BMW and M Power Owners

[TW]Fox · 21 Mar 2015 at 11:17

firstborn said:
HI, I'm having a discussion with BMW on the issue of headlights. They say all their cars have corona headlights.

Can I ask what peoples interpretation of corona headlights is?

The 'Angel Eyes'.

Obviously not all of the cars have them but this will depend on the context of your discussion - are you talking about the current range or what?

Either way though they are wrong as the F30 3 Series doesn't unless you spec Xenon lights.

AndrewNR · 21 Mar 2015 at 11:50

Anyone noticed how stupidly high E36 M3 prices are now? I was looking a year or two back and the same car is now about £9k instead of £6k. Madness.

Probably on par with the equivalent mileage/spec/condition E46.

firstborn · 21 Mar 2015 at 11:51

[TW]Fox;27805252 said:
The 'Angel Eyes'.

Obviously not all of the cars have them but this will depend on the context of your discussion - are you talking about the current range or what?

Either way though they are wrong as the F30 3 Series doesn't unless you spec Xenon lights.

It's about the current range. Picked up my car last week (series 3 M sport touring). Stupidly thought it would look like all the images shown in their brochure and on the web site in terms of lights. It obviously doesn't as all the images appear to have the 'angel eyes' - unless I need a visit to specsavers.....

Discussion with BMW begins and I am told I have 'corona lights' (as informed by their genius web site chat woman) as all BMW cars have them - it's the shape of the lights they say. The images used in the advertising are all of cars for the German market and so may be specc'd differently. Somewhat misleading, unless you make it to the tiny disclaimer hidden away somewhere, but then that doesn't say what differences there may be.

It's only a minor niggle but an annoyance - otherwise the car is great!

Minstadave · 21 Mar 2015 at 12:00

Gaygle said:
See this never really used to bother me, if I didn't want a microfilter, I just asked for that part to be taken off. But yes, there are unsuspecting people who simply will pay this. What should happen is that the microfilter is inspected on service and only replaced if necessary - this is the same as what they do for the engine air filter.

You can get the activated carbon one and the normal one I believe. They are normally around £55 for the activated carbon one and £35 for the normal one. From what Fox was saying though, they try and charge an extra £140 at service time so I'm wondering if the F10 possibly has two?

I don't get how this works with the insured warranty, it says you have to have your car serviced in line with the schedule at a main dealer. I don't know whether dropping every other microfilters change or binning the inspection part of the service would void it.

Dangerous Dave · 21 Mar 2015 at 12:15

firstborn said:
It's about the current range. Picked up my car last week (series 3 M sport touring). Stupidly thought it would look like all the images shown in their brochure and on the web site in terms of lights. It obviously doesn't as all the images appear to have the 'angel eyes' - unless I need a visit to specsavers.....

Discussion with BMW begins and I am told I have 'corona lights' (as informed by their genius web site chat woman) as all BMW cars have them - it's the shape of the lights they say. The images used in the advertising are all of cars for the German market and so may be specc'd differently. Somewhat misleading, unless you make it to the tiny disclaimer hidden away somewhere, but then that doesn't say what differences there may be.

It's only a minor niggle but an annoyance - otherwise the car is great!

Did you add the visibility package or M Sport package to get Xenon headlights ? Most of the pictures in the brochure show high spec cars that include Xenon headlights which have angel eyes. The standard halogen lights don't have the angel eyes.

firstborn · 21 Mar 2015 at 12:17

Dangerous Dave said:
Did you add the visibility package or M Sport package to get Xenon headlights ? Most of the pictures in the brochure show high spec cars that include Xenon headlights.

But that's my point. Nowhere does it say that, even the dealer said it's all a bit misleading. I would have happily paid for the Sport plus pack had I known as I had already upgraded the audio and added sun protection glass anyhow.

[TW]Fox · 21 Mar 2015 at 12:18

Sadly you need Xenons to avoid the nasty front lights on the 3 Series.

[TW]Fox · 21 Mar 2015 at 12:18

firstborn said:
But that's my point. Nowhere does it say that, even the dealer said it's all a bit misleading.

All of the pictures show that the car is fitted with optional equipment and the brochure explains what you get when you purchase xenon lights.

firstborn · 21 Mar 2015 at 12:24

[TW]Fox;27805459 said:
All of the pictures show that the car is fitted with optional equipment and the brochure explains what you get when you purchase xenon lights.

Lesson learnt I guess - though I do take exception to being told I do have corona lights...

xs2man · 21 Mar 2015 at 12:58

firstborn said:
Lesson learnt I guess - though I do take exception to being told I do have corona lights...

So my guess is you have these lights :

Yeah, you should really look closely at the spec of the car. Although it does look pretty clear what you get from the on-line configuration. Heck, it's even got a night-time shot so you can see what each level gives you...

Standard:

With visibility pack:

rodenal · 21 Mar 2015 at 13:17

[TW]Fox;27805456 said:
Sadly you need Xenons to avoid the nasty front lights on the 3 Series.

