E46 330d SE Touring Upgrade / Sport

[dsapsfo1]

Hi

I'm trying to find me a 330d Sport Touring, with a manual gearbox with a budget of ~10k. As you'll all be aware, they're fairly few and far between and so I'm struggling. Should I also consider trying to find a manual SE and then go about changing suspension etc to match the sport, or try to find a specced up SE - how close would this ever get to a Sport? Is this a cost-effective route to go down?

Thanks in advance

[A S P]

It's very easy and inexpensive to make an SE drive the same if not better than a Sport (depending on your opinion of better) with a set of Eibach or H&R springs. The drop will be slightly more than a Sport and plenty of people do the same change to a Sport anyway. The shocks are the same between the two and if you went that route you my as well change them as well, and consider stiffer anti-roll bars. Make sure you get an SE with the Sport seats, far more supportive than the standard items and probably the most important real difference between the two trim levels. The Sport bodykit is very expensive if you're after the aesthetics as well, budget for around £1k fitted.

[Zhead]

I think if you are on a 10k budget, buying an SE and upgrading it to Sport is folly. I had the same idea a year ago. I did the maths and after inc labour and residuals it was much cheaper to wait for the right car to appear. Sports have much better seats, often leather as standard. Complete suspension package upgrades, (springs, dampers, different geometry wishbones to compensate for lowering, stiffer roll bars, DSC settings). Bodykit. Often 18" rims. Rarely come with fake wood trim, but carbon or aluminium. A chunkier steering wheel. There's more but nothing that I can think of that would out trump an SE. And if you had an SE and did some of these upgrades, it's still an SE that's been messed with, so you wont get your money back when you sell it. A sport will only cost you about 10% more in the first place. So any spare cash can go on a chip! Be patient, one will come along. I got mine after waiting 4 months, and dont regret spending the extra.

Z

[dsapsfo1]

Thanks for the info guys - very useful

Dan