Retrofitting missed options when buying an approved used car

Soldato
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Wife and I are now seriously thinking about buying a new car (large estate: V90 vs 5 Series vs E Class - but that's for another thread).

We'd love to buy an approved used car, within warranty. One of the issues we have is that buying an approved used is a lottery when it comes to the options - a lot of the times the options you want aren't fitted to the car and you end up making compromises.

So, is it at all possible to retrofit options to a car after a purchase? Now obviously this has to be sensible. If you've bought a RWD car and you actually wanted AWD then I doubt you'll be able to retrofit an entire new drivetrain!

But what about "softer" options? Say I wanted memory heated seats but the car comes with bog standard leather seats. Now obviously I'd have to pay to get them swapped (I suspect order £1000's) which then begs the question if it's economical to buy new and get what you want?

For context, we'd look to keep the car for 7 years.
 
Soldato
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I'm not sure how you can expect anyone to effectively answer this question? The answer will depend on the car and the retrofit in question, and will be somewhere between "yes" and "no".

The best thing to do is research the option in question for the car in question on forums etc.

I know that retrofitting things like nav, heated/cooled seats, keyless entry etc has been done on the mk4 Mondeo, but things will likely be different for newer vehicles. In many cases wiring looms etc are already in place, so you'd be looking at buying the hardware and then somehow programming it, along with acquiring any required supporting fixtures/connectors/sensors/whatever.

In short, it's probably easier to just wait for the spec that you want, and accept the odd compromise along the way. Or buy a brand new car to your requirements.
 
Man of Honour
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The answer is yes and no.

In theory virtually anything can be retrofitted - but generally the biggest barrier will be the cost and availability of parts. Simpler things, such as a rear view camera perhaps, are far easier. Things like memory seats in cars that don't have them are much more trouble than they are worth on anything reasonably new.

Also remember you will be affecting your warranty by retrofitting - at best, you will find it difficult to make claims for related systems where you've added things yourself.

In my view you are best of establishing a baseline minimum spec of things that matter to you and then finding a car that fits that.

Depending on your budget I have a suggestion for you - a BMW 6 Series GT. Yes, yes, I know. It isn't exactly a masterpiece in style but what it actually is though is a better specified as standard 5 Series with a bigger load bay than a 5 Series estate. You get many of the things which are hard to find on a 5 Series (Such as proper Icon LED lights, memory seats etc) as standard, whereas if you try to buy a 5 Series touring you must wade through 9 base spec cars with massive wheels for every nice spec example. They are also the same price or cheaper than a similarly aged 5 Series - which given the much higher list price makes them quite the used bargain.

But you don't get something for nothing in this world - you may not like the styling. But if it was a fantastic looking car as well then it would not be as good value.
 
Soldato
OP
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I'm not sure how you can expect anyone to effectively answer this question? The answer will depend on the car and the retrofit in question, and will be somewhere between "yes" and "no".

I honestly expected this to be the situation. I.e. it's on a case by case basis. I suppose I lose nothing by posting and asking on here.

The issue is further compounded as the cars we're looking at V90 vs 5 Series vs E Class are complex machines. I doubt it's easy to ask the dealership to retrofit options.
 
Soldato
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Depending on your budget I have a suggestion for you - a BMW 6 Series GT. Yes, yes, I know. It isn't exactly a masterpiece in style but what it actually is though is a better specified as standard 5 Series with a bigger load bay than a 5 Series estate. You get many of the things which are hard to find on a 5 Series (Such as proper Icon LED lights, memory seats etc) as standard, whereas if you try to buy a 5 Series touring you must wade through 9 base spec cars with massive wheels for every nice spec example. They are also the same price or cheaper than a similarly aged 5 Series - which given the much higher list price makes them quite the used bargain.

But you don't get something for nothing in this world - you may not like the styling. But if it was a fantastic looking car as well then it would not be as good value.

It is funny how people are so hung up on having a marginally less frumpy rear end that they'll discount the 6 GT despite it being better specced, better value, and more practical. It looks fine to me.


. I doubt it's easy to ask the dealership to retrofit options.

It's very easy to ask, but I would fully expect the answer to be a "computer says no" :).
 
Soldato
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For some cases retrofitting is very easy as the cars come prewired, beyond that you can end up down a rabbit hole of expense, pain and misery. Do the research upfront, that way you know the situation you are walking into re missing options that can/can’t be retrofitted easily.

Or wait pick the right car in the first place. Best option really.
 
Soldato
OP
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Depending on your budget I have a suggestion for you - a BMW 6 Series GT. Yes, yes, I know. It isn't exactly a masterpiece in style but what it actually is though is a better specified as standard 5 Series with a bigger load bay than a 5 Series estate. You get many of the things which are hard to find on a 5 Series (Such as proper Icon LED lights, memory seats etc) as standard, whereas if you try to buy a 5 Series touring you must wade through 9 base spec cars with massive wheels for every nice spec example. They are also the same price or cheaper than a similarly aged 5 Series - which given the much higher list price makes them quite the used bargain.

This is fantastic advice - thank you. We never even considered the 6 GT as we discriminatingly thought "estate = bigger". It appears you can buy a 640i for around £28k with a lot of options ticked.
 
