I have a March 2004 production 545i sport. Local dealer quoted me $720 for bluetooth retrofit/activation. Is that reasonable? Do 3/04 - 9/04 e60s need any hardware replacement?

 

Tough one! Sometime during March production they changed the hardware on assembly line. The price your dealer has quoted you makes no sense. Either you have the compatible hardware in which case he should charge you an hour or two of labor for the coding or you do not, in which case he should charge you $2000 for a new TCU.

 

The point is valid but it's a legal loophole. There is nowhere that I have any written evidence that my car should have bluetooth. However;
- my SA specifically told me that I should not buy the CPT 9000 phone for the car because it was stupidly expensive and the car was "bluetooth compatible"; and
- he pointed out the bluetooth passkey card that came with the car as evidence of same.

I did not obtain written evidence before I bought the car but why should I have to? The SA is a representative of BMW and is not entitled to lie about the features that the car is equipped with.

I bought my car and have to keep it for several years so that I can spread out the depreciation and I will never again be an early adopter of future BMW products. I won't be a late adopter either so unless I buy my next car when the model has been out for 2 years or so, it is not looking good for BMW.

I think that if there is a solution (new TCU) this should be offered to effected customers at reduced cost rather than trying to make a pile of money off it.

 

Tough one! Sometime during March production they changed the hardware on assembly line. The price your dealer has quoted you makes no sense. Either you have the compatible hardware in which case he should charge you an hour or two of labor for the coding or you do not, in which case he should charge you $2000 for a new TCU.
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The production date is 3/10/04, so I was told it would not require TCU replacement. At the same time I was told by the dealer that it would be more than just programming change - since that's only for vehicles produced after 9/04. Does that make sense? What else is involved that I would be paying $720 for then? Can anybody who had experience with bluetooth retrofit with production date between 3/04 and 9/04 share their experience with the upgrade and price paid?

 

Yes, you missed something here.

Read my post again, it never claimed that BMW promised bluetooth in its brochure. The fact is that BMW forced its substandard Assist service onto customers, and KNEW that they were also screwing them out of Bluetooth as well. They were well aware that v60 Motorola technology was ages old, yet appears to have decided that corporate greed takes precedence over customer service.

In the later half of the 2004 E60 model year, BMW appears to have rectified the situation with a new TCU (that they must have ordered long before). Those who have been patient with 2004 model year issues should not also have to pay THOUSANDS of dollars for an item BMW gave others during the same model year for free.

Were Bluetooth not such an IMPORTANT piece of technology, this would not be such an issue. I suggust you do a search for "Bluetooth" at this forum and see how many hits you get. BMW continues to ignore the very real business, personal, and safety NEEDS that this technology provides it customers and it is SHAMEFUL ...

 

Once again Gizmo has hit the nail on the head to bad BMW can't or just won't.

I was informed by my dealership that all the options could be retrofitted when all the software conflict issues were resolved. This was not however the decideing fact for buying the car but a very possible one for buying one at the early stage that i and others did .

As Gizmo said, Bmw assist was forced on us by the Corporate hunchoes and it pretty much stiffled the cars growth, and even in its non exsistance use by the masses it still stiffles the cars growth.

If BMW is not going to offer some type of solution for the early adopters such as myself why not open up the built in cellular phone that ALL E60's came with to give us that option and then we can just subscribe that service a viable option if you as me.

Most cities now especially Northern Va cites will cite you for using a cell phone with out a hands freen kit. And we all know that there is no where to put it in the e60's and if we did it would Void the Warrenty and none of us wants that


Not asking for a hand out just a hand.

 

The point is valid but it's a legal loophole. There is nowhere that I have any written evidence that my car should have bluetooth. However;
- my SA specifically told me that I should not buy the CPT 9000 phone for the car because it was stupidly expensive and the car was "bluetooth compatible"; and
- he pointed out the bluetooth passkey card that came with the car as evidence of same.

I did not obtain written evidence before I bought the car but why should I have to? The SA is a representative of BMW and is not entitled to lie about the features that the car is equipped with.

I bought my car and have to keep it for several years so that I can spread out the depreciation and I will never again be an early adopter of future BMW products. I won't be a late adopter either so unless I buy my next car when the model has been out for 2 years or so, it is not looking good for BMW.

I think that if there is a solution (new TCU) this should be offered to effected customers at reduced cost rather than trying to make a pile of money off it.
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The SA is not a representative of BMW. He works for a car dealership period. Is this the first car that you ever purchased? The typical SA may or may not know what they are talking about. I cannot believe that anyone would put their complete trust in a SA.

 

May I suggest that the BT deficient get on this bandwagon. $700 for Bluetooth with a new TCU sounds like a damn good deal to me.

 

One hour of labor. He is ripping you off. Infact you might want to explain to him that if your car was post 9/04 production and therefore MY2005 he would owe you the functionality at no extra charge. Find another dealer.

 

The SA is not a representative of BMW. He works for a car dealership period. Is this the first car that you ever purchased? The typical SA may or may not know what they are talking about. I cannot believe that anyone would put their complete trust in a SA.
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Phardin that maybe true, but if you can not trust the dealership and its employees (that represent the car company) on such a little thing then the whole thing is a waste of time. Considering this is not a Charlie Faulk dealership.

The preclusion of bluetooth would not have stopped us from buying our labors of love, and the fact that the 7 series and the x5 had all the makeings it is only fiesable that the new iteration of a legon would not only have these things that lesser cars have but the potential for more hell we dont even have mp3 capability.

This is just not right for a 2004 model from a flagship auto maker that leads not follows