# e46 coupe facelift



## TopazTim325 (May 20, 2002)

The HACK said:


> *
> 
> The other day I finally put my finger to why I do not like the facelifted sedans as much as the older sedans (no offense to all of you who love the facelift). The lights looks too clean and modern compared to the rest of the design of the car. The E46 body still carries a lot of very classy lines from the earlier E36 (although TD won't admit it), and almost the entire styling and design has all the traditional, old school BMW about it. Now couple that with the sleek, modern lights it creates a contrast...A contrast I'm not 100% comfortable with.
> 
> But then again, sales figures would indicate that I am the minority on this matter. :dunno: *


Y'know what? I never really thought about it on those lines, but I think that's it for me too!


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## ashecnc (Dec 20, 2001)

aardvark said:


> *The taillights are what bug me about the face-lifted sedan. The "striped" red-orange-red arrangement looks very un-BMW. It looks like they're copying someone else (early '90s Lexus?). I really hope they don't do that to the coupe. *


oh yea.I forgot about that too....I am not much for that either.....the coupes tails are great  :thumbup:


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## operknockity (Apr 19, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Plaz_*
> I think the '02 lights in conjunction with the wider grill and hood bulge extending out to the A-pillars makes the front end look decidedly MORE aggressive... like a big cat ready to pounce*


Gotta agree with Plaz on this one. Though I like both the old face and the new, I think the new does look more aggressive. And the 330 looks more aggressive with it's older style front bumper than the new snow plow on the 325 sedan. One more little detail I like more about the facelift is the wider grill has a thinner chrome surround... less chrome is better! (I might even like it better with a matte black surround rather than the chrome, but I don't know of a vendor that does this for the facelifted grill).



> _Originally posted by The HACK_*
> But then again, sales figures would indicate that I am the minority on this matter*


I'm not sure the sales figures can be that accurate in this case, as you cann't get an '02 sedan both with AND without the facelift. If both were available, with exactly the same equipment, options, and price points, then there'd be an apples to apples comparison. But since there is only the one style available, if you want the sedan you gotta take the facelift with it, like it or not. It could just be that the sales figures indicate that there are more sedan buyers now than in previous years or any number of other factors that don't correlate with the facelift.


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## Plaz (Dec 19, 2001)

aardvark said:


> *The taillights are what bug me about the face-lifted sedan. The "striped" red-orange-red arrangement looks very un-BMW. It looks like they're copying someone else (early '90s Lexus?). I really hope they don't do that to the coupe. *


So funny! I've always thought the new taillights look much more European than the previous arrangement. :dunno:


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## Lori (Sep 21, 2002)

At this point if they take away the titanium grill I will be glad I ordered when I did.


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## Waverz (Aug 11, 2002)

Hmmm, I never noticed the change on the tailights. Does anyone have a comparison pic of the tailights pre-facelift and after?


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## The HACK (Dec 19, 2001)

Waverz said:


> *Hmmm, I never noticed the change on the tailights. Does anyone have a comparison pic of the tailights pre-facelift and after? *


Left is how the original, pre-facelifted tail light is suppose to look. Right is the facelifted tail light.

edit: There are subtle differences I think. I made this up in Photoshop but those of you with facelifted cars are more than welcome to post for comparison.


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## The HACK (Dec 19, 2001)

I have a feeling someone must have noticed that on lighter color cars (ti. silver, white, and steel blue) clear tail lenses made the rear look too much like E36es, because the clears blend into the L shaped tail lights and body color. New, facelifted tail lights have the amber reflectors sandwiched between two ruby lenses, thus the clears will look more distinguished on light color cars.

Those damn designers.


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## AF (Dec 21, 2001)

CCs328Ci said:


> *
> 
> Oh alan, i see you changing quick since you ordered your i, thoughts change quick don't they :dunno:  *


Craig . . . if you check out my past posts on this particular topic I've always said that I like the look of the 2002 better . . .
keep in mind I am only talking about pre 02 sedan vs 02/03 sedan

Now that I've ordered a 2003 'i' I can finally admit the 4 door is better then the 2 door   :lmao: (of course I'm kidding)


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## ashecnc (Dec 20, 2001)

Alan F said:


> *
> 
> Craig . . . if you check out my past posts on this particular topic I've always said that I like the look of the 2002 better . . .
> keep in mind I am only talking about pre 02 sedan vs 02/03 sedan
> ...


NO I didnt notice..I only read into what I want to hear :lmao:


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## Mr Janne (Sep 29, 2002)

My brother has a 330Ci Convertible on order for delivery in May next year. Yesterday his dealer called him up and asked if he wanted face-lift or not because the face-lift will be introduced in March. So it´s true.


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## Mdriver315 (Sep 5, 2002)

I am all about keeping the look 'fresh', but I think this current three is beautiful. If they facelift it to look like the 7, I will have to get used to it. If they make it look good, then I will love it.


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## duke330ci (Sep 9, 2002)

*comparison pics of tailights*



Waverz said:


> *Hmmm, I never noticed the change on the tailights. Does anyone have a comparison pic of the tailights pre-facelift and after? *


check this thread from fanatics. halfway down there are 2 consecutive posts from "BMW330dSport". You can see the difference in the tailights and also the differences in placement of the sidemarkers and the extended accent line along the body and also the different headlight/turn signals.


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## duke330ci (Sep 9, 2002)

*oops. here's the url.*

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?threadid=30206


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## ashecnc (Dec 20, 2001)

*Re: oops. here's the url.*



duke330ci said:


> *http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?threadid=30206 *


I am not seeing anything in that thread about the "new" look :dunno: :dunno:


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## tropics (Oct 16, 2002)

Hi Jon, I posted on the other 3 series forum yesterday that I saw a facelifted 3 series cic in Waikiki yesterday doing a photo shoot. Has BMW built preproduction prototypes and they were doing a new catalog brouchure shoot? They had a pretty big crew working it, 10 or so guys, couple production trucks. To bad I didnt have my own camera.


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