BenjaminM

I'm new to this site and was thinking of doing some upgrades to my 2008 535xi Wagon. Wondering what are the best upgrades per dollar to start with for it. I removed the suspension system and have installed ICS Coilovers. Was thinking of the following next:

1. Stereo and bluetooth upgrade.
2. Possible Stage 1 Dinan Software or other option.
3. Exhaust upgrade.

Anthro

For me it would be bluetooth for sure.

kd7iwp

If you can get a good deal on a CIC retrofit I would do that and get an MMI unit for CarPlay/Android Auto if you use those. I'm so thrilled that I went that route with my 2009 E61. I use CarPlay 100% of the time I'm driving and the MMI box I got integrates really well with it. Plus CIC is just much more pleasant to use than the old M-ASK small-screen unit I had for when you need to interact with the built-in menus and such.

JoshMcMadMac

I am lucky to have started with CIC (2010) and did the same thing. Adding the MMI unit for ~$250 does everything I want with minimal pain and suffering. The stock system is still intact, I have wireless Android Auto or Carplay, and was able to add a back-up camera that even has the adaptive guidelines.

kd7iwp

Good point, I also did a wireless backup camera with mine. Needed to get this thing on amazon that they called a rectifier that smoothed out the power signal going to the camera otherwise it wouldn’t work when the engine was on. I don’t care for the moving guidelines, but they certainly are there.

JoshMcMadMac

Going wireless on the camera is slick, it saves a good deal of effort running wire into the hatch. The nice thing about the wired camera is that the MMI provides the power and the trigger, so there is just the one wire to run from the MMI to the camera without any fussing with figuring out how to wire the camera in the hatch. The guidelines can be turned off in the settings, so it's nice to have it as an option.

kd7iwp

That's fair. I felt the wiring was awfully simple though, I just tapped into both wires going to the reverse light bulb and that powered up everything. The MMI already knows via CAN Bus when you're in reverse and the camera/transmitter turn on automatically via receiving power from the bulb. I was very happy to not have to open that hinge again to put a wire through, plus, in the case of my camera at least, I don't know how many times that wire would want to flex each time I open the liftgate.

Anthro

I would love to have CIC. But, just so people are aware it's possible: with CCC I also added a USD250 MMI unit that has AA and Carplay and adaptive guidelines. I haven't hooked up a camera yet but the facility is there. (There's a camera already on my car, installed by a previous owner, but I have to figure out where he ran the wiring to... I'd almost rather the camera wasn't there so I was doing a clean install...)

I would have gone with a full android head unit instead, but they all needed an addon box to run Android Auto and Carplay. My guess is they will come with that natively sooner or later and I'll probably upgrade then. I like the idea of CIC but I don't expect to get lucky enough to find a full retrofit cheap enough to do the work.

The MMI unit on CCC is better than I thought it might be. I was worried about the screen resolution but it's fine.

kd7iwp

You're right, that doesn't look bad at all. I'm glad that's still working out for you.

neilv

For stereo do you have Hifi or Logic 7? do you have factory nav?

Id use JB4 or MHD (or both) for a tune. JB4 has a lot of failsafe measures and is removeable; MHD has better fuel/timing maps.

For exhaust start with downpipes (you get the performance benefit as well)