BMWHobo

Nice car Ky Soldier! I assume you came to some conclusion on the scratches in the paint. Hope this was resolved to your satisfaction. I also like those wheels. They really set the car off!

spec33

Great car, great color and super wheels. What was the outcome on the head rest. I was thinking of doing the same thing but with the sport seats. I am told they will fit <_<.

ky_soldier

answers to Qs:

headrests - won't git, but I am taking them to an upholstery shop to see how much it would cost to take the posts out of one set and put em in the other. this shouldn't be that hard.

wheels - those are OEM style 125 19" wheels from a BMW dealer with Potenza S03s from tirerack.com. Total cost was about $2600. Well worth it. Much smoother ride than I thought. Really soft (hard to believe) because I don't have the sport suspension. Good balance, 19s with softer suspension.

scratches - pretty much buffed out, didn't want to make a scene. never got down into the paint, all they did was the clear cost, so technically there was no paint work.

phone - stupid thing works sometimes, other times it hangs at "please wait..." instead of then saying "reading data" and then just working. other times it works for ten minutes then loses sync. I already set my phone settings in the car settings menu thing to continuous. any ideas anyone?

pics - I will take more with my real camera. the ones above were lousy.

radio - having sat std in the idrive is way cool.

ky_soldier

also - to debadge or not to debadge. that is the question. thoughts? I know it is supposedly easy to do with dental floss.

Rudy

Here's my honest opinion on debadging...

When I see a debaged car, the first thing I think of is that the owner is trying to mask the true identity of the car. Not sure if it's to impress others or to make himself feel better but to me, no matter what they say, I believe it isn't about "the car looking better without the badges".

I see more debaged 6-cylinder 5-series cars than I see debadged 8-cylinder 5-series cars or debadged M5's. As a matter of fact, I don't remember ever seeing a debadged 5-series car that I couldn't easily tell that it wasn't the big kahuna. Coincidence? I don't think so. (The M5 actually has a debadge option from the factory -- my dealer told me they have never had anyone request that option and they agreed that it's not likely that too many people would ever choose it.)

Over the years, I've seen many people put silly "M" badges on cars that clearly weren't M-cars, etc. Even worse, I've seen people not just remove the badge but I've seen them actually replace it with the model the car isn't (like take down a 530i badge and put up a 540i badge). If it helps them sleep at night, fine. If it helps them pick up chicks, fine. All I know is that they can't fool people who truly know the subtle differences between models.

So, to sum up, don't debadge -- it makes you look foolish to more people than you realize.

(flame suit on)

NickP

I've had every high end car while in Europe de-badged...

Here in the US, the "show off" factor makes it certain that only people pretending to have a higher end car will do it. Clearly in Europe (and Asia) MOST German cars, even high end don't have the badge on them.

Rudy

Thanks for the information. Any reason why Europeans debadge even the high end cars? Is it to discourage theft or vandalism?

Doctor Diesel

In the UK, people really only de-badge the low-end poverty-spec models,

eg 316i, 520i, 730i............most people in the know realise a de-badged BMW is usually a low power one.

another really nasty thing they do here is add M3 style mirrors and M badges to base models!..........naff or what??????

I intend to wear my "d" badge with pride

ky_soldier

I thought part of the debadging in Europe was due to being taxes on the size of the engine, ie get a 318, put an M engine in with no badge to avoid taxes. Am I mistaken?

paasan

You're mistaken, indeed. Had it been that easy, everyone would be doing it - and taxes on cars would completely lose it's effect.

Within the EU you have to show your car for a technical control and verification every year from the fourth year since it was first registered/bought new. You'd get into real trouble if it turned out your 520i was a 545i.

Not to mention what would happen if you crashed, and it was discovered that your car wasn't correctly registered.

-paasan