How will E90 facelift for '09 affect the M3 sedan?

[Hans Delbruck]

2009 E90's will have facelifted fronts and new (shape?) taillights.

Will this make 2008 E90 sedans instantly dated? Will they adopt the new taillight look? Any guesses? I wouldn't want to order an 08 if it's going to be dated in a few months.....

[Stein]

My guess is that the front end stays the same but the rear end will change.

[gorun]

The M3s should have facelift otherwise its a bit ridiculous you pay over your head and someone pulls up next to you at a traffic light with 320d with the new lights...

[DJ9]

Originally Posted by gorun

The M3s should have facelift otherwise its a bit ridiculous you pay over your head and someone pulls up next to you at a traffic light with 320d with the new lights...

Doubtful, M's generally do not make body changes, during a production run.

Both the standard sedan and coupe had facelifts during the e46 production run, no changes were made to the M series.

Only change I expect, would be tail lights changing to LED or rims, etc.

In addition, the e90 3 series already has a different face than the e90M3, as the M3 follows the coupe face anyways.

[alpineweissM3]

^
What he said!

[Park2670]

I dont think it will change, just like in the E46 version.

[mkoesel]

My take:

If the rear fenders change then no the E90 M3 won't be updated, but if just the tail lights (LED?) and/or decklid changes then the M3 probably gets them. In the latter case you could probably retrofit them on your MY '08, though it would not be cheap especially if you have to get the decklid.

[seb]

It was the same situation with the tail redesign of the Z3, and how the Z3///M retained the old design throughout its run.

[Mack211]

Won't change. Just what the guys above said. The M3 might get LED tail lights is all and I highly doubt that would even happen for at least 2 years.

[ucla1995]

Originally Posted by DJ9

Doubtful, M's generally do not make body changes, during a production run.

The M5 changed. (and it changed last time as well)

[DJ9]

Originally Posted by ucla1995

The M5 changed. (and it changed last time as well)

I always assumed it was merely the front/rear lights and not the bumper, hood, bonnet, etc...actual body panels on the E60. The e90 change is a complete bumper and hood rehaul....different body panels altogether.

Could you elaborate on the 5 Series change please?

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by DJ9

Doubtful, M's generally do not make body changes, during a production run.

Both the standard sedan and coupe had facelifts during the e46 production run, no changes were made to the M series.

Only change I expect, would be tail lights changing to LED or rims, etc.

In addition, the e90 3 series already has a different face than the e90M3, as the M3 follows the coupe face anyways.

Originally Posted by alpineweissM3

^
What he said!

+1!

[JEllis]

If history repeats itself then NO. M3's traditionally dont receive facelifts throughout their production runs. Look at the E46 for example. The only change I can think of with M3's are some minor trim (nose grills) changes on the E36 and E30....

Jason

[marwan]

Originally Posted by DJ9

Doubtful, M's generally do not make body changes, during a production run.

Both the standard sedan and coupe had facelifts during the e46 production run, no changes were made to the M series.

Only change I expect, would be tail lights changing to LED or rims, etc.

In addition, the e90 3 series already has a different face than the e90M3, as the M3 follows the coupe face anyways.

E39 M5 had the old headlight when it was introduced, then a year or 2 later it got the face lift. though M hardly get face lift in general.

back to the subject, the E90 4 door 3 series need more of a rear lift than a front lift, even though the front needs a lift, but the rear even more.

[UltimateBMW]

The M3 in specific would not be affected by any fender or body molding change made to the basic BMW e90, e92, and e93 models. Specifically because the M3's body panels are already unique to the car and the M3 in general shares very little common parts to the normal 3-series cars.

A change made directly to the light-clusters may be a different matter depending on how drastic of a change it is. For example, is the change made alters the footprint for the light cluster to fit into any body panel then that change would likely not be applied to the M model car. A simple LED conversion from normal bulbs could be made on a M model though, since it wouldn't require body panels to be re-manufactured to fit properly.

A prime example (mentioned briefly above) of all of this can be found in the e46 model line-up. The M3 was only available in only the coupe and convertible styles and both were labeled under the code e46 back then. The coupe/conv. models received both a front headlamp cluster facelift (along with the front bumper of the normal 3-series cars) as well as a rear taillight LED update from bulbs. The M3 did not take the headlamp cluster changes but did update to LED taillights. The LED taillights also became available to retrofit onto previous non LED e46 cars through after-market brands.

[Hans Delbruck]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

My take:

If the rear fenders change then no the E90 M3 won't be updated, but if just the tail lights (LED?) and/or decklid changes then the M3 probably gets them. In the latter case you could probably retrofit them on your MY '08, though it would not be cheap especially if you have to get the decklid.

I'm thinking similarly. From the spy shots of the facelifted E90, it looks like the trunk portion of the rear taillights will change, not the portion on the fenders.

[ruff]

I truly believe the E90 M3 will receive the facelifted caboose of the upcoming e90. I think those in BMW's marketing department are bright enough to understand the uproar of protest over the current E90 caboose. One must also remember the quick implementation of the face lifted of 5 series to the E60 M5

[ersin]

Probably only a new color or two, and another color dropped. I'd like to see LED taillights.

[malter2.0]

all speculation. nobody knows.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by ersin

Probably only a new color or two, and another color dropped. I'd like to see LED taillights.

Speaking of which - there exists some E90 3 series facelift spyshots of what appears to be a Space Gray car. If true, this would very likely mean availability of Space Gray for the E90 M3 in MY2009.

[Just_me]

If the normal E90 get new taillights, then same will happen for M3 E90.
So it all depends on what happen to normal E90.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by Just_me

If the normal E90 get new taillights, then same will happen for M3 E90.

Not necessarily. Did you read the other responses before you posted? It is almost 100% certain (based on spyshots) that the E90 3 series gets new tail lights. But that alone does not guarantee that the E90 M3 will change.