The Troubled History of BMW and the Importance of the 3 Series (like this 04 E46 330i) *SOLD*

good morning this is Bill from a tear open a poland' today I have well I'm gonna do kind of a short history of BMW and the importance of the 3-series a car you know represented by this one this stage in the game this thing this is an e46 a 2004 model you know it's basically a Model T but it is an important car to BMW as was the entire 3-series line so we'll get into that ok very briefly BMW sort of started life in now officially in 1916 you know there were a few companies being bandied around a little bit and eventually they became the Bavarian motor works although not in 1916 that name didn't come till 1917 but BMW does proclaim that it's official start date was 1916 and what they did essentially was build aircraft motors and they built them very very well in fact in World War one the motors were you know very very successful they were powerful they were reliable and the German government bought a hell of a lot of them and that really helped BMW expand quite a bit you know they got more plants they got stuff going they were doing very very well and then whammo Germany loses the war along comes the Versailles Treaty the French are pissed off the British are pissed off or at least they're you know kowtow in to France and a bunch of restrictions come down on Germany so BMW can no longer build aircraft motors so they have to salvage a few bits and pieces together they start making farm implements they start making household items and you know kind of keep themselves going any way they can until they can start building stuff again and finally after a few years they were allowed to build motorcycles and they built one of the most iconic motorcycles of all time built it for many many years they're still on high demand today but you know that progressed they started getting into cars and by 1932 they built their first true all BMW car the 3/2 so very coolly or very neatly the first BMW the first true BMW began with three a year later they made the first inline 6 engine for them and they never really looked back they kept growing until world war two came along of course their aircraft division was going strong the Luftwaffe needed all kinds of engines and BMW using some very questionable labor practices did provide those engines and it worked out well it didn't work out very well it worked out very badly ultimately but you know they were making jets they were building all kinds of cool stuff and then they all got bombed back into the stone Age's so post-war again tough time for BMW they're always dealing with post-war stuff they again went back to building pots and pans I wonder you know is there an EM spatula how would that work you know is it faster than other spatulas you know used more aggressive made by people I suppose if we could find a time spatch about a day it would be pretty valuable anyway so they kept chugging along they built this isiah thing it actually was pretty successful a weird little small vehicle and then you could say they made a bit of a mistake in focusing in on luxury cars you know sort of big comfortable sedans sort of Mercedes like they started building those things they did you know okay with them and that been sort of petered off so by 1959 they were in dire economic circumstances and the guy leading BMW at that point recommended a merging with Daimler Benz or Daimler Benz a scary scary stuff scary thought for any BMW guy you know you call that apocalypse or something but that was resisted by the dealers and the shareholders and in 1960 they came up with what they called the new class and that's where this 3-series gonna find its origins the new class was smaller lighter cars built for the public built for popular consumption and they worked they started selling them everything went really you know they built eventually in the 70s they got into this 2002 model which became a real cult classic all over the world even here in the United States it was driven by can i you know hippie university professors and executives that sort of thing people who were real diehard BMW fans and then finally in 1975 you know 77 in America but 75 in Europe they built their first 3 Series Sedan and truly they have never looked back well she was a coupe but it was the first three series it was wildly popular and you know started growing then came the second generation the e30 that was a huge success in North America if you remember all the yuppies they all bought those things and you know they became a real status symbol it actually took BMW years to shake off the sort of negative yuppie image from that that one onto the e36 the car growing a little bit more becoming a little bit bigger a little bit more technical but still very much a BMW all powered by you know there are some four cylinders but the straight six was truly the bread-and-butter engine and then finally we get to this car the e46 came out of 1998 and in many ways was sort of the ultimate development of the original 3-series after this the next generation and it gets a bit more hyper technical and really could have been badged as a 5 Series it's not bad