The Pheonix Yellow Metallic is absolutely gorgeous, IMO.  I know a lot of people don't like it, but I love it.  I would never get an M3 in that color, but I think it is amazing.  In the sun, it has that bronze/yellow look, and at night it's very golden.  I think BMW chose to use this color for the M3 over the Dakar Yellow (for example), because a banana yellow type color would just make the car look like a toy.  The same goes for the Imola Red...it really is a very dark red, but in the sun it looks amazing!