With every new generation of the two-door 3-series, BMW makes a greater
effort to distinguish this model from its more popular four-door sibling.
For example, this new E46 two-door is fractionally longer and wider than
the four-door and nearly two inches lower. The doors, the hood, and the
trunklid are unique stampings. Even the grille, the taillights and
headlights, and the bumpers are new, and the windshield is tilted back two
more degrees. These changes yield a drag coefficient of 0.30;0.01 higher
than the four-door's, but the lower frontal area results in better
aerodynamics. Still, although BMW dubs this new model a coupe, to most
observers, it remains simply a two-door version of the four-door sedan,
rather than a clearly distinct model.
And that's not necessarily bad because the new two-door shares the
improvements in space and luxury that BMW applied to the four-door. For
example, with the front seats set for six-footers, two more six-footers
can fit in the rear without messing their coiffures or flattening the
creases in their slacks against the front seatbacks. The rear seat also
folds to augment the roomy trunk.
In the front compartment, the driving position is superb, thanks to the
tilting and telescoping steering column shared by all E46 models. The
plusher interior surfaces and luxury features inaugurated on the E46 sedan
also apply here.
On the road, the E46 behaves almost exactly like the four-door sedans
with which it shares its mechanical bits. The 323Ci, priced at $29,560, is
powered by BMW's 170-horsepower, 2.5-liter in-line six and comes standard
with numerous luxury features, as well as the sport suspension and 16-inch
wheel and tire package that is optional on the 323i four-door. The 328Ci,
at $34,560, comes with the 193-hp, 2.8-liter version of the same engine
and even more luxury items.
On some writhing hillside roads through Los Angeles, Spain, on the
Costa del Sol;remarkably similar in character to Angeles Crest Highway
near Los Angeles, California;these 3-series coupes were essentially
faultless. They displayed a superb combination of grip, agility, and
stability. In doing so, they revealed the benefits of calibrating a
smidgen of understeer into a basically neutral-handling rear-drive
chassis, compared with undertaking all manner of contortions to bring an
understeering front-drive chassis somewhere close to neutrality.
Expect the 323Ci and the 328Ci to arrive in the U.S. by midsummer,
followed in December by a less expensive four-cylinder 318Ci. Then early
next year, we'll get the new 3-series wagon and convertible, followed in
the summer by the next-generation, horsepower-enhanced M3. Judging by this
new two-door, the E46 model proliferation is off to an excellent start.
