BMW E46/5 or 3 Compact was firs introduced in 2000 as part of the E46 line. Build and quality of finish was much-improved over that of the E36 Compact, but this E46 Compact has no success like as its predecessor. The E46 Compact was never marketed in USA because the E36 Compact never enjoyed popularity in North America.

The E46 Compact differ greatly from other E46 cars by the headlight. But the TI/Compact is mechanically identical to the E46-series saloon, estate, coupe and convertible - in a package eight inches shorter. In 2004, the BMW E46/5 was replaced by the BMW 1 Series however the 1-Series did not appear in North America until 2008.

A Motorsport version of the car was briefly considered by BMW but it was concluded that such a production run would never return adequate profits. Despite this, the 16-valve versions 318ti compact and the various versions of the 318is (as 2 or 4-door E36, or as 2-door E30) won overall championships in the German endurance racing series on the Nürburgring, VLN in 2002, 2004 & 2006 and RCN/CHC in 2003, as its class ("V2 standard cars up to 1850 cc") usually has the most entries due to the low costs, and thus slightly more points are rewarded according to the special scoring system. Yet, it was beaten to both the VLN and the RCN/CHC title by 1600 cc Opel Corsa once (VLN 2003, RCN/CHC 2005).

Used E46 Engines

Model	Years	Engine and code		Displ.	Power	Torque
316ti	2001–2004	I4 16V	N46B18	1796 cc	85 kW (116 PS; 114 hp) @ 5500 rpm	175 N•m (129 lb•ft) @ 3750 rpm
318ti	2001–2004	I4 16V	N46B20	1995 cc	105 kW (143 PS; 141 hp) @ 6000 rpm	200 N•m (150 lb•ft) @ 3750 rpm
325ti	2001–2004	I6 24V	M54B25	2494 cc	141 kW (192 PS; 189 hp) @ 6000 rpm	245 N•m (181 lb•ft) @ 3500 rpm
318td	2003–2004	I4 16V	M47D20	1995 cc	85 kW (116 PS; 114 hp) @ 4000 rpm	280 N•m (210 lb•ft) @ 1750 rpm
320td	2001–2004	I4 16V	M47D20	1995 cc	110 kW (150 PS; 148 hp) @ 4000 rpm	330 N•m (240 lb•ft) @ 2000 rpm

Used E46 photos