Here I am surprised that it was still alive.

Because it had all of the right features.

It was based on a compact car (Falcon) so cheap to make and sell.

It had four seats so it was practical.

It could be economical (200 I6) or sporty (289 V8).

It could be a coupe or convertible (and later, fastback).

It had loud styling which appealed to a younger generation.

It was marketed and released just as the first Baby Boomers were coming of age.

It was priced that it could be a second car, a kids car, a first car, or a car for someone downsizing.

Direct injection probably… but I don’t know if the E46 had that as well. Usually direct injection was reserved for diesel engines because of the extremely high fuel pump pressures needed.

Direct injection allows more even fuel air mixture for complete combustion and to prevent detonation as well as cooling air over the exhaust valves (since fuel is only sprayed in directly before combustion and the turbo will quickly push the combustion gasses out from the previous cycle).

The fact that it has 9.3:1 compression ratio plus turbos seems to indicate very high brake mean effective pressure which translates to power.