Thread: x- Line or Not
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      04-12-2014, 04:56 AM   #8
clivem2
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Drives: X3 M40i
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Quote:
Originally Posted by flavius View Post
Is there one? I have seen some car reviewers asking for what I would like to do - order sport seats, the steering wheel etc without M badge - but plenty people in the BMW forums that I visit have *M-Sport* and I have not seen a lot of resentment, but I'm fairly new to BMW land. I also grew up in Germany and know what an M series car is - which informs my resentment.

There you have it.
I've read a lot of anti-MSport sentiment based on MSport vehicles pretending to be M cars.

It's best to have my full quote for the full context on my point:

Quote:
Originally Posted by clivem2 View Post
I've genuinely wondered about the anti-MSport sentiments in the US.

With the X3 I can understand that part of it is due to the MSport not coming with sport suspension whereas it does across most of the planet.

Secondly, does the US have a long history of MSport versions of BMWs being available? Certainly in Europe we've had MSport versions for decades - no one confuses them for M-cars, indeed an M version of an SUV/SAV seems like an oxymoron anyway, it should only apply to cars that are close to being track racers, not cars with a high CoG.
The distinction between MSport and M cars has been very obvious at least in European markets for decades. I can't speak for other markets. M cars are more out and out genuine sports cars that are at home on the track on track days. Quite how an SAV/SUV would fit this category is beyond me but something like an X5M sells cars I suppose. An MSport is a sports spec including many of the options a sports oriented driver is likely to want, this makes ordering easier (and money for BMW). Also in the vast majority of cases MSport include sports suspension so there is some handling difference vs standard spec. I'm not aware that MSport has ever included any engine upgrades. This is well understood in Europe. This is far from MSport cars pretending to be M cars.
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