until you get it above 50 or so; you best be sure that your
favorite twisty road has a high speed limit (or a dearth of
constabulary), because the limits on the E46 are so high that
navigating most curvy roads at legal speeds is sort of a yawner.
There are a lot of other random observations. Despite being bigger, the
E46 has less underhood space. The ZKW ellipsoid headlights are better
than the bi Xenons. Auto leveling is weird and distracting until you
get used to it, and even then it inspires a vague sense of nausea as
the light cutoff does things slightly out of phase with the car’s
movements. Steering wheel controls are nice to have. There’s more, but
I’ve already gone on too long.
Originally posted on bimmerfest.com.
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