changing from M sport to SE

Chris61 · #1 12-14-2010, 01:51 PM

Hi all, well i have finally had enough of my year old 3.0d M sport. After BMW deciding they are not going to make side steps to fit it, i had enough of the stone chips that the car was suffering. At 7500 mls i have had to have all 4 doors painted, rear arches and cills. They have then covered the archs and rear cill section with clear protective film but can you believe no film to the bottoms of the doors where they had all chipped.
I had quite a big argument when i went to pick it up due to the increased orange peel effect i now had on all doors. I managed to get a little bit of contribution from BMW who do not seem to see the paint chipping as a fault. I originally chopped in a 2 yr old discovery 3 that only had about 3 stone chips in all. How they can honestly think that it is acceptable to have such major paintwork carried out at 7500 mls and not class it as a fault is beyond me. Anyway i have now ordered the latest SE model in platinum grey with side steps which seem to stop all the stone chipping completely. I have specked it up to give me basically the same spec as my m sport with the latest 20inch alloys etc, so hopefully this time it will be ok. I would advise all m sport owners to keep an eye on the stone chips unless maybe i was jst unlucky. Anyway roll on end of January when the new one turns up. Happy xmas to you all, regards, Chris.

xoutpostking · #2 12-14-2010, 03:38 PM

You are moving to an overall better vehicle anyways, 8 speed, super smooth & quiet gas engine, immediate throttle response.

Naz24 · #3 12-14-2010, 05:40 PM

thats really unfortunate what happened to you. I apologize. I know someone who put basic mudflaps behind the front wheels..it stopped the stone chips a good amount. and they were barely noticeable (not the OEM big ugly ones)

Anyway, enjoy the new ride!

X5X · #4 12-14-2010, 06:04 PM

Stone chipping is a major issue with the M sport, I am trying to find some thin, not so noticeable mud flaps to stop the stone chipping, or I will maybe try to retrofit the running boards/side steps which is apparently am easy modification and a good solution.

Chris61 · #5 12-15-2010, 03:08 AM

i did look into all of these options before i decided to have the warranty paintwork carried out. I found a company that did retro fit the sidesteps and they said they had to cut the rear arches and it looked pretty terrible. Aftermarket mudflaps would be the way, but our dealer got the original bmw ones in and they looked terrible. I think i would have settled for the film, but after the paintwork was done i could not have lived with the orange peel effect i had. If i had sold the car privately someone would never have believed it was painted to that extent because of stonechips. Unfortunately the M sport model is only sold in USA and UK. My dealer feels if it was sold worldwide BMW would have engineered a solution. I have to say not having side steps when skiing last year was a real problem loading up the top box. Doors wide open in the snow!.
My main upset was their stance on the issue, not aeping it was a problem, but painting it to that extent under warranty. I remember some years ago having a problem with a Ford and they replaced the car with no real issues. BMW contributed £750.00 toward my new car. That was big of them. My dealership helped a lot more with £1250.00 towards it, so i basically had £2k off a car costing me close to £53k to bring it up to the specs i had in our M sport. Still maybe the new one will do 4 mile to the gallon more! if the brochure is to be believed, kind regards, Chris.

X5X · #6 12-15-2010, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Unfortunately the M sport model is only sold in USA and UK.

This is not true, the m sport model is sold all around europe.

Chris61 · #7 12-15-2010, 02:12 PM

Sorry i did not realise that the m sport models were made throughout europe as my dealer told me otherwise. All the more reason BMW should sort out some side steps, mudflaps or some way of sorting out the problem. It might seem a bit strong but coming from the discovery to the x5, i would say that the m sport is not really fit for what it is designed for. Maybe i just got a bit of a lemon, but surely a 50k motor should withstand road debris much better than the m sport. I havent had any similar problems with my 1 series m sport convertible and that has now covered nearly 25,000 miles. I hope the SE model with sidesteps doesnt do the same, regards, Chris.

Viperfreak2 · #8 12-15-2010, 02:17 PM

I don't understand the orange peel comments. Any good paint/body shop knows how to sand the surface with 2000 grit paper and polish the surface back to a glass smooth shine.

Chris61 · #9 12-15-2010, 02:36 PM

They did take it back and cut back the lacquer as much as they dared to, but it was still heavier than it ever was. The plastic front wings to the doors looks really bad, but then plastic does tend to paint a bit different than metal. believe it or not when they painted the cills they actually masked the matt black trim which really set me off as i had specifically asked they remove and renew the matt black trim after painting. Needless to say it was repainted again when it returned and the trim was changed as i had originally asked. The real point though is why the hell should a virtually new car need so much paintwork done on it in the first place. Believe me i clean the car and wax it so regularly so it is not as though i abused it in any way. I honestly think the car is a joke, regards, Chris.

Viperfreak2 · #10 12-15-2010, 02:44 PM

See the black 'dots' those are paint chips after 400 miles.