don't get me wrong but this is sort of the last true car that appeals that die-hard original BMW enthusiasts you can see the styling is nice you might be surprised to know that the chief of design when this car was made was a guy named Chris bangle he later went on to be railed out of BMW with torches and pitchforks for the designs that people did not like so pretty pretty interesting stuff bangle dime not to do with this car the mines are very very attractive you can see it's sort of pushing the axles out towards the edge you know nice and stout stubby nice roofline little deck lids were very very attractive cool car and people just ate him up they loved him I mean this was one of the best-selling cars in the world at this point BMW I want to say they're ranked 12th and there have been about 14 million 3-series cars made by the time this one is rolling along so very interest in and successful history from BMW okay let's get into this car and just for the hell of it so this is a 330 this was bumped up to know we've got airplanes now that's a hamada look at that thing probably got cameras hanging on the side and these planes are creeping me out anyway the 330 was a response to you know adding a little more horsepower to the baseline of not getting into the m cars and it bumped the horse from the 190 ish in the 328 all the way up to 225 in this car so they added a little bit more displacement got a little bit more torque e and anyway pretty neat piece so I'm look inside the trunk it's pretty standard stuff you got your spare tire and they almost looked like a white wall for him and I kind of freaked me out you could see that's another place my detailer didn't bother to clean but anyway everything nice and proper they are nice size very adequate to fit a bunch of stuff does it fold down rear seating so if I pull this guy it was another airplane looking we're busy today you can lower that seat back and end up with a hell of a lot more cargo room so very very nice stuff there you've also got sort of BMWs legacy tool kit all their cars have really had this for decades nice to see all the tools in there you can tell there's no leak in the trunk because they're not coated with rust the way you see sometimes and all very nice and proper and accounted for get that a little spin and we'll move on okay so BMW has made magical inline 6-cylinder engines for a very very long time and this m54 was an important one it brought some innovations have brought in the vaneau system sort of a variable valve timing what that does is adjust the you know the cam and intake and that sort of thing to give you optimum performance all across the Rev band gas mileage not fantastic but not bad very very peppy very torquey and just a lovely all around engine this is mated to a 5-speed automatic in this car you know the true purists are always gonna want the the standard but I mean if you're fighting traffic in Naples for the mother god I mean it's a big grid the last thing you need to do is be shifting gears anywhere and they've done a country road in West Virginia maybe anyway fantastic engine 3 litres of displacement and a welcome sight to see a BMW with six cans under the hood pumping out 225 horse you know you'd performance wise you look at the difference between this and the 328 and it's there it's a few tenths it's it's you know a difference but it doesn't seem that dramatic on paper but driving it is very very different you can immediately tell that you've got the extra juice under the hood and the 330 you know you're rolling hammer stuff is much quicker you know merging into on-ramps it's just a nice metal added bit of juice you know I should have mentioned in this god I get people calling me in this history the BMW 3 the end division which is basically BMWs version of AMG came out in 1972 and that they've been building cars for kind of aggressive idiots ever since and they did make an m3 in the 80s it was the first 3 Series am not the first end that was the m1 that was a collaboration with Lamborghini in the 70s then the first sort of street car they built was a 5 Series the 535 I am and then did come the m3 and they've been making him ever since there was the 36 M 3 after the e30 and then an e46 sorry dozy I got that right III 1646 M which became much more complicated but still a pretty neat piece anyway you see the big xenon headlamps up front very nice it's got fogs it's got the Sport package so it's got lower front bumper some rocker panels stuff down the side very very attractive God everyone's pulling in this mornin making noise I don't know why our guys in the back it's like they louder the exhaust they can have the happier they are they just pull off the mufflers you know they don't even buy a proper exhaust they just pull off the exhaust so I don't know I find it completely obnoxious and find some way to put a stop to it anyway it's got these beautiful em sport wheels five-spoke twin spoke alloys lovely and badged kind of cool m-series rocker panels on the bottom we got more airplanes now construction airplanes employees arriving without mufflers at cabin in the woods man looking better all the time ok you do get this lovely