Retrofitting missed options when buying an approved used car

[Ricochet J]

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.

 

[Ricochet J]

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.

 

[Ricochet J]

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.

 

[Ricochet J]

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.