Any good tint shops in or around the BAY AREA? I'm considering of getting my windows tinted this week. Anyone have any good recomendations and about how much they charge? Thanks.

 

Welcome to the board!

If you're in the South Bay, go to Extreme Tint & Polish on Scott St in Santa Clara (408-727-9540). I know about 5-6 members here who had their cars tinted there, including me. The cost was $250 for all five windows, excluding the front windshield.

 

What kind of tint?

 

Most of us got Madico but they can get any type that you want. At least that's what I recalled them saying. Also remember that there are specific tints to use if you have navigation so that there's no interference.

 

The navigation antenna is in the sharkfin, and is therefore unaffected by window tint films.... regardless of type. I have metallic film on my E60, and ceramic on the E90 and the navigation/radio work perfectly in both.

 

If you want you can bring your car into my dealership at BMW SF and I know our tint guy that does BMW factory tinting, lifetime warranty. The type of tint is called Llumar and he can do just about any window. I just got my black 550i done yesterday covering all 7 windows at 35% all around. It's perfect and doesn't stand out that much, but it looks great. I should post up some pics of my car. The pricing should be around $300-$350.

Dan

 

$300 for Llumar film is highway robbery.

I have Llumar 20% all around, and it was $160. The Huper Optik film on my E90 was about $260. No tint should be more expensive than the Huper Optik.

 

Just another suggestion
Automall tint specialist:
http://www.automalltintspecialist.com/

Got my X5 and E60 done over there. I got the V-Kool in the front which looks fairly light but has great heat rejection, don't have to worry much about the cops pulling you over. My two brothers also got theirs tinted with the V-kool and it's great stuff.

 

Is it? $300 is still below dealership cost. BMW charges close to $600 to customers who buy it at time of purchase in F&I. But then again anything done outside dealerships are going to be much cheaper. Then again, some people will fork out the extra dough to get the "BMW products"

 

Hate to tell you, but $300 is way high for Llumar tint. I had Llumar tint on my E39 and when I lived in SF, I paid $175. On my E60, I paid $160 for Llumar all the way around. AND, they even micro-edged the tint so that the tint looked factory installed (there was no gap between the edge of the tint and the window...not even a mm!).

I've also had very bad experiences at SF BMW. They screwed up my '03 E39 530 Sport on numerous occasions when I brought it in for servicing. I filed a suit with the owner b/c it got so bad. Dan - You're probably a solid guy, but just telling other members of my experiences at BMW SF.