little deck lid spoiler very very nice you got twin pipes down there on the bottom very sporty a little diffuser at the back nice lowered bumper you know all very sporting looking and lovely here in the backseat this is really what drew me to this particular car other that he's circling overhead for the love of God go find someone else to bother please [Music] put a big muffler on your plane anyway this is what drew me to this car was this beautiful black leather inside obviously it has no miles and that's nice a sport and that's nice but I fell in love with the leather just about instantly you can see very nice tight proper fit on all the panels and seats and trim pieces this build quality is part of what made BMW and the 3-series so successful nothing came apart nothing fell off it was reliable it was nice it all fit together well and you could just feel the German engineering inside the car and of course that's what originally appealed all those hippy university professors with the original 2002 so anyway everything nice back there for a small sedan that does have pretty adequate legroom you'll be able to fit three Canadians in the back without issue and everyone's gonna be pretty chipper another plane doing circles fantastic and got to move somewhere not next to the airport up front same story beautiful wood inlays on the door panels you got side airbags on this car your mirror controls a little matte pocket you know it's very Teutonic very simple and extremely well built this does have Harman Kardon sound so you get that little tweeter in the Triangle of the a-pillar beautiful and sport seats in this car rich black leather dual power lovely they have extendable thigh supports which are nice if you're a bigger guy nice side bolsters to kind of keep you in when you're doing heavy cornering and it's absolutely gorgeous I have to say I mean it is simple elegant gorgeous perfection and that is why you know so many companies wish they could build this 3 Series they really really do you know the Mercedes c-class is a fine car but the three really wins hands down and that pains me to say as a die-hard Mercedes guy only see if I can reach in and get the keys out I've mistakenly put them in the wrong pocket alright let's hop then get away from the noise very nicely sealed cabin thank God okay so we got two keys for this one like seeing that get it end fire it up [Music] everything's still hard to do remember first left-handed now and I seatbelt on and we'll see what we got okay turn this air down although it's lovely we're supposed to have a nice cool weekend thank God but right now it's pretty muggy and nasty one of BMW is long-term design philosophies has been that everything is sort of catered towards the driver and you can see that in the way the dash is angled towards the driver that controls the radio the little stuff there the center console it all kind of focuses in on the driver's attention part of what makes these drivers cars they also have a lovely simple instrument cluster and orange backlight in which they say is the easiest to read so you know again all geared towards driving simplicity performance and truly just perfection so you've got your fuel mileage you've got your 150 mile an hour speed oh you got your tach you got a little ridiculous analog miles per gallon thing and your water temp and then of course a row of warning lights underneath you can see it as 86,000 miles on this one at 79 degrees outside even if it feels hotter P is for park over there that little dot matrix those displays they can often go south so in this car either the guy got really lucky and it just stayed proper or he had it repaired which is more likely those things can be all screwed up over here you've got headlights this was another feature this actually bothered the purists that this car this series got automatic headlights your fog lights your dimmer control BC is a driver information you can go through and get your range your mouse per gallon your clock your temp if I had it set you got a nice multifunction steering wheel with radio controls cruise control horn obviously the BMW rondelle which is often mistakenly accused of being a spinning propeller which it really isn't it's just the Bavarian flag and the minimum of the initials and you know it's again simple lovely elegant very nice grippy steering wheel leather nice to touch small diameter you could just fling this thing around a racetrack over here you've got BMWs business CD if you're doing any mergers and acquisitions if you're corporate raiding some struggling firm you can do it with this radio oh I'm kidding I think business CD means you could connect it to a phone at some point or something but I I've always found it a bit too silly you have automatic climate control down there nice this theory is usually all scuffed up on these cars you know many of these are kind of lesser examples and they get all scratched you know girls with their nails or god help us in this generation guys with their nails they just ruin this stuff and here it's nice to see that it's in pretty good shape you got a little place there to stick out compact nine-millimeter maybe a 380 you