E46 is better -- it is proven!

[TCarlisle]

OK, so I am helping a friend by doing a heavy dety detail, recondition some broken interior parts, and some AC work. So far, about two full days into this, and I know the E46 very well now. Gutted the entire interior to shampoo every square inch of carpet, even where the carpet goes under the door trim!

So as I am removing the door trim and preparing to go to the delaer afterwards to replace all the trim clips I am about to break, I notice something interesting. Once the trim is removed, the trim clip is designed to be reused! Just squeeze and pull with pliers and it comes right out!

I have never ever been able to get the door trim off an E36 without breaking trim clips, so there you have it -- the E46 is better! :D

Seriously though -- I find the engine bay cramped and ugly. I detailed the engine, and it just doesn't look anywhere near as good as mine. The intake manifold is particularly butt ugly.

It already has the fan delete from the factory!

I am unimpressed by the interior. Maybe it is just that this is a low end E46 (manual seats, no options, etc) and my E36 is fully loaded (sports eats etc). It has a lot of plastic where my E36 has vinyl -- like the center console. The dashboard is two tone with not much of the traditional BMW black material. The door panels look good and solid.

As for the exterior -- good quality with great paint. Cleaned up real nice after years of neglect (girl owner). I personally don't care for the E46 body style, as the car seems fat -- and I don't mean phat. Especially from the rear, the car looks like it needs to lose a few pounds. It has black trim, and when the trim was removed the car looked better -- less overweight. I personally would paint the trim to match the car after seeing that.

Good car, but I'll keep my E36 thank you very much. But I love that resuable trim clips.

[heifetz17]

I had an '03 325i with sport package, fully loaded. I agree with you, though. The e36 is by all means a lot better than the e46. These are the things I didn't like about my e46. My e36 had every one of these, e46 didn't have any:

*dual zone climate control

*OBC. The e46 didn't have any of the functions I use for travel, such as ETA, distance left to travel, CODE, and average speed. The e46 didn't even have an OBC, what little functions it did have were built into the cluster and controlled by the remote switch.

*Check control: the e46 would tell me when my tail, brake, or low beam bulbs were out (no lic plate bulbs). However, it would only light up a diagram in the cluster, telling me a lamp was out either in the front or rear. It was up to me to determine which light it was. Not like my e36 that would specifically tell me 1 brake light failure, taillight failure, etc.

[NeZiX]

Short of being fuddled by The United States' every more demanding emissions standards, when not talking about classic American muscle, when has a later model ever been inferior to its predecessor? The europeans especially have a knack for never going in the wrong direction.

Yeah, styling may become worse when a new chassis is introduced, but the luxury, performance, and attention to detail taken by engineers will almost always improve.

Just my two cents.

[MisterBimmerMan]

THE E46 is PHAT YO. THE E90/92 is FAT.

[Automaticftp]

While I certainly appreciate the technology gains in the E46, I prefer the shape of the E36. It is, IMO, as nearly a perfect looking car as you can get. That said, I also have to say the E46 is not exactly chopped liver, and that if someone were crazy enough to offer to do a straight swap of my E36 for an equivalent E46, I'd go for it.

[Thedynasty]

only e46 i like is the m3. i like the look of my e36 better except for the m

[Automaticftp]

Actually, I don't like the E46 M3 much. The two door thing kills it.

[absentmathis]

The 36 has a smaller, sportier feel to drive. I probably prefer the styling of the 36 a bit more also. Other than that the 36 has nothing on the 46. I've never felt a dual zone in a 36 that got more than 3 degrees different per side. I also use the extra OBC functions like once a year.

I think the main difference is interior quality. It has cupholders that actually work, dash material is way nicer, leather door cards(on mine anyway), steering wheel controls, etc. And most importantly, the 46 sport seats pwn ANY 36 seats by 10x. Mine are manual but still crazy adjustable, comfy as hell and very sporty.

[roarf]

I got my E36 door panel off w/o breaking any clips. :dunno I have the panel removal tools though, heh.

I agree that E46s are kind of bland looking unless it's a later facelifted model, ZHP, or M3. Otherwise, I'm sure they are better than the E36, mechanically speaking.

[chipyting]

The e46 looks like a Civic to me.

[absentmathis]

Yea I think Honda might have "unintentionally" mimiced a few BMW characteristics, making the civic look like a BMW. Not the other way around ;) I think my 92 looks way more aggressive and sporty than my 323. But it's lower with bigger wheels and some M body parts. I find I often compare other cars to mine (or any modded one) more so than the average e36.

Oh well, I like 'em both so :D

pretty safe to say anbody with only an e36 says its better.

[Bris328is]

Is that all it takes to build a better car--clips--????????????????

wow-- if I put E46 cilps on my car will it be faster and handle better?

actually-- the data is out there-- the 97 to 99e36 is better than its predisessors and better than the early 2000 to 03 E46's less the M3--the 04 to 06 330 and M are good.

when I say better-- I mean from an engineering standpoint and how the car is designed.

I personally dont care for the boody style--looks a little cheap-- the E90 fixed all this.