Quote:
Originally Posted by awong
To loosely quote one of the guys at BMW NA, they wanted to separate the 3 and the 3 coupe for easier model designation/recognition in the future. The E36 coupe and sedan bodies were basically identical, you could picture it right away. The E46 had front design changes between the coupe and sedan, and nearly identical rear. Also easy to picture when mentioning E46 3 series.
But where it gets messy is when the E9x started, with the coupe design sharing nothing but the front end with the sedan, as with the convertible. You say e9x 3 series, and you get a mixed picture of whatever body style 3 you are most fond of, E90/1/2/3. They want to change that to where when you say 3, you think sedan/wagon. You say 4, you think of coupe. Makes somewhat more sense after I heard that.
That's at least what I got out of what the guys were talking about at the latest CCA meet in NJ.
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That's BS.
Once upon a time, BMW model designations actually made sense.
For example: 325Ci - it is a 3-series, as denoted by the first number. Further, it has a 2.5 liter petrol injection motor under the hood, and the body style is coupe.
Of course, BMW marketing came around and started making arbitrary changes (e.g. the last two digits no longer represent the engine displacement/size).
What's also ironic is that the e92 "3 coupe" looks much more different from the sedan counterpart (e90) that the f32 "4 coupe" looks from the f30.