En route from the land of the rising sun!

[Chillipepper]

Just got confirmation from JDM that the car is bought and now the process of it coming to Ireland has begun.

Always loved the look of the e61 and I think it has aged extremely well.

Nice spec 2007 M Sport (note the cup holders lol) and panorama glass roof, shadow line trim. I was hoping to snag a le mans blue but after a few weeks of looking nothing popped up.

Carbon black was my second choice and this one looked very good, it has been graded 4.5 (excellent condition) with two minor scratches noted on the bonnet and passenger door. Low mileage of 45000.

So 3 or so months and should be with me.

I will have to look into changing the infotainment and nav system as it is in Japanese, if anyone has any advice im all ears.

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[Andy]

Congrats and delighted it worked out. You are giving me ideas now. The car is fantastic.


https://www.donedeal.ie/caraccessori...rsion/35440673

[dergside]

Nice one Tony. Looking forward to seeing that, and picking your brains about how you went about it!

Is it the N52 525i? That's a great grade to get and hardly run in with that mileage. LCI is a brucey bonus.

[Chillipepper]

Nice one Tony. Looking forward to seeing that, and picking your brains about how you went about it!

Is it the N52 525i? That's a great grade to get and hardly run in with that mileage. LCI is a brucey bonus.

It was very straightforward for me, I used Patrick JDM auctionwatch he has a huge network established over there.

This particular car was sourced before going to auction direct from his dealer network.

LCI was what rubber stamped it for me as I think the subtle changes really lift the car cosmetically from an exterior point of view.

The E46 is pressed into daily duty for a while as I sold the Golf over the weekend.

Looking forward to getting it landed.


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[Dave]

Being an LCI N52 is a big win. Pretty sure that was limited to a handful of countries.

Re the infotainment, just do the CIC retrofit, it'll be the most cost effective route, same as I documented on the M5.

[Big H]

Being an LCI N52 is a big win

Being an N52, is it the 2.5 or 3.0 one - not that it matters - a lovely car indeed ?

Agree on the E61's having aged very well indeed (only really in M Sport trim imho though)

[Chillipepper]

Being an N52, is it the 2.5 or 3.0 one - not that it matters - a lovely car indeed ?

Agree on the E61's having aged very well indeed (only really in M Sport trim imho though)

Designated as N52K on the vin decoder I was sent but no engine capacity stated on it. I would of presumed it was the 2.5 variant.

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[eamo]

Designated as N52K on the vin decoder I was sent but no engine capacity stated on it. I would of presumed it was the 2.5 variant.

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As far as I recall Japan didn’t get the N53.

[Chillipepper]

Being an LCI N52 is a big win. Pretty sure that was limited to a handful of countries.

Re the infotainment, just do the CIC retrofit, it'll be the most cost effective route, same as I documented on the M5.

Thanks Dave, this is the most likely route I'll take with it. Must dig out your thread for an overview.

Do you have a link to the thread David?

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[Dave]

Thanks Dave, this is the most likely route I'll take with it. Must dig out your thread for an overview.

Do you have a link to the thread David?

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I didn't document it here, you can find it on backroads:

https://www.backroads.ie/forum/car-r...with-a-6-speed

It's a bit of a faff but not too bad, I paid €760 precoded to the car including the combox, there was about 5 hours in the install, repin from the MULF/TCU to the combox plug but it all works, you need the centre trim, which you could cut, it was cheap for the M5 so went new, you have to do a bit of cutting on the center console to resize the CCC controller aperture to suit the CIC controller, it all bolts in otherwise.

Being precoded to the car, you don't necessarily need to adjust to cars Vehicle Order to reflect it but I did.

If you add a mr12volt to that it really brings the car up to date, I would say it's less compromised than the NBT setup I have in the 630.