How Much Have Cars Improved Over The Last 20 Years?

Recently, I was involved in a discussion where the pervasive opinion was that new cars are more expensive but worse than they were 20 years ago. Most commonly cited was that emissions regulations have added to costs yet reduced efficiency and reliability. This is not a new opinion and tends to come from people of a certain age, then repeated as fact by the next generation, and so on. However, it has always struck me as a bit nonsensical, and now it's time to examine the subject. So, we decided to pick a car from 20 years ago and make a reasonably direct comparison and see how it shakes out. For that, we've chosen the E46 generation BMW 3 Series as it set the bar for the driver's compact sedan and is still revered today.

In 2002, the BMW 3 Series started at $27,745 for the 325i sedan, which, when adjusted for inflation, would give you the buying power of around $46,200 now. As of the time of writing, the base model is the BMW 330i sedan and starts at $41,450, giving us a difference of $4,750 less than the 2002 model year 325i. With that in mind, the question becomes: "What were you getting, if anything, with your extra $4,750 on the 2002 base model?"

In 2002, your BMW 325i came with a 184-horsepower 2.5-liter straight-six engine, while the 330i came with a 3.0-liter straight-six making 225-horsepower and 214 lb-ft of torque. Here, in 2022, the logic of naming has gone out the window, and the 330i comes with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 255 hp and 294 lb-ft of torque. There's no denying that the six-cylinder M54 engine in the E46 generation is a smooth-driving masterpiece; that's a large part of the reason my fun car is an E46 330Ci. That said, the latest BMW turbo-fours are excellent engines and make more horsepower while blowing away the old straight-six in torque. Having driven the new four-cylinder back to back with my own six, you can find the difference in smoothness if you hunt for it, but BMW has come incredibly close to erasing turbo lag. The sound is not as good, but the new four-cylinder engine pulls harder and makes the 3 Series faster.

The 325i in 2002 came standard with a manual transmission, something that's not available in 2022 on the 330i. Instead, all models get an eight-speed automatic transmission with sport and manual shift modes, launch control, and paddle shifters. The ZF-built five-speed Steptronic was a $1,275 upgrade in 2002, which would be $2,100 now - and nowhere near as good as the modern transmission. It's not even close. Shift speed and smoothness aside, the eight-speed helps fuel economy. The 2002 325i got 18/27/21 mpg city/highway/combined compared to the modern 330i's 26/36/30 mpg. Even the all-wheel-drive 3.0-liter turbocharged inline six-powered BMW M340i xDrive beats out the old 330i with 23/32/26 mpg.

According to BMW, the 2002 BMW 325i managed 0-60 mph in 7.1 seconds, while the 330i hit 60 mph in 6.4 or seven seconds, depending on the transmission. The base 2022 model 330i gets up to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds, well over a second quicker than the 325i, while the 330i xDrive does the same in 5.3 seconds. If you're wondering, the E46 M3 model made the 0-62 mph sprint in 5.1 seconds in 2002. For reference, the BMW 330i cost $34,635 in 2002, which would be just under $55,000 in today's money.

Performance isn't just about straight-line speed, though. A 2022 BMW 3 Series benefits from modern suspension design, materials, and components along with modern tires and compounds to generate more grip in the corners. Despite its weight disadvantage, the overall chassis and engine combination make the new 3 Series an even sharper handling car. However, the older model is still a ton of fun and a completely different experience to drive.

Whether you see it as a positive or negative, something we can't get away from is that the 3 Series has grown in overall size. The 2002 3 Series is 176 inches long and 68.5 inches wide with a wheelbase of 107.3 inches. The 2022 model is 185.7 inches long, 71.9 inches wide, and has a wheelbase of 112.2 inches. Today's 3 Series is nearly as long as an E39 5 Series, but that's significant for interior and cargo space. However, the weight difference is not drastic considering the added size and the safety and emissions equipment people complain about. The E46 325i weighs in at 3,307 for the automatic, while the 2022 330i comes in at 3,560 pounds. That's a 253-pound difference, perfect for a mother-in-law joke from back in the early 2000s.

We mentioned interior space, and the 2002 E46 came with 10.7 cubic feet of trunk space compared to the 2022 model's comparatively huge 17 cubic feet. Rear passengers in the modern 3 Series get 35.2 inches of legroom, while the 2002 model gives them 34.6 inches. The big difference comes in elbow room for the front passenger and driver. It's a couple of inches, but it makes a lot of difference if you regularly have a passenger, as does the multi-zone climate control that's standard now.

This is where we find an immense difference between the old and the new BMW 3 Series. The seats in the modern model are power-adjustable in front as standard, while the older model came with manual adjustment. The modern interior is just as well built, but a little more clinical feeling than the old one. The real difference comes when you look at the in-cabin technology. In 2002, you got an in-dash single-CD player, and a 10-disc changer in the back was an upgrade. A 10-speaker system was standard with a 12-speaker Harmon Kardon system as an upgrade. In 2022, you get a 5.1-inch instrument cluster screen, an 8.8-inch touchscreen, Bluetooth connectivity, two USB ports, navigation, SiriusXM with 360L with a one-year all-access subscription, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and a more powerful 10-speaker system. The Harman Kardon upgrade is still there, and now it's a 16-speaker system. Rather than a sea of buttons, the 2022 model's infotainment is controlled by the iDrive system's rotary wheel.

Back in the day, the base 3 Series came on 16-inch wheels compared to 2022's 18-inch rims and with halogen headlights, unless you upgraded to Xenon HID units and the pain they cause down the road. Now, the headlights are LED, and feature high-beam assist as well as a cornering function. At the back, the brake lights are adaptive - meaning they get brighter when you lean heavily on the brakes, and another bulb comes on. Also standard now is a two-way power glass moonroof. We can argue about styling in the comments, but times do evolve and change, and the modern 3 Series grille isn't crazy. Yet.

Like infotainment, safety has been a massive upgrade since the turn of the century. The 2002 model was forward-looking with dual front side-mounted airbags added, and features like front seat-belt pre-tensioning and ABS and traction control were standard - although there were nowhere near as effective as modern systems. In the 2022 model, you get dual-stage front airbags, front side airbags, front knee airbags, and front/rear head airbags. An accident detection system will also react to an unavoidable incident and there's a rearview camera, adaptive brake lights, tire pressure monitoring, dynamic stability control, and dynamic traction control. Added to all of that are fatigue/focus alert, frontal collision warning, and automatic city collision mitigation and braking. We haven't even touched on the way the chassis is built to withstand crashes now - it's implausible that the E46 would achieve much of a rating in any modern crash test.

If you think a newer car is heavier and over-hampered by emissions equipment, then you're not much of a thinker. Our example here shows the modern BMW 3 Series is larger, packed with more safety systems and equipment, has a smaller engine, but makes more power and drives better. While the new 3 Series isn't noted for its reliability ratings, the much-loved E46 was plagued by, amongst other things, bad plastics in the cooling system, a complicated and fragile variable valve system, shocks that liked to pop a leak at around 50,000 miles, and a rear differential bushing that likes to go bad.

When it comes to the $4,750 or so price difference over the modern 3 Series after taking inflation into account, it's absurd to complain about the cost of safety and emissions equipment. Besides the improved engine and transmission technology, the modern car has an infotainment system that's a world apart and still doesn't impact the cost negatively.

Of course, the added emissions and safety equipment costs money but it's an inconsequential cost in this example, and people's safety and the quality of the air we breathe are essential. We wouldn't stop you from buying one of each, though - the E46 still holds up as a fun driver's car, but the new one is faster, safer, more comfortable and cheaper in comparison.