330Ci Sport/M-Sport

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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,145
Location
Southampton
Hi guys,

I've got very bored of my C30 very quickly, so am looking to purchase an E46 330ci instead.

What I'd like to know is how to distinguish a Sport model from an M-Sport? I see a lot of cars advertised as Sport models, but in the pictures they have ///M badges on the sills, steering wheel and alloys. How do I tell what is what, and what's the difference between the two?

Cheers!
 
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I'm pretty positive that Sport and M Sport are the same thing in the E46 world, but Sport was just the prefacelift version, i.e. pre-2004 or 2005 or whenever it was they were facelifted.
 
Just typed out a response but its disappeared into the ether. Oops.

Anyway, Howard is correct. There aren't technically any M-Sport E46s, only Sports, but as the trim level is essentially identical (including ///M branding) they are often mislabeled.
 
neverender said:
Anyway, Howard is correct. There aren't technically any M-Sport E46s, only Sports, but as the trim level is essentially identical (including ///M branding) they are often mislabeled.
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This is not correct (And Howard is wrong, too) - there *are* E46 M Sports. Cars registered from 2005 onwads are M Sport and not Sport. As the Saloon and Touring were out of production by then the only M Sport you will find are Coupes and Cabriolets. It is nothing to do with the facelift, there are many facelift Sport cars.

There is absolutely ZERO difference between a Sport and an M Sport. They are identical. It was just a name change to bring it in to line with the 'Sport' trim being renamed 'M Sport' elsewhere in range in order that 'Sport' could be re-used as a new low end trim.

Many people call 2000-2005 cars 'M Sport' because it makes them feel cooler.
 
Thanks for the replies guys..that makes sense.

Bored of the C30 because it's too damn slow; I want to get back into a quick petrol car. Its a nice drive and very comfy for doing lots of miles but I'm doing a lot less miles commuting nowadays so I don't need to be driving a diesel.

Went to look at an 05 plate 330Ci M-Sport this afternoon which was up at £6995 at a dealer with 71k on the clock. It was well-specced and looked good on paper but unfortunately it was very tired for the price.

On the outside the bodywork was tidy but it had Wanli tyres on the rear, mismatched tyres on the front and the front discs would need replacing soon. On the interior the drivers seat was looking tired, the centre console had scratches on it, half the buttons on the steering wheel didn't work and the heated seats only worked in patches. I'd have said it was more a £5k car rather than £7k!

Time to start hunting for another one with the spec I'm after..one has come up 100miles away which looks nice again on paper but we'll see!
 
Scuzi said:
Or because they don't know about or care about the difference.
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When you are selling a car on either Ebay or Autotrader, it will autopopulate the title for you based on the data the DVLA hold. You actually have to go and edit the title it gives you and put the M in yourself if you want to advertise a 'Sport' as an 'M Sport'.

I'd say they care :p
 
scratch said:
On the outside the bodywork was tidy but it had Wanli tyres on the rear, mismatched tyres on the front and the front discs would need replacing soon. On the interior the drivers seat was looking tired, the centre console had scratches on it, half the buttons on the steering wheel didn't work and the heated seats only worked in patches. I'd have said it was more a £5k car rather than £7k!

Time to start hunting for another one with the spec I'm after..one has come up 100miles away which looks nice again on paper but we'll see!
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You are going to find this almost every time with E46's now unfortunately. Very few are still to be found in pristine condition with Pilot Sports on the rear etc.
 
I've been looking at a few recently too and have found the same issue tbh - at first I thought it was the price range I was looking in but even upping it significantly hasn't really brought up any cars that are of what I would call acceptable condition. Infact if anything the newer / more expensive examples have tended to be worse.

I'm half thinking about just spending significantly less and getting another e36 as my old one was quite honestly in better condition than any 330ci I've seen despite being older and liking to break in some way every month. They really need looking after now though - If you're set on a 330 and a coupe then I guess it's just a case of being patient, good ones are definitely out there I've seen them before when I wasn't actually looking to pick one up!
 
[TW]Fox;23867995 said:
You are going to find this almost every time with E46's now unfortunately. Very few are still to be found in pristine condition with Pilot Sports on the rear etc.
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Don't get me wrong I'm not expecting a perfect car. I appreciate that even the youngest 330s are now 7 years old so there are bound to be things which need attention, but this one had so many bits up with it that it was clear the car hasn't had the easiest of lives. If somebody is tight enough to fit Wanlis then it's a good indication that they've skimped with their maintenance elsewhere.

I'm going to look at this one sometime this week..it's got all the kit I want apart from Xenons:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201302175375759
 
rodenal said:
I've been looking at a few recently too and have found the same issue tbh - at first I thought it was the price range I was looking in but even upping it significantly hasn't really brought up any cars that are of what I would call acceptable condition. Infact if anything the newer / more expensive examples have tended to be worse.

I'm half thinking about just spending significantly less and getting another e36 as my old one was quite honestly in better condition than any 330ci I've seen despite being older and liking to break in some way every month. They really need looking after now though - If you're set on a 330 and a coupe then I guess it's just a case of being patient, good ones are definitely out there I've seen them before when I wasn't actually looking to pick one up!
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Annoyingly the dealer I visited today had a beautiful 03 plate which was a minter and ticked every box but had no heated seats which is a must-have for me. I understand that they're not easy to retrofit which is a pain otherwise I'd have gone for that one
 
[TW]Fox;23868344 said:
It has fake 19 inch wheels and an enormous ///MPOWER badge on the ashtray. Don't get your hopes up.
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Wasn't too worried about the dodgy MPower badge but interesting to know that the alloys aren't genuine, thanks.
 
scratch said:
Annoyingly the dealer I visited today had a beautiful 03 plate which was a minter and ticked every box but had no heated seats which is a must-have for me. I understand that they're not easy to retrofit which is a pain otherwise I'd have gone for that one
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Got a link to it, where's it located?

*Edit, probably no point - whilst I don't mind travelling Southampton or nearby would be a bit far a few £k's worth of car
 
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Fox..how tricky was your Dynavin nav installation? Did you have any kind of nav in your car to start with or did you have to fit all the associated gubbins such as GPS aerial etc?

At the moment I'm only looking at cars with factory nav, but if I can start looking at cars without then that should widen the options.
 
scratch said:
Wasn't too worried about the dodgy MPower badge but interesting to know that the alloys aren't genuine, thanks.
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Only the M3 was ever offered with 19's from the factory (and they don't fit the regular 3 Series either unless you buy 4 fronts which of course no self respecting POWER badge owner would do when fakes are a ten a penny on Ebay).
 
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