At the entry level for the 2003 BMW performance vehicles, the 3-Series has by necessity, got a different model for every taste and power requirement. The most accessible versions are equipped with 2.5-liter engines and this engine level has sedan, coupe, convertible and wagon editions. For the most part, despite very different uses and orientations from family security to classic performance and touring style, the 2003 BMW 325 models have a similar trim level and buyers can expect a high level of interior amenity and elegant BMW styling.
BMW '3 Series' - Page 5
BMW’s 3 Series is an automotive icon, just like such revered and historic nameplates as the Chevrolet Corvette and Porsche 911. But while the Corvette and 911 are comparatively low-volume, the 3 Series is BMW’s best-selling car, year after year. In 2005, the company celebrated the 30th anniversary of the 3 Series, a line whose outgoing generation includes convertibles, coupes, sedans and wagons. In June, BMW will release the fifth generation of its 3 Series sedan in the U.S.
BMW’s mid-term financial well-being depends on a successful introduction of the new 3 Series. In terms of new cars coming down the pipeline, the company appears to be headed for a slowdown. Some high-performance “M” cars are on the way, and possibly a minivan as well, but over in Stuttgart, DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes-Benz brand is ready to crank out several new models, including the new CLS-Class sedan and redesigns of the M-Class sport utility vehicle and S-Class sedan.
German automakers are suffering from the strong euro, especially compared with profitable automakers from Japan, where the yen is more closely pegged to the U.S. dollar and, if you agree with General Motors, unfairly undervalued by the Japanese government. But even if BMW has smart currency-hedging policies, it is not publicly traded here and lacks the resources that Mercedes has to ride out tough times.
Stronger net profits are not the only advantage the Japanese have over the Germans. Premium sedans such as Honda Motor’s Acura TL and Nissan Motor’s Infiniti G35 are strong performers, both behind the wheel and in showrooms, where they are trading in high volumes. Last year, Infiniti sold 71,000 G35s in the U.S. and Acura sold 78,000 TLs, compared with 107,000 3 Series sales for BMW.
The diesel version of the 3 Series could end up in the U.S. one day. BMW is monitoring changing emissions regulations before making a decision on whether to sell diesels here. The company is on track, to sell a hydrogen-powered version of its 7 Series flagship sedan by approximately 2007, but that it might not sell its 1 Series line of compact sedans and/or hatchbacks here during that new car’s current generation.
BMW’s 3 Series is an automotive icon, just like such revered and historic nameplates as the Chevrolet Corvette and Porsche 911. But while the Corvette and 911 are comparatively low-volume, the 3 Series is BMW’s best-selling car, year after year. In 2005, the company celebrated the 30th anniversary of the 3 Series, a line whose outgoing generation includes convertibles, coupes, sedans and wagons. In June, BMW will release the fifth generation of its 3 Series sedan in the U.S.
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 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.
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.