Anyone know a good dealership in SoCal with a good SA that knows what they're doing? I need to do the MP3 retrofit. Some stealers are trying to charge upto 3 hours for the reprogram. I've heard that it could be done in about an hour. Any help would be awesome!!! Thanks.

Should be one hour, but it will be what it will be. Hopefully, you can find a dealer that will just charge you a "per job completed". Also, look to some indie shops (read: vendors on this forum) that are local to you - some shops have the equipment to run the codes :wink:

I am in the same boat as I live in Newport Beach, just bought the IPOD kit from Gary and installed it myself (no previous CD changer) as the cable was already in place with minor adjustments per the information from these forums, but now need the MP3 retrofit to recognize the system in order to make it work! Anyone in the area know where to take it for a possible FREE coding upgrade?

Dealing with BMW service can be very frustrating... my best advice is to either find and independent shop that is good with these cars or just bite the bullet and pay BMW the hours for the work.. maybe try what I did... tip your service advisor AND the tech that works on your car and GET TO KNOW THEM.. a couple of nice tips may not be worth it for this job but it sure can pay off down the road if you get to know them well enough... I wish I had better advise but truthfully, this worked wonders for me... I get pretty much what I want from these guys now... Good luck!