got a genuine bona fide ashtray if you want to be smoking you got some heated seats you got what is this is this that could be a city or country horn we're gonna see if it is so I'm gonna put put it off for a minute and honk I'm gonna turn it on No okay so that's not a verse I have no idea what that little button does so I have to figure that out DSC dynamic Stability control that's a traction control that's gonna try to keep you connected to the pavement you got all your power window stuff you got a beautiful wood shifter mechanism here you can manually bang your way through the gears like that by moving it over to the left or just leave it and drive and go you got some cup holders you got your hazards you got your lock and unlock you got a little cool middle you know although it's silly nobody really uses change for tolls anymore but there it is if you need to a little place for paper Kemetic sort Haddix you got airbags over here very nicely we have a bunch of service records with this car we have an original brochure for it and all the original books with the two keys he also got a great little flashlight which I suspect it's gonna work on see it recharges as you're driving along look at that still working very very cool stuff I'm gonna break my spine trying to get it back in so I'll just put it here and get it back in later well that's a nice little touch from BMW here in the rear view mirror itself dimming they give you this big ridiculous bubble at the bottom these self dimming mirrors are an issue in these cars they tend to separate this is not dirt this is just the separation of the LCD just at the bottom it's still fine you could still see everything but kind of annoying and as time goes on it gets worse but they're huge money to replace so be thankful it's this good SOS button that's kind of BMWs version of OnStar I don't think they even supported anymore so if you press that you're screwed anyway nobody's gonna answer I don't know maybe and that stupid Kojak bubble you got you know what do you need a little silly stuff I like the way they have set it up so the light comes on when you slide over the thing you've got a nice big power sunroof so I love it when the detailer comes up and knocks on the window in the middle of the video that's just absolutely fantastic anyway so you've got that rear view mirror shame about them little bit of degradation but the hell with it that is what it is you've got a nice big power sunroof up there lovely works great glass and a divider and anyway otherwise everything ready to go for a spin I also think you have curtain airbags there in the front that's what those little covers are over the a pillar covers right away we go and I mean look that was just like putting on little pressure on the throttle and you just feel that six ready to answer your beck and call oh man I mean nobody builds an inline six like BMW they should not even screw around with eight cylinders they really should meet leave the aids to mercedes stick with the sixes and you know unfortunately this is the end of an era because all the sixes now are going to these middle turbocharged fours which I find reporting and they're doing away with the most incredible engine design of all time that inline-6 the way it just whines out beautiful tracks down the road with incredibly neutral steering believe it or not the real purists didn't like the steering in this car as much as the earlier versions because they made it easier to park it's a little bit boosted at slow speeds I think the troopers wouldn't even want power steering so the hell with them anyway but I mean incredibly centered feel instant I mean you just move it a hair and you get instant response you just feel so planted to the road and a BMW and of course that is what made these 3-series so successful so fantastic you know they're an entry-level car so the price tag wasn't outrageous the driving experience is amazing you know your short little four mile commute to work becomes a true driving joy you know the way you can just zip the color around in and out of traffic the way BMW drivers do of course and the responsiveness of the engine the feel from the brakes the feel from everything it's all geared towards driving joy and that is the true success of the 3-series hopefully they just never lose that there's some debate but hopefully they never do so anyway this one in particular Oh for BMW 330i sedan M Sport Package of course has the 3-liter the m54 225 horse $84,000 86,000 miles only another 200 left in this one all books and keys great color combo white over black it's just a gorgeous car from a company that's made fantastic performance cars for many many years if you have an interest give us a call two three nine to nine eight eight thousand on the web at AE Naples comm thank you so much for having a look we appreciate it we'll see you with the next one take care

Channel: Curious Cars

Views: 54,159

Keywords: 2002, BMW, E46, 3-Series, 325, 325Ci, Convertible Cabrio, Cabriolet, Bill, Review, Test Drive, Doug DeMuro, Hoovie, Autohaus, Maryann

Id: oqxgabsLC1g

Length: 23min 37sec (1417 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2019