No need to double check the website, yes this is still Supergoat Garage and yes this is NOT a Miata. The Miata is not my only car and sometimes I may do some modifications to my new daily driver as well. This is one of those times.
And this, is my 2022 BMW 330e. The “e” means it is the plug-in hybrid model which was not what I was originally looking for. I initially tried to buy a 2015 M235i from Carvana which fell apart, blog post incoming on that, and then I was looking at a new 2 series. But as I have a two-year-old in a rear facing child seat, a sedan made more sense. So, I started looking for an M340 as that would be a natural upgrade from my 335. However, this 330e popped up at a great price and I decided to go for it. Especially since an ECU unlock and stage 1 tune can push this car to just over 400hp (Gas engine/Electric motor output combined). So great price, cool tech, looks good and can be modded. No brainer for me.
But this post isn’t about the car itself, but about the front lip install so let’s get to it! Here is what the car looks like without the front lip:
And here is the story on how I installed it. A story? Yes, this is a blog after all and not a quick “how to”. 🙂
It arrived plainly enough from an online retailer. I had a hard time finding a lip for this car actually. 99% of the lips out there it seems are for the M-Sport bumper. Since mine is a Sport Line and not an M Sport it does not get the more aggressive M-Sport bumper. After searching for a while and not finding anything, I changed my search terms to include “non-m” and this one came up! I immediately liked it. I realized later that the reason I really liked it is because it is a clone of a lip from Maxton Designs who make a full kit for the non-M cars. Somehow that never came up in my searches until after I had already installed the lip. Because this is a replica of a lip that is still sold I will not be including a link to it. If this one ever gets damaged though, I will order the Maxton one so it’s legit. I already plan to order the rest of their kit anyway as it looks fantastic.
Here is a link to the original one from Maxton. Maxton Front Lip
But on to this one, below is the image from the listing.
It came in three pieces as cheap lips tend to do for shipping but it actually felt like a quality piece. It came with generic mounting tape and sheet metal screws as these kinds of lips tend to do. Luckily, it did use factory mounting points as well which made aligning it very easy.
It turns out I placed the mounting tape a little too close to the edge. You can just see it once it’s all mounted up and honestly it probably isn’t even needed. The factory mounting points and included hardware mount it very well and the fitment is very tight to the bumper. I was very impressed. Yes, it’s a replica but they actually did a great job on the tolerances and fitment.
Here are some underside pictures:
As I said, mounting it is very easy. The two side pieces line up to five factory holes each and it’s held in very tightly. The center piece snaps in place and then is secured with screws. The center piece came pre-drilled with mounting holes so all you have to do it snap it in place make sure it’s tight to the bumper, drill a few holes using the pre-drilled holes as a guide, tighten up the screws and that’s it. Once I started to mount it, I spent maybe 10 minutes doing it and that was taking my time. The longest part was dropping the splash shield so I could get my hand behind the bumper to make sure I wasn’t going to drill into something I didn’t want to. Luckily, there was nothing there.
I think it completely changes the look of the front of the car. This is my fourth BMW sedan and I always prefer the M Sport bumper. My first one was a 2009 and I added extensions to the front bumper to mimic the M-Sport one. My next one, a 2013, was an Estoril Blue M-Sport. And then my 335 was also a 2013 but it was a sport line, however I did an M-Sport front end conversion on it as I think it looks way better than the base bumper on those.
When I bought this car, I immediately priced out an M-Sport conversion for the front bumper but even with me doing the labor of mounting it I would be out nearly $2k and truthfully, I like the M-Sport bumper on the G-Series but I don’t think it’s a must have like it was on the E90 and F30 sedans. In fact, I think I prefer this front end to the M-Sport but only with a lip on the front. Otherwise, it feels like it’s missing something. Now is that me trying to gaslight myself into thinking that way since I don’t have an M-Sport? Maybe, but with this lip on there I no longer have any desire to do a conversion. We will see if that stays that way. For now though, I’m very happy with it.
Supergoat Garage 