BMW M3 Forum (E90 E92) - View Single Post - New sub-forum

E90M3CDFR · 03-29-2009, 01:05 PM

I had been thinking that it might be good to have a single point of reference for the narrow kind of issues that come up when you own a US-spec car outside the U.S. So I've suggested this forum (which I think others like Big Windy had also proposed) to be a spot where information can be exchanged on common issues and solutions (thanks to MarkM3 for putting it on). And maybe occassionally organizing a drive or fly-by.

If it turns out to be of interest to others, I was also going to mention it to some of the BMW folks I've been in touch with as a place for them to be more exposed to any common problems. I've been in touch with BMW AG and BMW NA to try to figure out whether there are ways in which we can work around some of these issues: not having much luck yet.

I think US-spec owners, especially those in Germany or who drive there regularly are a unique source of info for BMW: we are the only BMW owners who regularly (I assume) drive our cars at triple digits and probably see more of 'Ring than many.

I've owned a couple of US-spec BMW outside the US and until the current one, an '09 M3, it was pretty seamless. All I had to was switch the radio settings from US to European and everything worked fine. What I found so far is that a lot of things I took for granted in buying the car don't work here. BMW Assist/Telematics is out completely, as are things like traffic info for the navigation. On the other hand, the move to a HDD-based iDrive made switching over the maps very easy. While these techie bits are not the reasons I bought this car, they are great systems to have working and it would seem to me that encouraging BMW to avoid hard-wiring them into US only mode would be worthwhile. But in the meantime, maybe there are tweaks/fixes that can resolve some issues easily.

For starters, I'd be interested to hear from anyone in Belgium or Germany that has had good experiences with BMW service centers there with US-spec cars, especially doing things like upgrading the software on the car or having US-recalls put in (like M-DCT).

Looking forward to getting a good sub-forum going here...

03-29-2009, 01:05 PM	#1
E90M3CDFR First Lieutenant 86 Rep 303 Posts Drives: E91 Sportwagon Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: NoVA iTrader: (1)	New sub-forum I had been thinking that it might be good to have a single point of reference for the narrow kind of issues that come up when you own a US-spec car outside the U.S. So I've suggested this forum (which I think others like Big Windy had also proposed) to be a spot where information can be exchanged on common issues and solutions (thanks to MarkM3 for putting it on). And maybe occassionally organizing a drive or fly-by. If it turns out to be of interest to others, I was also going to mention it to some of the BMW folks I've been in touch with as a place for them to be more exposed to any common problems. I've been in touch with BMW AG and BMW NA to try to figure out whether there are ways in which we can work around some of these issues: not having much luck yet. I think US-spec owners, especially those in Germany or who drive there regularly are a unique source of info for BMW: we are the only BMW owners who regularly (I assume) drive our cars at triple digits and probably see more of 'Ring than many. I've owned a couple of US-spec BMW outside the US and until the current one, an '09 M3, it was pretty seamless. All I had to was switch the radio settings from US to European and everything worked fine. What I found so far is that a lot of things I took for granted in buying the car don't work here. BMW Assist/Telematics is out completely, as are things like traffic info for the navigation. On the other hand, the move to a HDD-based iDrive made switching over the maps very easy. While these techie bits are not the reasons I bought this car, they are great systems to have working and it would seem to me that encouraging BMW to avoid hard-wiring them into US only mode would be worthwhile. But in the meantime, maybe there are tweaks/fixes that can resolve some issues easily. For starters, I'd be interested to hear from anyone in Belgium or Germany that has had good experiences with BMW service centers there with US-spec cars, especially doing things like upgrading the software on the car or having US-recalls put in (like M-DCT). Looking forward to getting a good sub-forum going here...
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