No M Sport or S Line in Spain?

[Urban Sports]

I stay in Spain 4 or 5 times a year and cannot think if I've ever seen a BMW M Sport spec or AUDI S Line spec, I've been in Spain for 2 weeks now and I haven't seen a single one apart from UK registered cars.

Are they not sold here for some reason? They all seem to be SE spec cars.

Is it only us and ze Germans who buy them?

[Caulkhead]

A quick scan of the configurators at bmw.es and audi.es suggests you are right! Just the boggo model you then spec yourself. Even the 6 series BMW has no M Sport version. It does however have a 4WD version like just about every other BMW on their. You'd think Spain had less need for 4WD than the UK, but apparently not!

[Urban Sports]

Caulkhead said:

A quick scan of the configurators at bmw.es and audi.es suggests you are right! Just the boggo model you then spec yourself. Even the 6 series BMW has no M Sport version. It does however have a 4WD version like just about every other BMW on their. You'd think Spain had less need for 4WD than the UK, but apparently not!

Funnily enough I have seen a 3 series badged as 325xi I'm assuming this is the 4WD version?

[CYMR0]

Urban Sports said:

Caulkhead said:

A quick scan of the configurators at bmw.es and audi.es suggests you are right! Just the boggo model you then spec yourself. Even the 6 series BMW has no M Sport version. It does however have a 4WD version like just about every other BMW on their. You'd think Spain had less need for 4WD than the UK, but apparently not!

Funnily enough I have seen a 3 series badged as 325xi I'm assuming this is the 4WD version?

M Sport exists, but as an option package rather than as a discrete model. In this country, it's probably easier to get your company car signed off as a model, rather than specifying (or waiting for) options so we approach it that way. In Germany I had a 318d Luxury as a rental, etc.

[Baryonyx]

S-Line would suit Spain's smooth tarmac better than our bumpy, undulating, pothole-ridden roads!

[Urban Sports]

Baryonyx said:

S-Line would suit Spain's smooth tarmac better than our bumpy, undulating, pothole-ridden roads!

True!

[JCKST1]

I have been living in Spain for the past year (Move home in 2 weeks unfortunately) and i think i have seen some Msport models about, Cant think of any S-line off the top of my head but probably.

[Derek Chevalier]

Urban Sports said:

Are they not sold here for some reason?

Are they sold in the UK for some reason?

[Urban Sports]

Derek Chevalier said:

Are they sold in the UK for some reason?

We've got a live one!

[Urban Sports]

I've seen 2 new shape 3 series M Sports whilst I've been here in the last week or so, both on Spanish plates, maybe you can order them now?

[Soupie69uk]

I am sure I have read before that in a lot of Europe that a lot of car buyers are not as interested in the external sports kits but put more focus on interior options and engines. So in germany you will find more 3.0 SEs with leather and a nice interior where as here you will find more 2.0 M sports.

[kambites]

I've never driven a German car and found the "sports suspension" was an improvement over the "normal suspension", so I'd argue it indicates that the Spanish have rather more common sense than the British.

[Urban Sports]

kambites said:

I've never driven a German car and found the "sports suspension" was an improvement over the "normal suspension", so I'd argue it indicates that the Spanish have rather more common sense than the British.

Sports suspension is a vast improvement on the soggy standard suspension.

[kambites]

Urban Sports said:

kambites said:

I've never driven a German car and found the "sports suspension" was an improvement over the "normal suspension", so I'd argue it indicates that the Spanish have rather more common sense than the British.

Sports suspension is a vast improvement on the soggy standard suspension.

Each to their own I suppose. Of the cars I've driven, I've found all Audis and a large majority of BMW and Merc setups to be vastly worse setups than the standard. I understand that this is not generally the case with the very latest generation of BMWs but I haven't driven them to compare. I've always got the feeling that they put the effort into matching the springs and dampers on the "SE" cars and then just think "sod it, we'll put stiffer springs on and call it sports suspension; no-one will notice that the dampers rates are completely wrong".

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 5th August 09:19

[panholio]

Urban Sports said:

We've got a live one!

[vrooom]

I guess Spanish aren't image conscious as british. we display our image though the cars we drive....

[r11co]

vrooom said:

I guess Spanish aren't image conscious as british. we display our image though the cars we drive....

No, I think that markets outside the UK are less impressed with plastic trinketry with pretensions of sportiness.

I've also noticed that after years of almost non-existent marketing of the all-wheel-drive X models in the UK (the public perception of BMW being that it is a rear-wheel-drive car) we are now seeing the terms 'X-Drive' and 'S-Drive' being used, and more AWD models being sold. I'm 100% certain this is a marketing exercise in preparation for the next front-wheel-drive 1 series which will also be tagged 'S-Drive' to play down the difference.

[Urban Sports]

vrooom said:

I guess Spanish aren't image conscious as british. we display our image though the cars we drive....

Yet I see as many cars modified with big wheels etc over here as I do back home!

[Urban Sports]

kambites said:

Urban Sports said:

kambites said:

I've never driven a German car and found the "sports suspension" was an improvement over the "normal suspension", so I'd argue it indicates that the Spanish have rather more common sense than the British.

Sports suspension is a vast improvement on the soggy standard suspension.

Each to their own I suppose. Of the cars I've driven, I've found all Audis and a large majority of BMW and Merc setups to be vastly worse setups than the standard. I understand that this is not generally the case with the very latest generation of BMWs but I haven't driven them to compare. I've always got the feeling that they put the effort into matching the springs and dampers on the "SE" cars and then just think "sod it, we'll put stiffer springs on and call it sports suspension; no-one will notice that the dampers rates are completely wrong".

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 5th August 09:19

Of course I forgot that you know more than the AUDI and BMW engineers judging from some of your posts you'd have modern cars running around on wheels the size of a jammy dodger and tyres with a side profile of half a metre

[samyalson]

r11co said:

No, I think that markets outside the UK are less impressed with plastic trinketry with pretensions of sportiness.

I've also noticed that after years of almost non-existent marketing of the all-wheel-drive X models in the UK (the public perception of BMW being that it is a rear-wheel-drive car) we are now seeing the terms 'X-Drive' and 'S-Drive' being used, and more AWD models being sold. I'm 100% certain this is a marketing exercise in preparation for the next front-wheel-drive 1 series which will also be tagged 'S-Drive' to play down the difference.

So true.....all these M sport cars are like Argos jewellery