The E90 3-series had already been launched at this point, so the mildly tweaked M3 was a last hurrah for the E46. On paper it did look like a pretty mild upgrade, too. The CS gained CSL-style ...

The short-run M3 CS from this generation was discontinued ... the five-speed transmissions were swapped for six-speed units.

You may have noticed in our recent ‘best cars for x amount’ web features that we’re quite fond of the E46 BMW M3. Nick Trott, evo’s editor, said he’d choose the car if he had £10k or £ ...