M Sport or SE....?

[-amanda jdm-]

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:

[Gar]

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

[RossYB]

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.

[-amanda jdm-]

thanks guys :-)

[Paddy]

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!

[John_D]

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.

[-amanda jdm-]

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

[kceire]

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

[-amanda jdm-]

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

[michael320]

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.