The Web Page of Kristopher Linquist

E46 vs E90 comparo

(You can click on any of the pictures in this thread for a larger version)

I was given the opportunity to drive an E90 for 4 days. I'd like to give bimmerfest a comparison of the two cars.

The cars:
E46: 2003 330i. Performance package, Navigation, Moonroof, Xenons, Leather
E90: 2006 330i. Sports package, premium package, steptronic, heated seats, assist


The majority of this comparison is going to cover the interior/ergonomics/design. I'm a driver and what I care about most is how a car drives. If I were comparing an E46 and another make of car, I would probably be talking about how the cars feel; however, with these two cars, the interior differences are much more significant than the driving feel differences.


Wherever you see two pictures together in this review, the E46 will be first and the E90 will be second.

Before anyone says anything, I know the interior of my E46 needs to be detailed bad. You think it's fairly clean until you start taking high res pictures :).

When you approach the E90 in the dark and press the unlock button, the first thing you notice is the LED lights that illuminate from the bottom of all 4 door handles.


Very cool. There are also lights that shine down from the bottom of each door.

Get in the car and turn on the lights and these are the instrument clusters that you will be staring at:



The E46's instrument cluster is much wider and the gauges are slightly less cluttered. However, you can see more information on the E90's cluster display. Also, the cruise control 'notch' that rotates into position when you set cruise in the E90 is really trick. Slight edge to the E46 in my book.



Can't really compare apples to apples here since the E90 was not equipped with idrive/nav. Lets focus on the climate control area:



First of all, the E90 has dual zone climate control. The E30 didn't have it, the E36 did, the E46 didn't, and the E90 does. I suspect the next generation 3-series won't have it. :) Secondly, the E90 has rotating dials for temperature. In my opinion, it's a huge advantage to be able to reach down to move the temp up or down a few degrees without having to fumble for buttons. Other operations are very similar between the cars. The 'rest' button inside the passenger temp dial will blow air warmed by the still-warmed engine while the car is off, useful if you're just running into the store for a few minutes in the winter and you want to keep your cabin at a comfortable temperature. Huge edge to the E90 for the dials.



Here you see the center vents. The E90s are thinner since the horizontal line they follow are flatter. The E90's dash has a "hard line" that makes the top of the dash look like a shelf. The E46's dash, in comparison, is smoothly shaped up. You can see the E90 dash line better in the cup holder picture. The E90's center vent temperature control is electronic vs the mechanical control of the E46 (the E46 control is hooked to a braided steel line that it pushes and pulls). This gives the E90's control a smoother operation. I do like the unlock and hazard buttons located on the center vents - it's a more intuitive position for someone jumping into the car for the first time. However, I do not like the DSC button there. On the E46, it's on the button panel just above the ashtray. When my fiancee is in the car, I can subtly reach down and press the DSC button without her seeing me. In the E90, it'd be blatantly obvious that I was about to have some real fun.



Key design: The E90 (without the comfort access option, which allows you to start the car with the key in your pocket) requires you to press the "stub" of the key (there is no metal shaft coming out of it) into the dash (which puts the car into accessory mode), depress the brake, then press the start/stop button. To shut the car off, you press the start/stop button again, then press the key in to take the car out of accessory mode and release the key. I'm somewhat torn on the new design. The new electronic key design may save money (electronics cheaper than a key tumbler?); however, I don't like having to move my hand/finger 2 inches up to press the start button. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but I like to be able to start the car with one 'movement'. I would design it a little differently - I would require you to push the stub into the slot (with a small amount of force) to get the car into accessory mode... and simply press it harder to shut the car off. Same thing goes for shutting the car off - press they key in harder to shut the car off, then press it in softly to release the key. I think these motions could be performed faster than the existing design. Alternatively, you could press the key in for accessory mode and then *gasp* TURN IT to start the car. :)



Worst. Cupholders. EVER.
Sorry, I don't have pictures of the E46's cupholders. They look like two cup-shaped holes by the e-brake. :)



Headlight switch. E90s looks a little better.



Turn signal design. The cylinder in the turn signal stalk on the E90 is for additional on board computer controls, allowing you to set the time, check the oil level, etc. The turn signal operation is the biggest difference between these two cars. For the E90 (and other bangle'd cars), BMW has re-engineered how turn signal stalks have operated for the past 40 years :). You can simply tap-and-release the stalk up or down and the turn signal will give you 3 blinks only - perfect for changing lanes. When you activate the turn signal (to actually make a turn), you push the stick up or down harder. Unlike what you're used to, the stalk immediately returns to its center position, it does not "stick" up or down until you've completed the turn. If you want to cancel the signal, you can tap it either direction (I believe). At first this really bugged me, thinking that BMW engineered it just to be different.. but after a day or two, I started really liking it. As you can see, the cruise control is no longer on the steering wheel. More on this later.



Wiper control stalk: Only a slight change - the addition of a button for auto rain sensing wipers. The E46 cars with premium package still had auto sensing wipers, they just used the 'intermittent' postition to activate them.



Steering wheels. Here, you can see that the E46 actually has more steering wheel buttons.
E46 Left: Volume up/down, cd track or radio preset up/down, phone dial, and phone book display.
E46 Right: Cruise control speed up/down, cruise power on, cruise speed resume.


E90 Left: Volume up/down, phone dial, voice acivation trigger
E90 Right: Radio mode, recirculation (toggles between auto recirc and recirc on), track up/down.


