M Sport or SE....?

hey all, kinda of scratching my head here...i have an e46 320d 150bhp 6speed... full service history etc. and vrt receipts... shes early 2003 and was an english import brought in early 2004.... shes what i thought was the se model but she has all the m sport extras, sills,steering wheel and gear stick emblems and there quiet worn to go with the milage... then i changed her to the m sport bumpers myself and when fitting the jom coilovers discovered full m sport suspension came out of it.... i was talking to a mechanic that used import from england and he said if she has all of the extras and the black roof lining shes m sport...which she does... i asked why would she have full se bumpers and his answer was back in the boom when importing from england this was done alot as the se model was alot cheaper to vrt rather than the msport...... is this man talking out his arse or is there a possibility that there is some truth in this? :surprised:

If you lift the back seat up there will be a white piece of paper with the option codes on it this should answer how it left the factory

Bmwvin.com

You need to register but it's free, Type in last 7 digits of VIN and it'll give you the full factory spec list.

thanks guys :-)

Probably is the case that she was imported and bumpers swapped to cheapen the VRT....but why not swap them back when VRT'd is the strange one!! Maybe on a plus....you paid SE money for an M-Sport?!??

I remember a few years ago, reading about certain dealers getting hauled up to court for underpaying VRT for cars imported....revenue were after them!

As gar said check the options from the factory but afaik all Msport bits were available as options, so maybe it was specced with sort extras but not the full sport spec.

it all has me baffled, i will check all this stuff out and will post up tomorrow if she is or not

Give us your last 7 digits from the Vin number and ill tell you now.

car is currently in the garage, will have it back tomorrow evening i will post it up then guys thanks :happy:

It wouldn't matter what bumpers were on the car when it was imported they wouldn't have even looked anyway, they only go on what the log book says. If its a Sport its on the book from the UK (and it will be on the book) if the UK book says SE its registered as an SE.


Another possibility is that it was crashed in the past and SE bumpers used instead of sport during the repair. Ive seen this over and over again.

Never crashed shes immaculate, she was put on a lift and checked witg a magnet before bought...

Loads. Of cars came with. Sports interiors e90's are doing the same

Theres a simple solution to put this to rest

Vin , enter , result ,finished :cool:

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Originally Posted by -amanda jdm-

Never crashed shes immaculate, she was put on a lift and checked witg a magnet before bought...

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The only thing is magnets are no good for completely new panels, aluminium panels or plastic/composite panels. A magnet or even a paint depth guags wouldn't tell much when it comes to bumpers.

The car was never crashed!!!

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Originally Posted by -amanda jdm-

The car was never crashed!!!

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How can you say for definite? I am not trying to bad mouth your car as I don't know a thing about it but could have been just cosmetically damaged which is I guess what the guys above are getting at, the original bumpers may have been damaged and replaced with cheaper parts, happens all the time. There would be no way of knowing if this did or did not happen imo. As said the best thing to do is to run your vin (chassis) number through one of the vin checkers to get full spec of the car.

Two trucks father. :D

Amanda
It's probably a SE with sport options selected. My x5 is the same, it's an SE but has sport suspension, seats, black headlining etc that are normally just on a sport.

Stick the vin through a bmw vin checker just to be sure.
HTH
John

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnH

Amanda
It's probably a SE with sport options selected. My x5 is the same, it's an SE but has sport suspension, seats, black headlining etc that are normally just on a sport.

Stick the vin through a bmw vin checker just to be sure.
HTH
John

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Your jeep was rolled over ,so lot parts from SE model :hehe!:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Valdelisbmw

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnH

Amanda
It's probably a SE with sport options selected. My x5 is the same, it's an SE but has sport suspension, seats, black headlining etc that are normally just on a sport.

Stick the vin through a bmw vin checker just to be sure.
HTH
John

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Your jeep was rolled over ,so lot parts from SE model :hehe!:

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Ha! Probably 2 of them welded together!