Its a shame they continue to do this,

The neighbours have two f30's(bizarrely, one is a co car I think) one with and one without xenons, they look like different cars.

firstborn · 21 Mar 2015 at 14:34

xs2man said:
So my guess is you have these lights :

Yeah, you should really look closely at the spec of the car. Although it does look pretty clear what you get from the on-line configuration. Heck, it's even got a night-time shot so you can see what each level gives you...

Standard:

With visibility pack:

Brochures in a showroom don't come with clickable buttons.

[TW]Fox · 21 Mar 2015 at 14:38

firstborn said:
Brochures in a showroom don't come with clickable buttons.

But they do come with text which explains:

a) When the cars photographed have optional equipment fitted
b) What the various optional items and packages add to the vehicle. For Xenons, the brochure says:

Xenon headlights for low and high beam, with automatic headlight range control and headlight washing system, LED accent lights provide much better illumination of the road ahead at night or in poor visibility. The four illuminated corona rings are used as daytime driving and side lights

You can also use the BMW website to configure exactly what the car looks like with various options fitted - the car it shows you to start with clearly shows no angel eye headlights, and they appear when you select Xenons.

I'm sure this wasn't a cheap car - surely you did a bit of research before buying it?

I agree the level of knowledge some of the dealers have about the product is poor - but with a purchase as large as this surely you'd have carried out some of your own research.

firstborn · 21 Mar 2015 at 14:56

I did do research, but part of this was looking at the standard equipment highlights section in the brochure. On the image for the ES show the headlights I have, all the other images in the standard equipment section appear to show something else. That's what I really have an issue with. Still, as I have said the car is great and no regrets other that a tinge of initial

[TW]Fox · 21 Mar 2015 at 14:59

It is frustrating that BMW continue to do this with headlights - as long ago as 2000 the 5 Series range had the Angel Eyes as standard irrespective of factory options selected.

I appreciate they want to generate profit through available options but it's getting very old now, this tech is 15 years old and should just be standard across the range. They don't take the aircon out and ask you to pay more for that anymore..

TheVoice · 21 Mar 2015 at 17:07

One more reason why people should stop buying expensive brand-new cars with ancient halogen headlights I suppose.

Gaygle · 21 Mar 2015 at 17:52

Minstadave said:
I don't get how this works with the insured warranty, it says you have to have your car serviced in line with the schedule at a main dealer. I don't know whether dropping every other microfilters change or binning the inspection part of the service would void it.

Inspection part of the service - it is an unlikely, but anything is possible.

Microfilter - I'd put vital parts of my anatomy on the fact that it wouldn't affect anything.

For reference, my mum has skipped her inspection service and since then has had two bits under warranty, on separate occasion, without so much as it being mentioned/noticed/looked for.

I also had the BMW insured warranty and managed to make 5 warranty claims (turbo actuators/injector/HPFP/VANOS solenoids/Camshaft sensor) and my car had a full Milltek exhaust system, which some people would scream "OMG, EVERYTHING IS VOID!!!", but all went through without a hitch.

With a lot of warranty claims, 9/10 you have to have done something seriously wrong, or have a car modded to the hilt for them to refuse something. Of course, it is still possible.

J1nxy · 21 Mar 2015 at 20:03

Slightly different angle which shows the difference better, I really like the change

sigma · 21 Mar 2015 at 21:33

Drove a friend's E46 M3 and.....wow, what a machine!!!

Epic throttle response and once you get over 5k revs :eek:

dat feel .

Everything I have read about these made sense and it just felt so right.

SERIOUSLY tempted to get one, two slight issues:

1. Interior, whilst nice could do with being a bit more modern, mainly the centre console tbh and looking at mrk's thread, swapping the headunit for a more modern one may will help sort the dash out. Also, the car I drove was pretty messy inside so it'll probably be a lot nicer in a different car. I know you don't buy these cars for the interior but it was just something that I picked up and is something I am taking into considering when looking at the next car.

2. I'm quite attached to my current car (200SX) and even after driving the wonderful M3, it didn't feel crap to get back in my car for the drive home and I would certainly miss it, if I was to sell. Sure, the M3 is better in pretty much all departments (apart from the 200 feeling stiffer/raw and also BOOST!) but that doesn't mean that the 200 is a bad place to be... having said that, I've owned it for a long time and there are plenty of decent/better cars out there to own, so maybe I just need to bite the bullet?

Looking at some of my previous posts/threads, I've been 'considering' changing my car for like 3 years...

mrk · 21 Mar 2015 at 21:40

The E46 M3 doesn't feel super fast off the mark I'll admit when you're behind the wheel, as a passenger it's another story though. I've driven the f30 330D recently and off the mark that felt quicker but once the M3 gets to +4500RPM everything changes as you found

It is definitely a strong engine that absolutely loves to live in the 2nd half of the rev range and it sounds so good getting there. And to top it off, there isn't another car that sounds the same as an E46 M3 (loads of cars with v8s that sound similar, that burble, same goes for IL6s, v6s etc) and it saddens me a bit when I see on forums and other sites where people rip out the BMW exhaust and replace it with one that gives a deeper exhaust note