E30 Zone

Just curious, how often do you guys see the OE (schwarz) black headliner on 318is cars? Do you see them in any other models? Sports?

Cheers,
Stu

in UK they tend to be standard in what were sold as 325 sports ( A UK only model really), i am not sure if they came as standard with the 318is (which was a real BMW sold model).

however back in the days when new one could specify whatever was available in any car.

So it varies from place to place. Here (in Bahrain) the E30's are made in Japan and i have yet to see a car without the black headlining irregarless of model (320 and 325 mainly)

So getting a black headlining from Japan could be the easy and cheap way to find a one.

...IF you can speak japanese, and pay for postage obviously

In the UK they only come on Sports, 318iS' with dark interiors and I assume M3s.

Awaits to be told I got it wrong

Thats right, but anyone could've had one if they spec'd up their car and wanted to pay for it.

From what I've been told (as I was only a baby when these cars made!) is that BMW did quite a few "pre-package" setups for the UK, and most people went with them, probably to save money, rather than choose from a tick-list.

The 'LUX', 'SE' and 'Sport' were the main 'packages'. Thats why Tech-1's where only a few shades of metalic greys/silvers and black (iirc), Tech-2's came in bold colours as well. They would have the kit, LSD, close ratio box, M-Tech goodies and 15" BBS. Thats only really in the UK.

Germany, people would aim to buy the best spec their money could afford (if they where the 325i/M3 buyers) and so thats one of the reasons you see all the goodies in Germany. There wasn't any 'Sport' models etc for them.

Everywhere had their own market, and BMW sold cars to suit. I'm not really sure on other markets, but I know italy, spain and portugal (again iirc) had many more 'pimped up' 316i/318i (full of M parts) due to taxing on cars. Hence the birth of the 320iS as well.

A black head lining was NOT an option on any UK car!!!

It was standard fit on ALL M3's, ALL 325i Sports and ALL 318iS's with Anthricite trim.

There are no exceptions to this on UK cars!

i breaking 4 door lhd 325i with OE black headlining.

How many headlining colours are there? I ask as the headlining in my iS is what I would describe as very dark grey, not black. It's definately not the colour below, and looks factory fit. So would the headlining in mine be black? (I know a picture is worth 1000 words, but there's no chance of me getting one tonight).

HeelToe wrote:How many headlining colours are there? I ask as the headlining in my iS is what I would describe as very dark grey, not black. It's definately not the colour below, and looks factory fit. So would the headlining in mine be black? (I know a picture is worth 1000 words, but there's no chance of me getting one tonight).

The "black" headlinings are actually Anthricite (very dark grey)

bss325i wrote:

HeelToe wrote:How many headlining colours are there? I ask as the headlining in my iS is what I would describe as very dark grey, not black. It's definately not the colour below, and looks factory fit. So would the headlining in mine be black? (I know a picture is worth 1000 words, but there's no chance of me getting one tonight).

The "black" headlinings are actually Anthricite (very dark grey)

Again, cheers

Scorpion backbox, black headlining, working electrics - this little car has given me a few nice surprises.

Great, thanks for the info fellas. Here in the U.S. the only non-M black headliners came in 318is cars and were a 'check-option'....I'm not really sure what this means. The current parts book and the original E30 parts fisch list several part numbers for Schwarz or Anthracite headlining pieces....all of them come up as NLA for us. I just saved one from my S50 car that I plan to hang onto since they're hard to come by here. Interesting to see that they were fairly common in other markets.