We're all looking for things to do, so how about a quick survey? It's about 3 Series BMWs, but do try and take part even if you hate them. Ready? Here we go. What's your favourite 3 Series? Hands up if it's the E46. Okay, now, what's your favourite E4 body style? Keep your hand up if it's the Ci coupe. Good. Finally, what's your favourite E46 engine? Again keep your hand up if it's the M52 2.8-litre straight-six in the 328.
Shed reckons that a goodly proportion of the folk who put their hand up at the beginning of our survey will still have it up at the end. If you're one of them, you might want to put your mobile in that hand and then lower it to your earhole to call the owner of this lovely and original E46 328Ci.
It's almost six years since an E46 328 last appeared here. That tells you that either they've all gone, or they're cherished enough to remain above our £1,500 maximum price. We'll go for the latter option on that. Yes, this one is an auto not a manual, which means it needs around a second more to hit 62mph from rest (8 vs 7). The manual coupe also weighed around 1,465kg and returned 31mpg combined, whereas the 1,500kg auto had an average consumption of 28mpg, so it's more lover than fighter, but it's still a great car.
Why are they so loved? Probably because they embody more of the things that are important to the enthusiast than most cars. Let's start with the idea of powerful engines in relatively small bodies. Generally speaking this is a brilliant idea. There have been exceptions, naturally. Shed has previously ruminated on quietly forgotten post-war British experiments like the Austin A75 (an A35 with a big-block Chevrolet motor) and the epic Armstrong-Siddeley Chuffmaster, which used one bank of an 18-cylinder Napier Deltic locomotive engine to generate road (and unfortunately transmission)-shredding torque.
The 328 didn't deliver the Chuffmaster's hilarious power to weight ratio, but it did enshrine many other great PH principles like fine handling and fine looks. The core E46 saloon was designed by Wolfgang Reitzle and celebrated/castigated beardy-weirdy Chris Bangle, but most if not all of the other E46 body styles were created by a chap most of us will have never heard of: Erik Goplen of Designworks, BMW's design consultancy in Newbury Park, California. For the last seven years Erik has been Designworks' Global Creative Director, and the last time Shed looked he owned a De Tomaso Mangusta, which makes him an all right sort of bloke. Plus he's on LinkedIn. You can message him to say what a great job he did on the E46 Ci Coupe. Tell him Shed sent you.
What Erik could never have predicted as he sat over his E46 design blueprint was its appetite for rusty wings and cracking (but not in a good way) rear subframes. With hindsight he might also wonder whether the double VANOS system that was put on the M52 sixes in 1998 to turn them into M52TU (Technical Update) engines was worth all the trouble, given the annoying rattle that went on to afflict some, or many, of them. The 190hp/210lb ft figures didn't change in those TU cars, but the figures at which the peaks were reached did: max power arrived at 5,500rpm in the double VANOS (up from 5,300rpm in the single) and max torque at 3,500rpm in the double (down from 3,950rpm in the single). Shed can't be sure but he thinks that our 1998 Ci Coupe will have the double VANOS. Seal repair kits are widely available these days to cure most rattles.
Another enduring BMW discussion is of course 'what colour of green is that?'. The owner bravely ventures Sea Green (Meergrün) for his car, which if correct is very interesting because that is a rare hue. Shed has learnt enough from his own mistakes to know that he should never hazard a guess on BMW greens, whether it's Oxford Green, Boston Green, Parsons Green or Turnham Green, but he is happy to accept the owner's claim as it appears to vaguely tally up with the pictures of other Sea Green BMWs on Shed's Amstrad screen.
This car has a potentially Marmite-ish half-leather interior and also benefits from Bilstein B8 dampers and Eibach springs. Something odd happened to it at last year's MOT. It passed on June 10th, then failed on the same day with a major leak of exhaust gases, then passed again three days later with no advisories. Sounds like someone was trying to get home a bit sharpish that night and jumped the gun on the MOT keyboard while the apprentice was vainly trying to make himself heard from the pit about the split in the back box, which has since been sorted.
The MOT keyboard is an unforgiving piece of equipment that doesn't allow you to press the exit key and start again. As Shed knows from his own interminably sad life, you should never put something in unless you're absolutely sure you've weighed up all the consequences. At £1,100 he wouldn't be expecting much comeback on this one.
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