Soldato
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As above really. I've retrofitted quite a lot of stuff to my car but then my car was, at the time, a 3 year old 3 Series which was obviously out of warranty. Over the couple of years I've had it, I've swapped the basic head unit with 6.5" display out for pro nav with 8.8" (before swapping that out for a bigger screen again), I added heated seats and the associated wiring/coding for it, a reverse camera and front parking sensors. All fairly basic stuff which hasn't been too difficult or time consuming to do.

At the time my crap spec car was quite a good price and I've also got all of the bits for decent prices over the years. Heated seats only cost me £300 plus £40 for wiring/terminals for example which I don't think was too bad and the reverse camera and module/wiring was about £200. I'd say that in my case I have saved money by buying these parts and retrofitting and I've actually quite enjoyed doing it all too. I still don't think I'd bother retrofitting stuff in future though, not unless it was something minor and memory seats are entirely possible with the wiring and coding not being too expensive or difficult but sourcing decent seats at a decent price isn't as straightforward.

My wife's X3 was a pretty good spec - that came with most things that are important like pro nav, heated seats, LED lights, front and rear sensors and some other things less so like heated wheel but the only thing it was really lacking was a reverse camera. I've since retrofitted the reverse camera to that but that's the only thing I've changed which made it the ideal spec for her.
 
Man of Honour
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I honestly expected this to be the situation. I.e. it's on a case by case basis. I suppose I lose nothing by posting and asking on here.

The issue is further compounded as the cars we're looking at V90 vs 5 Series vs E Class are complex machines. I doubt it's easy to ask the dealership to retrofit options.
I bought an approved used Volvo V90 recently. I wanted a T6 Cross Country which is quite rare so when I found one which was missing a few things I wanted I enquired with the dealer about retrofitting them. We struck a deal and the added options are included on the warranty cover. I added Apple car play, reversing camera and a retractable tow bar.

Be clear about the spec you want. If you cannot find a good match, find out what can and cannot be retrofitted by the dealer - and the prices - then you can decide.
 
Soldato
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A lot depends on the manufacturer you decide on as well. For BMWs for example, retrofits are relatively easy as you can just change your vehicle order and code in the options for many things after swapping parts and adding wiring - some are more complex of course and some almost impossible if they require FSC codes that BMW will not release like Night Vision. If you look at VW/Audi as an alternative, they are becoming much harder - most units now need more than just coding and for that you need expensive 3rd party software like VAG CAN PRO to load the parameter files as ODIS will not allow anything outside of the standard spec of the car. The latest G Series cars are becoming much harder as well as many units now require online verification when they are installed in the car and of course if the unit shouldn't be there, computer says no!

Pretty much any retrofit is possible, but more often that not, it's cheaper to find a car with them on as parts costs can get big and often the parts people want to retrofit are being sold for a lot more than the parts people are taking out. For example you can pick a whole 5 series SE bog standard interior up on the bay for a couple of hundred quid - if you want M-Sport with memory and electric make that £500 and then if you want the whole hog with Comfort Seats, you won't see much change out of £1-1.5K unless you get really lucky of course.

Anything on the dealers accessory catalogue can be retrofitted but if it's a factory option not available as a dealer retrofit, they won't entertain it.
 
Soldato
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I work for a large car leasing company and dealers frequently leave options that the customer paid additional money for unticked on the factory order and therefore the car arrives minus the required options. (sometimes the customer doesn't notice until after handover which makes things more difficult).

In my experience very few options can be retrofitted. I appreciate that in theory anything can be retrofitted, but in practice I frequently get pushback from dealerships saying their technicians can't do it because it was done in the factory, and I don't know of any situation where a car has gone back to the factory for retrofitting.

I appreciate the above is very general and there may be exceptions but in answer to you question op, just buy a car specced with with what you want, otherwise it'll be a huge ballache.
 
Soldato
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You can fit anything. Most of the time the connectors and option on the ECU etc are already there. You just need to plug it in.
 
Soldato
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You can fit anything. Most of the time the connectors and option on the ECU etc are already there. You just need to plug it in.

Generally that's not the case at all - most harnesses are custom made for every individual car and the options they have.

If you're lucky, some options can be coded like Enhanced BT for example on BMW after a certain date but that's very different to actually fitting new modules.

Most modules will have a completely different wiring structure if other options are fitted - like memory seats for example.
 
Soldato
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To be clear: I'm not going to drop £30k on an approved used car only to try and retrofit things to it myself. Perhaps I should have been more clear from the beginning - if options can be retrofitted I'm going to ask the dealership to do it.

Scuzi and bainbridge's post above is on the right lines.
 
Soldato
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To be clear: I'm not going to drop £30k on an approved used car only to try and retrofit things to it myself. Perhaps I should have been more clear from the beginning - if options can be retrofitted I'm going to ask the dealership to do it.

Scuzi and bainbridge's post above is on the right lines.

In which case I would imagine the answer will depend on the helpfulness of the dealership and you'll get responses ranging from "It can't be done sir" to "Pull down your pants and give us a blank cheque"
 
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