INSPIRED BY OUR BMW M 50th anniversary coverage last week, we’ve been on the hunt for a used M3 – and you can read about the E92-generation V8 M3 in Cult Hero (p68).
Here, a different generation of M3 has caught our eye in the classifieds. Not the original, E30-gen M3, which has become so revered that prices can range anywhere from £30,000 up to the heights of £100,000. Nor is it the latest generation, the G80, which first went on sale in 2020 and will cost you from £65,000 on the used market.
Instead, we’re looking at spending a fraction of that. Our choice is the E46-gen M3, produced from 2000 to 2006, which to this day remains the most successful M car ever, with more than 85,000 sales…