BMW E46 Convertible

About This Competition

So, in true EP-COMPS fashion, absolutely nothing has gone to plan. A few of our competition cars have been delayed, the collection of a certain 2JZ-powered monster was running a tad later than expected and, before we knew it, we somehow found ourselves without a comps car! Thankfully, our good friend Garage of Luke came riding in to save the day and offered us this rather lovely E46 Convertible. And let’s be honest, there are far worse cars to be rescued with!

We didn’t exactly do our last E46 justice after our relocation took over our lives and we completely forgot to promote the poor thing properly… but we’re not making that mistake twice! So here we are again, with another E46 Cabriolet, and hopefully you like this red drop-top as much as we do.

This is an E46 325Ci Cabriolet, a pre-facelift example with a surprisingly high specification and, more importantly, a colour combination that really caught our attention.

Finished in Hellrot Red, with a black roof, full black leather interior and dark wood trim, it has that classic E46 look without being another silver or grey example. The combination works ridiculously well, especially with the roof down and the sun out.

And then there’s the engine. The 325Ci gives you BMW’s lovely straight-six soundtrack, plenty of performance without being completely bonkers, and that effortless feeling these cars are so good at delivering. Drop the roof, find a decent stretch of road, put your favourite tunes on and just cruise into the sunset. It’s hard to argue with that.

We’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for the E46 platform here at EP-COMPS. They’re brilliant all-rounders, they look fantastic, they’re great to drive and they still manage to feel like a proper BMW rather than an over-complicated spaceship. The problem is that finding good ones is becoming increasingly difficult. Rust, neglect and questionable modifications have claimed far too many, while the prices of good examples seem to be climbing almost as quickly as the bad ones are dissolving!

Thankfully, this one is a well-maintained example with the history to back it up, making it exactly the sort of E46 we’d want to put our name behind.

So, if you missed out on our last E46, then here’s your second chance. A proper BMW straight-six, a convertible roof, a cracking colour combination and an E46 chassis that is becoming harder to find in this sort of condition.

And, of course, it’s available at the sort of odds and price that only EP-COMPS would offer.

The roof is down, the straight-six is ready and summer is calling… good luck!