If you order the E90 with iDrive, the recirc button is replaced with a diamond shaped button that is programmable to the function that you choose. It seems that BMW picked a random control for this button on the non-idrive cars. Recirculation? How often do you press that button? More often than me, apparently. Having the mode function is very helpful, however, I don't like that the track buttons are on the right and the volume controls are on the left. I'd prefer all of the radio's controls to be on one side. Another complaint about the buttons is the size of the volume control buttons. They're small and in the position they are in, you must press them with the tip of your thumb. On the E46, the buttons are bigger and better contoured to the shape of the steering wheel, allowing you to simply rest your entire thumb over them and "rock" your thumb up or down. I think I like the cruise control on the steering wheel better as well.

One comment on the operation of the radio: There are 12 presets. The E46 has FM1 and FM2, each with 6 presets. The difference here is that you can scroll through all 12 presets with the steering wheel buttons on the E90. On the E46, you have to press the FM button on the radio/nav to get to the second set of 6 presets. Annoying.
Edit: I have since learned that you can go through all 12 presets on 2004+ E46s as well.





Doors: E46 is at the top, E90 is below. Notice something about the E90's doors? They're not symmetrical! The passenger has a nice big "oh $hit!" handle, but the driver doesn't. BMW's marketing department on the E90 seemed to go something like this:
Guy #1: "Hanz, I know zee window switches have always been next to zee shifter in zee 3er cars, but I think ve should move them to zee door!"
Guy #2: "But zee doors are already designed and ve do not have time to re-design them!"
Guy #1: "Just make it verk or you will be verking over at VW!"

Check this out:


You actually have to lean up and reach for the switches! Ridiculous. Move them back to the center console please.

Speaking of center consoles:



Ignore my awesome LeatherZ gauge panel [another pic :)]. I simply prefer the E46 design here.



Here's the sunroof panel thing. On the E46, it's covered in the nice felt-like material that covers the rest of the headliner. The lights are mirrored inside. The E90's panel is plastic and the lights look cheaper. The entire E90 headliner is covered with a cheaper feeling cloth. Also, the ambiance lights on the E46 are recessed and hidden. On the E90, they're obvious and in one of the black plastic pieces. They could at least make the pieces match the headliner color.

For those that don't know what the ambiance lights are, they're small orange LEDs in the sunroof panel that shine down to dimly illuminate the shifter console area when the headlights are on. Here's a picture of them on in the E90:





The rear console of the E90 looks much better. I'd love to have some vents for the back seat. The E46 does have floor vents for the rear seat (most E46 owners probably haven't noticed these under their seat!)... I didn't look, but I assume the E90 has the same.


Here are the map lights for the rear seat. The E90's map light console area suffers from the same cheaper look as the front sunroof panel, however, I do like this central location much better than the E46's c-pillar mounted lights. Rear seat passengers never notice that they have a light in the E46, and then they have to turn around to turn it on.

It's also fair to note that I wish my E46 had the extra few inches of leg room that the E90 has.



(man, this pic makes my car just look gross. I'm going to go clean that area immediately after posting this message)

The E90 (sport) seats are simply awesome. They have adjustable kidney bolsters (on the sport pkg seats) just like the ones optional in the M3. I've always felt like I'm too thin (5'9 190lbs!) for the E46 seats- I slide around quite a bit. The E90 (sport) seats really hug you in place. The E46 has 3 memory positions and the E90 has 2 - odd.



The door sills in the E90 remind you what kind of car you're getting in to while the ones in the E46 are chrome to show you how luxurious it is. (did my sarcasm come off there?)



The E46's upper trunk space is slightly obscured by the harmon kardon "subwoofers." while the E90s is not.



The E46's armrest storage space (sorry, not pictured) is just barely big enough to hold my FasTrak or iPod. The E90 has this much more canvernous space which has the aux input, a cigarette lighter, and an additional cup holder with a /drink cooler/. Move the switch to ON and cool air will blow on your drink. Probably more gimmicky than useful.



Exterior design- I'm not going to take the same pictures that you can see of the two models everywhere else. Here are a few things I noticed..

First, this trainwreck angle on the E90:


Next, the side mirror design:




(E46 top, E90 bottom) Finally, BMW let the 3er sedan have rounded mirrors. They look much better than the square ears sticking out of the E46. The E90 also gets electric folding mirrors, a gadget that USA bound E46s never received.



Engine bay: I prefer the more monochromatic look of the E46 - using black plastic to cover everything. I guess BMW just wanted to use gray to make the E90's engine look more like... the color of an engine?

I realized when I was washing the E90 how much I really did not like it's lines and body panels. The car has many jagged edges - straight panels that meet harsh creases instead of smooth curves all around.



Fiiiinally, driving impressions:
Thank goodness, the E90 still drives like a BMW. I think the E46's engine sounds a little better. I also think the E46 is a little more 'raw.' It's exactly like I assumed it would be: similar to the E30 vs E36 or E36 vs E46 - it's an evolution of refinement... and when you get more refined, you lose a little bit of what many enthusiasts like. The steptronic was awesome (for an auto, of course)... in sport mode, it'd stay at 5000 RPM if I let off the gas completely for several seconds before it decided that I was done having some fun. I can feel the +20hp of the E90, despite the steptronic and weight difference. The runflats (stock tires on an E90) suck as expected. It's unfortunate that BMW "designed the suspension around runflats" because that means that it is "expecting" more unsprung weight than it will have if you swap out to non-runflats. The ///M tire repair kit + Pilot Sport PS2s would certianly do the car a lot of good.