When did E46's start production?

Hi,

What month/year did the following cars become available:

E46 Sedan
E46 Coupe
E46 Cabrio
E46 M3

Also, when did they go from 2.8L to 3.0L engines in the non M?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by virtualrain

Hi,

What month/year did the following cars become available:

E46 Sedan
E46 Coupe
E46 Cabrio
E46 M3

April 1998, April 1999, June 1999 (I think), December 2000.

Also, when did they go from 2.8L to 3.0L engines in the non M?

Summer 2000. Certainly by July 2000 they were being delivered in the UK.

Are you talking in general or for a certain market?

US debuts are all later than in Europe.

Originally Posted by Kaz

Are you talking in general or for a certain market?

US debuts are all later than in Europe.

Do you know what the US debut's were?

Originally Posted by virtualrain

Do you know what the US debut's were?

I can tell you the E46 Coupe did not debut April '99 in the U.S. I know this because I bought a E46 323i in June '99. I wanted a Coupe but they weren't available yet. I'm pretty sure they were first available July '99.

Originally Posted by Kaz

Are you talking in general or for a certain market?

Production - independent of any market. I believe the first E46s were almost as troublesome as the early E46s, so (speaking entirely selfishly) it is probably a good thing that some unfortunate souls got to beta-test the car before it starting shipping in big volumes to all markets. Having said that, my March 2003-build E46 is full of bugs and manufacturing defects .

Originally Posted by virtualrain

Do you know what the US debut's were?

E46 Sedan: September 1998
E46 Coupe: September 1999
E46 Convertible and Wagon: March 2000
E46 M3: September 2001

Those are the dates that they're officially "on sale", but each vehicle debuted at Detroit or NY autoshow earlier in those years.