On one hand, you have the Sequential Manual Gearbox fans who’ll tell you that there’s a reason why SMGs were the only transmission option on CSLs. If you were just a casual E46 M3 forum lurker, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there’s an all-out war between manual and SMG owners. The car I ended up buying, a 2004 manual E46 M3 coupe, was found after a month or so of hard searching, calls to private owners and even a visit to British E46 M3 expert and drifting tutor Nick Johnson who unfortunately didn’t have a manual available, and who wasn’t able to convince me to go for broke and buy a £30,000 CSL. I also had a list of things which were important but not deal-breakers including silver-grey paint, nav, parking sensors, the optional Harman Kardon sound system, adaptive Xenons and ideally a car with under 100,000 miles on the clock.Īfter setting myself a maximum budget of £10,000 - which I was told after consulting M3 friends and previous owners would be more than enough to find a not-too-shabby car - I took to the usual car selling and buying sites in the UK: AutoTrader, PistonHeads and the specialist forum M3Cutters. Overall decent condition that wouldn’t require too much immediate work.

Full service history with Inspection I and Inspection IIs done at the required intervals.

The difficulty is in choosing a car that appeals to you, that’s reflective of your own tastes, and which isn’t destined for the local scrap yard!īefore I started browsing cars to buy, I made a short checklist of must have things in my dream car: From pre-facelift ‘03 manuals, to Laguna Seca SMG II track weapons, to ‘CSL-wannabe’ coupes, the good news is that if you want an E46 M3 you’re not going to struggle to find one. E46 M3s come in all sorts of weird and wonderful flavours.

Best year for m3 e46