About the M3/4... (archive)

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I think dealers have all the reason in the world to tell us that there will not be an M3/4, just like they have every reason to dodge questions about the release of the 330i. If that info were to be disclosed now, there would inevitably be some drop in current sales because some people would wait for the M3/4 or 330i instead of buying a M3/2 soon, or a 328i(Ci) now. With the M3/4 issue, I think dealers want the customers to "settle" for the 2 door because they think there won't be a 4 door, and that if they absolutely need a 4door then they will buy an S4 now. If the M3/4 comes out it won't be for a couple years anyways, by then maybe they'll trade in that S4 and buy the M3/4.

I agree with some of the posts that say that BMW would be foolish to not produce a 4 door version, especially with it's popularity here in the US, which is where 80% of the world's ///M cars are sold. Does anyone know why they really stopped making the M3/4 after 1998? If we knew that, we might have a good idea of the likelihood of seen an M3/4 in the E46. For instance, I don't buy the "BMW wanted to concentrate on the 2 door more sporty version". There had to be some financial reasoning, involving how the plants operated in 99. The M3/2 and the M3/C were are both from the same 2 door frame (with obvious reinforcements made to the convertible), this makes some sense. It seems that producing the M3/2 and M3/C would be cheaper than producing the M3/4 and M3/C exclusively. Maybe there was just limited plant availability for any E36 vehicles since both the E46 sedans AND coupes were produced in 99. If BMW just gave up on the E36 M3/4 though, I'd say it is indeed unlikely we'll see an E46 version.

One final point. ///M cars in any guise (2 door, 4 door, convertible, touring) are all about FINE tuning. This means that this tuning is done for each of the models individually. If it takes 1-2 years to complete the fine tuning of the 2 door M3, then it'll take another 1-2 years to complete the tuning for the 4 door version, and another 1-2 years for the convertible (not necessarily in that order, in fact probably reversed if at all). The point is, it'll be another 3 years from now until we see another version of the M3 be it the 4 door or the cabriolet. No auto manufacturer is going to have anything to say about any model that far ahead of time. Lots could happen between now and then. The project could get axed ala the "new 2-series" and the "new 6-series".

As it is, it sounds like the M3 will be a limited production run for MY 2000, just like the M5's, so it might be even longer til we see the 4 door or cabriolet, if at all.

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