[Dazza335iC]

Hi all,

Now that my wife and I have a little one in a rear-facing child seat, the standard E90 sedan is showing it's limitations in terms of rear seat space. I'm looking to get in to a used F34 (4" more rear legroom, and a hatch!). I honestly don't care too much about which engine it has (328/330/335/340) as long as it's 1) Estoril Blue, and 2) M-Sport. Given that I can get that combo with any of the available engines, I'm looking primarily at what options came on 6cyl F34s that weren't available on 4cyl cars, and what the big differences are that came with the LCI and new engines. Wikipedia has nothing on the 2016 LCI changes except the engine changes. Can anyone give me a quick rundown? Thanks!

[Tribalpinoy911]

Downloqd the edmunds app it tells you all the year to year changes

[Dazza335iC]

That app is useless :/

Anyone care to actually share what they know? Here, I'll start:

E30 buying guide:
-Split in to early model '84-'87 and late model '88-'91 (convertibles ran through '92)
-Early cars had large metal bumpers, higher rear fender arches, higher metal valances front & rear, and slimmer taillights. They came with either the M10B18 or M20B27 engines. In 1987 they added the 325es "sport" model, which came with a new front air dam, lowered suspension, tighter fitting seats, and some extra interior features. Early model cars also had a wider range of colors available than late model cars. The new m20b25 motor was available in the '87 325iS, which despite being 200cc down on the 325e cars, made roughly 40 more hp and rev'd to 6500rpm.
-Late model cars ditched the horrendous metal bumpers for clean plastic units (beginning in '89), and received lower, revised valances front and rear ('88). Color options were more limited, but engine choices were much better. The m20b25 carried through, and in 1990 the M42B18 DOHC motor replace the M10, topping the old engine by roughly 20hp. In 1991 the 318iS 2-door coupe came to market, and is widely regarded as the best handling E30 outside of the M3.
-Every '88 325iS was fully optioned, making them more fully-featured than the '89-'91 cars, but unfortunately saddled with the metal bumpers (though they have the updated sheetmetal)
-Convertibles maintained their early model sheetmetal and bumpers until 1990, finally getting their LCI for the 1991MY. Two different levels of MTechnic packages were available in '91 and '92.
-The 325iX was available from 1988 to 1991, and featured a viscous-type center and rear differential, paired to an open front differential. It also came with more ground clearance and meaty fender flares

Obviously I could go in to 10x the detail, but that's not really the point. Surely there must be some difference between a 2013 328i and a 2017 330i aside from the N20B20/B48 swap, right?

[Skald]

The only option on the 6 cylinder petrol F34 that is not available on the 4 cyl is the exhaust of the 335i/340i.

The main differences in my opinion are the following:
Led headlights and turning signal
Fully digital instrument cluster as an option
idrive 6.0
cupholder area redesigned ( it was pre LCI but at the end of 2015 )
Bumpers both in sport, luxury and msport are redesigned but nothing special
usb port in front of the driver not in the elbowboard and that's about it.
There are some different interior trim panels available like the grey ash stuff from the f30 and some anthracite/metallic in the sport model.

[Tirpitz]

Estoril Blue is only an option on M-Sport cars so just search for Estoril Blue instead of M-Sport. Mine is Estoril Blue- lovely color.

Pre LCI I'm not aware of anything that the 6 cylinder cars had that wasn't an option on the 328i versions. Perhaps some trim options?

At some point the 335i cars got HK Audio as standard. Not sure if that was true in first (2014) model year but it is now.

[Dazza335iC]

What adaptive suspension available in 4cyl models, or 6cyl only?

[SkylineGT]

choosing the color and trim line before power and cylinder number, that's very Chinese lol.

[Billfitz]

I wouldn't say that. When I was lot shopping for mine on line I had no specific color preference, but I did have colors that I ruled out: black, white, and any of the gazillion shades of gray that BMW seems to love. By default Estoril was out, because I wasn't interested in M-Sport. I ended up with Midnight Blue, because I found one equipped the way I wanted and that's the color it turned out to be.

[BNTLY]

Had a choice between estoril blue, white, and midnight blue. I too chose the midnight blue but because of the features and not the color. However have owning it for a few months now I think the color is amazing and receive several compliments on it.

[FencerNerd]

I'm looking for something very similar. Looking at CPO 328/335.
What is the LCI (late cycle update?)?

Is there a good site that lists the breakdown of what's included in the various options (like ZDA, PL, etc)

Lastly, are there problem areas that I should pay closer attention to?

Thanks!