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Originally Posted by Law
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and you'd be right about the inconsistencies.
The E36 two-door is interesting, because, for the first time, the 3 Series two-door was being marketed and referred to as a coupé. But this is where the lines are kind of blurred (grey area, so to speak). Some contemporary literature continued to refer to/classify the E36 coupé as two-door sedan, or through indirect references, such as calling the E36 M3 Coupé a "sports sedan". I would argue that during the E36-E46 generations, the 3 Series Coupe was kind of both sedan and coupé...a sort of compact, sports, coupé-sedan thing. For all intents and purposes, the greenhouse & roofline of both E36 & E46 two-doors were fairly upright (i.e., not sloped) and the seating accommodated a five passengers (not 2+2). They very much continued on with the same formula as the E30 two-door.
But of course, as we all know, the E46 two-door would be marketed as a coupé with its model designations even gaining the "C" suffix and by now, colloquial usage of the word "coupé" evolved to basically mean any fixed-top car with two doors.
With the E90 generation, the seeds of change were finally planted.
The 3 Series coupé would become a true coupé by definition, with an entirely different exterior design, 2+2 seating, sloping coupé roofline, and a separate internal designation (E92 in this case)
In fact, there were early rumors that the E92 would be separated into its own model series (i.e., 4 Series).
Henceforth, the "C" designation in model names became redundant and irrelevant. BMW decided soon after that models that would be marketed as coupés would be separated into their own Series (i.e., 2, 4, 6, 8), rendering the "C" suffix, largely obsolete. |
Great pictures - real blast from the past!
Autocar (a very old motoring magazine in the UK) announced breathlessly in 1990 that the next 3-series 2-door would be called the 4 series. They also announced that in 1998, and again in 2006. Fourth time lucky
. To be fair, although the E36 coupé wasn't that rakish, it did have a lower roofline than the saloon, there is much less airspace between the top of the instrument binnacle and the inside of the front screen, and the front wings are quite a bit longer. And those frameless doors and generous glasshouse bringing to mind the E24 coupe, which looks more 2-door sedan-like in hindsight!
In lighter colours (not dark grey, blue or black anyway), with the dark grey sills making the body appear shallower and longer, it was pretty elegant to look at:
Good point about the E92 coupé seating only 4, not 5.