moktar 7 Report post Posted August 10, 2006 hey yall, i have a jap import and also a sa import and was wondering what the diffrences wher both are 1989's 325i i have noted that all readings are in imperial and everything is electric ie sunroof also has OBC. it also has smillies with some sort of hydralic system that changes the angle of the headlights?? any info will be greatly appreicated. thankyou, Miles Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
will 169 Report post Posted August 10, 2006 Suprised that the SA is imperial, all cars there were normally in kmh. Pommie cars were normally imperial. Smilies seem to have been a SA only thing too. The headlight thingy is for dipping the headlights when towing a trailer as the rear on them is quite soggy and dips quite severely when a boat etc is hitched up. They were very popular tow vehicles over in SA and most had hitches fitted. But this dipping thing was not very robust and I havn't seen a car with a working system for a long time. SA used to export e30s to most of the world at one time, the BM factory there is huge. So yours could have been assembled in SA and gone to UK market. Another thing unique to SA e30s is the long range tank fitted to all models, that is in the boot behind the passenger seat. Distances there are long with petrol stations far apart in some areas. Also some of us tended to drive rather fast so a standard tankfull would not last very long on the open road... Your SA model probably also has leather recaros and cruise control and A/C? Will Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
moktar 7 Report post Posted August 10, 2006 perfect. i thought the SA models would have been in kph as well, but the guy i brought it off was certain that it was impoted from SA. lol yea thought i mite be lucky and have the only smilles that actually work. but na . it also has what looks to be a oil cooler? i cant see any signs of the extra fuel tank. the problem is that the engine had been taken when i brought the car so i cant find out if it had a bloody sump guard beacuse ive heard that ONLY the SA built models came with it? (dunno how true that is) idno im pretty noob with the euro imports only ever owned a jap E30's also had recaro's but wher strippd before i got my hands on it . has A/C as well. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gmccormack 0 Report post Posted August 10, 2006 (edited) SA built cars have the brand name "Armourplate" on their windows as opposed to "Sekurit". Sump guards and long range tanks are very common options on SA cars but were not fitted as standard, they were also optional on euro assembled cars, so not a good indicator. All SA car had a km/h speedos and type 188 medium case diffs regardless of engine size. Even 316s' were fitted with medium case diffs. "Courtesy of E30Restoration Bible" Edited August 10, 2006 by gmccormack Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
