2004 e46 M3

Phasing into 2004, it was to be the penultimate year where significant refinements were to be made to the third generation of the BMW’s M series: the E46. This was because the generation was to be discontinued in 2006 as a new range of cars was introduced.

BMW were in a way testing the waters in North America when it came to the production run for the 2004 model. This was because the introduction of the competition package was initially launched on the continent to see what the general perception was of the package. 2004 was in some ways a very unusual year for the company as their revisions of the E46 came rather late. Unveiled in December, such changes normally occurred in the first quarter of the year or towards the conclusion of the third quarter in October.

There were some changes made to the cosmetic line up of the coupe and convertible models of the E46 M3. It had been decided that the option to have the car green from 2004 was to be withdrawn. In December, the metallic paint Oxford Green was withdrawn from the production of the cars. Interestingly, a replacement colour was not offered afterwards which could have been seen as signs that the tenure of the third generation of the M Series was gracefully coming to a close.
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Before the production process seen in 2004, there were two different shades of blue metallic paint to choose from: Laguna Seca Blue, which had been introduced to the market at the launch of the E46 M3 and Mystic Blue which replaced the Topaz Blue which had been discontinued after three years from 2000 to 2003. In December of 2004, Laguna Seca was replaced by a new shade of blue called Interlagos Blue. This colour was only available on the competition package version of the E46 which was available in North America only at the time.

The principle difference between Laguna Seca and Interlagos blue came in the shades. Whereas Laguna Seca was seen to be more of teal and turquoise colour, Interlagos was considered to be darker – closer to the well-known shades of Navy and Royal blue.

BMW made some mechanical refinements in the Winter of 2004 to the standard models of the E46 M3. The main reason for this was because there had been complaints in the previous four years of the manufacture of the range that understeer was a key problem when it came to driving the car. Engineers believed this to be due to the suspension and so made efforts to revise how the suspension worked in the cars to ensure that understeer was no longer a problem in the range.

2004 proved to be the early warning signs of the sun beginning to set on yet another successful era of the M Series. The car was excellent and was consistently getting better with every annual revision. However, it was soon to be time for things to change in Munich as the dawn of the fourth generation began to go from concept to reality, with the process getting closer and closer as time went on.