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E81 M Sport 118D Crimson red

2K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  igl 
#1 ·
Hi

My name is Ian and I have been lurking on these forums for a couple of months but this is my first post. Sorry for it being so long :lol2:

I started reading these forums as I decided that my next car would be a 1 series. After reading what feels like several thousand threads I started dreaming of my 135i or 140i. Unfortunately I had set myself a couple of rules when looking for a car.

60k mileage tops
£5k budget
Car had to be economical (this part sucks but I have a fairly long commute and recent house move means I needed to be sensible :cry: )

So I started looking at what options were open to me and decided that I wanted a 120d M Sport, preferably a 177bhp.

Weeks went by and there was nothing within 100 miles of me that fitted into the above criteria so I loosened the purse strings and mileage restraints a little. Over the next couple of weeks I found 3 cars that seemed to be everything I was after but they all sold before I could get there and one of them even sold as I was just starting a 140 mile round trip to look at it by someone leaving an online blind deposit :rollseyes:

At this point I thought that I should maybe consider buying another car. Whilst I was considering my options this popped up 2 miles away from where I work



NO LAUGHING AT THE BACK :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

It was a near pristine 118d SE 143bhp in my price range and with only 42,000 miles on the clock.

I took it for a fairly long test drive and let my head make the decision. I purchased the car there and then but the dealer had said that they were going to do some prep work on it and it wouldn't be ready for around 10 days. Turns out they gave it a full service, changed the clutch and flywheel and fitted a new windscreen.

So I collected my car and for the next 4 days I was very happy when I noticed that the auto start stop wasn't working :cry: Then the DSC warning light came on :cry:

I gave it back to the dealer to fix under warranty and BMW main dealer fitted a new steering angle sensor and calibrated it, a new battery and then gave it a full 4 wheel alignment.

I now have my car back and suffice to say I'm very happy with it. It may not be the fastest or best handling 1er out there but everyone has to start somewhere. What my wife doesn't know is that I don't plan for it to stay this way for long :twisted:

Next steps are mostly based around knowledge collected from this forum
Get a couple of very minor scratches touched up
Suspension mods (preferably coilovers but not sure yet)
Camber pin mod and maybe new arms to maximise the camber.
18" wheels (although I may leave these until early next year after the winter so the standard wheels become my winter set)
Change the head unit and upgrade the speakers. I would like to have Bluetooth but I can't decide whether to go for a aliexpress professional head unit or go for an android double din head unit.
I have even considered putting on M Sport bumpers but not sure if I can be bothered with bodywork mods as I only plan on keeping the car for a couple of years and pretending to be a M Sport doesn't sit well with me.

For anyone who has managed to get this far into this post, congratulations :celebrate: and sorry for the waffle. Hopefully any future posts I make won't be this long :D

Thanks for reading

PS: Please share any advice that you may have on the best way to improve the car and no I don't mean sell it and buy a proper 1 series :lol2:
 
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#2 ·
Looks like you got lucky with all the fixes!

I don't see anything wrong with putting the M-Sport body kit on, just don't put a big M Badge on it, the body kits you can get on any car, it's purely cosmetic and imho looks a heap better than the standard kit! (no offence to your car just opinion)

Hope you enjoy the car!
 
#3 ·
I'm not sure whether I was lucky with the fixes or unlucky that they needed fixing in the first place :lol2:

Don't worry about offending, I completely agree that the M Sport kit looks a million times better than the SE bumpers. When I tried to explain to the boss (wife) why I was holding out for a M Sport she couldn't even see what the difference was :rollseyes: I think I will probably just leave it as is for now but keep looking out for the M Sport parts needed. Who knows maybe Santa is watching :D

Been about 20 years since I last owned a rear wheel drive car so getting used to rear wheel drive again is fun. Last one I had was a 328 with relatively bald tyres, around that time I also joint owned a v12 jag which had around 400 bhp at the rear wheels. Both of these were a lot of fun in the wet, although I was a lot younger then.
 
#4 ·
So a quick update for anyone who is interested.

A couple of weeks ago I was minding my own business on my way home when my car decided to oversteer into a grass verge and roll into a field. :x :censored2:



Annoyingly I have been driving round this bend daily for many years without fail (sometimes at much greater speeds :twisted: :twisted: )but It seems that I hit a slippy patch just as I came out of the bend at around 40mph. This is a busy road for lorries and tractors so there is always stuff on the road and always cars in the bushes. Luckily nobody else was involved and I only suffered a bit of minor whiplash. I guess this shows that 1 series are built to last :p

I originally wanted an E81 MSport but went with my head and brought the SE as it was a very good deal. So good in fact that my insurance company valued it for a fair bit more than I paid for it. It was a nice car and I was sad to see it go but it was time to find another car and I decided on this.



My wife said that if I really wanted an MSport I could have just sold the original car rather than crashing it :lol2: :lol2:

Now I just need to make sure that I keep this one on the road :cool2:
 
#6 ·
Wow I like your thinking lol

I'm thinking of an M2

<heads out to roll the car>

Congrats on the new car. Red looks great as long as you keep on top of it and a nice polish and wax twice a year.

Loads of nice subtle mods (as I'm sure you've extensively read) so any help just ask and we'll do our best to direct, link and advise.

Look forward to seeing future tweaks, mods and upgrades.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#7 ·
Good upgrade, if you decide to crash it can I Have your bumpers please I have a crimson red s.e lol , been in 2 123d m sport n so much nicer to look at and be in. Should upload more pics tho it's a great colour.
 
#8 ·
brett123d said:
Good upgrade, if you decide to crash it can I Have your bumpers please I have a crimson red s.e lol , been in 2 123d m sport n so much nicer to look at and be in. Should upload more pics tho it's a great colour.
Not planning on crashing it but I will keep you in mind if it happens :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

That is the only pic I have currently and that is from the dealers website. It's the photo that made me want to go and look at the car as before I saw this photo I didn't really want a red one :redface:

I will upload some more pics when it's not raining and I can get some decent photos.
 
#9 ·
Twenny said:
Wow I like your thinking lol

I'm thinking of an M2

<heads out to roll the car>

Congrats on the new car. Red looks great as long as you keep on top of it and a nice polish and wax twice a year.

Loads of nice subtle mods (as I'm sure you've extensively read) so any help just ask and we'll do our best to direct, link and advise.

Look forward to seeing future tweaks, mods and upgrades.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm not sure that it is a good plan to get a new car :D I think that I was really lucky that these cars are built like tanks. I had a C4 VTS before the SE and I think that would have curled up into a little ball if I rolled it :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

I can't remember the last time I had a car that I wanted to polish, I normally just take my cars to the local hand car wash :redface:
 
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