I thought the 4-series is a lot worse than the 2-series. But the fact remains, Mercedes went to electric power steering taking a lot less bashing. The SLK for example is a nice little bouncy thing and it doesn't have e46 steering, but it is better than BMW's.
At another forum people are saying the problem is the thyssen rack and that the M4 is a lot better, with a ZF rack.
Wonder whether that is accurate and whether the ZF rack fits other cars