What next?

Why, a BMW E46 Coupe of course! When I bought my previous car, a BMW E36 325i Coupe I planned to keep it for a long time but it seems that I have opportunity to get brand new E46 without paying attrocious Finnish car taxes by working abroad for a year or longer. You just can't waste possibility like that!

Porsche?

For a moment I seriously for a moment considered a new basic Porsche Boxter. It was only slightly more expensive than new 325Ci/330Ci and it would had certain rarity factor,. However, few reasons spoke against it. Boxter is only a two seater which is ok for 99% of time but occasionally you have to transport few friends and some luggage space would be nice. Secondly, even if the price is similar, the servicing costs would have been in different league since there is BMW dealerships everywhere but not so with the Porsche. And third, basic Boxter loses out in performance to 330Ci quite clearly. Anyways, if I would like to buy 2 seater it would have to be Z4 :)

Shopping list

If everything goes well the new car will be BMW 3 series Coupe with, of course, the famous BMW straight six engine. 320Ci has 2,2l with 170 hp and 325Ci has 2,5l 192 hp M54 powerplants. 330Ci with 3,0l and 231 hp engine might be bit too expensive with all extras the I have planned.

Coupe will be equipped with atleast M Sport package II and if I totally lose my mind, with Clubsport package which is as close M3 as you can get without buying an genuine M3.

Interior colour is easy to pick as there is only one choice, Sport and Clubsport interiors are always anthracite black. Well, atleast it will fit any exterior colour! I will still check if I can get it with red half leather seats.

Exterior colour is one very difficult thing to decide... There is only few exterior colours I really, really like but choosing between them is hard.

Alpina White. Affects resale value negatively

Black

Imola Red, only available as conjuction with Sport package. Hard to keep clean!

Mystic Blue, replaced the popular Topaz Blue

Orient Blue

Oxford Green. British Racing Green anyone?

Silver Grey, same colour as new M3 CSL!

Titanium Silver, perhaps the most common choice but it suits E46 really nicely.

Those few Sport Coupe images are from car configurator in BMW UK website.

Titanium Silver 330Ci Sport Coupe with new 18" rims

Estoril Blau BMW E46 Coupe with Clubsport package. M72 V Spoke rims and M Sport wing.

Imola red M3

Titanium Silver M3

2003 BMW 3 series Coupe brochure (Remote site, PDF)

2003 BMW 3 series Convertible brochure (Remote site, PDF)

BMW wheels

M3 CSL look perhaps?

As my previous car was quite nice replica of E36 M3 externally (apart from the ///M3 badges!) I think this one will borrow some styling cues from E46 M3. Original M67 rims would be nice but rear 255/35R18 tires will not fit because of extreme offset of rims, fitting them would require extensive rebuild of car's rear wings. However two pairs of front rims with 225/40R18 would fit but sourcing originals can be tricky and expensive. 18" M72 V-Spoke rims with 255/35 wheels would fit but they can be expensive too.

M3 CSL propably at Nurburgring. GASP!

Also M3 mirrors are easy and visually very, very nice detail and I surely will get them ASAP. Black OEM front spoiler splitters used in Clubsport will fit M Tech front spoiler directly and these will adorn my car quite soon too... Poor man's CSL look then!

All current production M3's use pre-facelift body so it's impossible to make your new Coupe to look just like M3, not that it's my intention. I just want to borrow few styling cues to make my Sport Coupe to look different than anything else using as original parts as possible. Natural european restaint I guess.

Best laid plans and so on... Go onwards to next page and find out how the adventure continues!