[downtime]

Hi, newbie here.

I placed an order for a new 320d Edition M Sport Touring in Carbon Black/Black Dakota Leather with my local dealership last week. The options requested were an upgrade to Pro Sat Nav and Front PDC (the only thing on the whole car that my wife is interested in apart from the Rear PDC).

I've been drooling over the pictures posted by carrerarsr, neilmc and ken m sport for the last week.

However it looks like I've left it a few days too late to build a car to this exact spec and the best they can come up with is a car with heated seats and rain sensor with auto. headlight activation instead of the Front PDC.

To cut a long story short, I've bought this car and I took a call from the dealership to say that it has arrived today (swap between garages, bla bla bla).

I am still interested in the Front PDC. The dealership says they can retro-fit it for cost. My question is, given that the front bumper will have to come off and be drilled in four places, would YOU do this to YOUR new car. How advisable is it to take of the bumper off unnecessarily?

Cheers

Downtime.

[PhilR]

Welcome to E90 Downtime,

In all hoesty I wouldn't bother retro fitting front PDC - especially at extra cost. Rear PDC is good and IMO needed. As for front PDC - unless your wife really needs it I wouldn't bother.

You mention that you have left it too late to get a factory built car. Surely BMW can factory order exactly what you require. If they are offering an already built model within their dealer network then insist they retro fit front PDC free gratis.........You are doing them a favour by taking a car off their hands that isn't exactly what you want (you don't particularly care for auto wipers, lights and heated seats) or, alternatively you are prepared to wait for the factory order....aren't you?. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to negotiate this with the dealer.

Enjoy your M Sport Edition whatever the outcome

PhilR

[Carrera RSR]

Congrats on the new car.

Way I see it is

Built car now vs Waiting for factory build (they are on holiday through most of March) so Sept earliest.

Cost of retro fit PDC vs Repainting front bumper when the wife scrapes it

No issue in removing, drilling and wiring in as I would guess the loom is prepped for it. The screen info with Pro Nav is great in mine with just the rear. Far better having a visual as well as audible warnings. With front and rear your wife will be in heaven

Either way I'd negotiate hard with dealer even if you say to them to cancel order if you don't get what you want at the price you are willing to pay.

[downtime]

Thanks PhilR

The story I got was that all available E91 M Sport Editions had gone into build and that all new build slots were made over to the new facelift model. Therefore if I wanted an M Sport Edition, I had to take what was either within the BMW network or one which was currently in the build process.

Downtime.

[rogerxp]

I had front PDC on my E92 and throught it was great. It's one of those things that just makes life easier (or lazier!!!). With the E92 being a long-ish car you could really tuck up into spaces without scraping the front. As I say, you can live without it, but I found it quite handy. And, yes, my wife loved it!!!

If they do retro fit it will it then be integrated perfectly with the screen & beeps inside. On the display you get the same coloured coded sensor onscreen at the front and the rear - will this work. Also, there was an additional button near the heated seats buttons where you can manually activate it should it not automatically sense you're parking - will this also be added.

If you get it done (preferably free of charge) I'd make sure it looks like a factory fit and not like something you'd get from Halfords.

[yashBMW]

Rear PDC is enough
I have only the rear PDC and thats just fine
i would not suugest you giving your car back:
Cause it may take to long
Something might also go wrong
Keep the car with Rear PDC only
its enough

[mjbmw]

Hi,

I was thinking about gettin front parkin senors for the 'Wife' U know!

But changed my mind in the end and I'll just keep with the rear.

Roll-on early Sept.

Enjoy your new car.

[RichardM]

I've had two previous cars with front sensors including the E60 and I don't miss them on the E92. The rear sensors are much more important and I'm happy to be without the fronts.

[downtime]

This all seems academic now.

The Parts Dept at the dealership now think there is a problem retro-fitting the front pdc to a car fitted with the M Sports pack.

My instinct told me this was b.s. and I have a call outstanding with BMW UK in an effort to get to the bottom of this.

I will update you with the outcome.

Downtime.

[Porscha!]

Yeah I know an Auto Electrician who could sort this, if your Derby way.

I don't see the point in any of it, I'm firmly of the belief that if you don't want to take the time to park your car correctly, not only that but you should beable to judge where the bonnet ends .... don't listen to me I'm classic car driver excited by owning a car with a grand total of 7 fuses

[BC4J]

Originally Posted by Porscha!

...with a grand total of 7 fuses

What's a fuse? I'm confused. As Confuseous says "Woman laid in tomb may soon become mummy".

[Porscha!]

Fuses -

You have about 10million I imagine in your BMW.

[Carrera RSR]

Originally Posted by Porscha!

Fuses -

You have about 10million I imagine in your BMW.

Porscha

I bet the fuses in your MG look nothing like those pics

More like these beauties !!!!!!!

[Porscha!]

Lol yep!

Love the retro tin too

[Carrera RSR]

Originally Posted by Porscha!

Lol yep!

Love the retro tin too

Thats not retro, thats antique.

Which reminds me why are old paintings and furniture etc called antiques but old cars called 'classics' Surley your MG and others should be called antiques as well!!!!

[JLR1969]

I am having a new front bumper fitted following a slight accident and wondered if it would be worth fitting a bumper that is suitable for the front parking sensors.

Is the wiring already installed?

Anyone already had this conversion after market.

Is it really worth having front sensors given that I actually have eyes in the front of my head and should not need them!!

[G33]

i find them useful and tend to switch it on jsut to see how much room i have in front of me, especially when parking front ways in, kerbs etc? maybe i need to go to specsavers?

[JLR1969]

Just found the answer on a search of this forum. Looks expensive so wont bother.

Cheers

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by carrerarsr

Congrats on the new car.

Way I see it is

Built car now vs Waiting for factory build (they are on holiday through most of March) so Sept earliest.

September? Are you sure?

Factory orders, with shipping to UK are 6 - 8 weeks now, never more than 12 in my experience.

My 335i was factory ordered on Sat 18th January and will be built before March shutdown (i.e 5 weeks), then shipped here, PDI'd and ready for collection by w/c 23rd March 09.

I added DAB to the order on 3rd Feb so it wasn't in build even then.



Downtime:

Welcome to the forum!!

Lets hope they gave you a much better discount for helping them out of the s##t and taking a stock car!! They gave me 13% off a factory order so I would want 20% min for compromising and taking stock off their hands.

I know the dealers are under huge pressure to get new registrations in before 31st March (year end figures!) Maybe that swayed them away from a factory order which would not arrive till the next financial year?

[M3-FAST]

I agree, Sept does sound crazy! My M3 was ordered a week or two ago, and even with the factory shutdown (not hols by the way! It is a break in production similar to most other manufacturers at the moment) it is estimated to be delivered to the dealer in April.

I think with a decline in sales, they are building the specified/ordered cars more quickly.

I thought that the edition models were all produced now though and they were just to boost sales of the outgoing model before the LCI one was introduced. Can't believe that the production line would still be building old models and maintaining two sets of parts (Old and new?) - there are lots of minor changes to switchgear inside on the new models also - can imagine it being a nightmare on the production line fitting facelift/pre-facelift knobs and switches.

I would go for the physical car and not worry about front pdc too much. It is not really that big a car and the rear is essential, front a 'nice' option.

Enjoy the new motor

[SoYank]

Check the dates, fellas.

[M3-FAST]

Ahhhh - I see now, not sure why a thread this old has been resurected lol!