like you said, to each his own. my original grills were shot so i had to replace them. i perfer the black grills. my car is not an ///m or ///m-sport and imo putting those colors to the car is tantamount to saying i own a v6. its a faux paux. a real enthusiast doesnt put a dinan badge on the back when he gets a dinan intake, and maybe the effect is lost from a distance or in photos but the black vinyl is a high gloss and its easy to see that its there with the matte plastic. not that i care, i considered leaving the black stripe off to save me time and hassle. i placed the black on the outer slat so that it would be noted its there between the red and the end of the grill.

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2001 BMW X5 3.0 5spd Sport
-aFe Intake
-E46 Sport seat retrofit with Heat
2007 Mini Cooper S 6spd