BMW M3 (E46) | PH Auction Block

Before seeing this story, you may well have already seen a few leaked images of a car that’s believed to be the next M3. And if you haven’t, don’t expect too many surprises: it resembles a more aggressive derivative of the new i3 in the familiar M tradition. What won’t be familiar for the next M3 is the range of powertrains available, with a purely electric M3 coming alongside a hybrid straight-six offering. 

With four electric motors, the Heart of Joy, the new battery cell design, panoramic iDrive and a 3D Head-Up Display, it’s going to be a hugely more complex M3 than ever. And a more powerful one. While the Neue Klasse foundations seem good, there will still be a few approaching a battery-powered M3 with some trepidation. Not least as electrified M cars thus far haven’t exactly hit the spot; while an i4 M60 is very good, there are some M70-badged BMW EVs that aren’t quite as recommendable. It’s hardly like those cars using the V8 hybrid powertrain have been universally loved, either. 

It’s the ideal moment, then, to remember a simpler time for M cars, when engines could be naturally aspirated and the driver largely uninterrupted. It’s two decades this year since the last E46 M3 was built, a generation still held up as perhaps the very best by those who really care (the V8 was heavier and the E36 didn’t look quite so cool). Like so much else from the early ’00s, the blend of contemporary and traditional has made an E46 M3 very desirable for a long time now. Fun as standard, everyday usable and easily improved into something racier, it really can be made into whatever M3 your heart desires. 

Values of the E46 were probably at their lowest in the early-to-mid ’10s. As E30s began to rise, and there was uncertainty around the first turbo M3, so the others gradually began to appreciate as well. A regular E46 could never claim homologation kudos, but the combination of a race-bred engine with 3 Series usability was a very persuasive one. Especially when it looked this good. That period as a more affordable M car was bad news for E46 longevity, but this one is the very opposite of the cheap hack passed from pillar to post. Having been registered in 2004, it was bought by its current owner the next year. If 20 years of ownership isn’t a good sign, then it’s hard to know what is. 

That’s two decades of diligent ownership, too, not just cleaning it every month and changing the tyres. This one has had the boot floor reinforced, the rod bearings and VANOS done, rust-prone bodywork replaced and the suspension refreshed in recent years. So even at more than 130,000 miles, it looks and ought to drive like a great E46 M3 should. Nobody needs reminding, with very low mileage ones at £120,000, how appealing that prospect is. 

What else is there to say? The MOT is flawless (or has been for more than a decade), there’s a huge pile of paperwork with it, the colour is interesting and the only modification is a strut brace. It’s manual, of course. With some spares thrown in as well. If the future of the M3 looks a little daunting, there really can’t be many better representations of its past out there. Bidding starts on Sunday…