New 135i Convertible owner

[justinmj]

Just received my 2013 CPO 135i vert. Jet black/black, Premium, Technology, Comfort Access, Harmon Kardon, Park Distance Control, Heated Seats.

It was delivered via carrier to me in So Cal from a dealer in the Bay area. It's in excellent shape everywhere except for fairly extensive dimpling of the front bumper due to rock chips and a little bit on the hood. I'm having a guy from Dr. Colorchip locally come by and take a crack at it to see if he can mitigate some of that.

Just wanted to post about it here and say how thrilled I am with it. It's ncredible fun, and a great complement to our '14 328xi Sport Wagon. Thanks to all here who helped me with pre-purchase advice!

I've got the stubby antenna on there, and am looking to also purchase the following:

- PPK
- Car cover (on order)
- Wind deflector (purchasing used from a fellow 1Addicts member)
- Black kidney grills (on order)
- Eventually, a nice set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports

I have two questions that maybe you folks could weigh in on:

1) Where's the best place to purchase the PPK, and how much should I expect a dealer to charge for labor to install?

2) Is there anything else you might recommend for me? I keep hearing about a recommended replacement of bushings in the rear suspension, but I'm not sure how to go about it, purchase, etc. As you can see, any mods/accessories I'm doing are deliberately simple and/or pretty low-key.

Thanks!

[Esteban]

Welcome and congrats on your purchase. The car looks great and you will have lots of fun with it. I have PPK and think it's awesome. You should get PE with it. The sound of that combo is incredible with lots of popping and crackling on overrun. I got PPK back in 2011 and the price has gone down considerably since then. I'm sure other members can let you know what they paid for it more recently. Enjoy!

[Esteban]

Also, forgot to mention the blackline tail lights are another tasteful, subtle mod that you can add. It's not very expensive and you can DIY.
http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E82-135...S86/ES2550272/

[gregthegr8]

Originally Posted by justinmj

I've got the stubby antenna on there, and am looking to also purchase the following:

- PPK
- Car cover (on order)
- Wind deflector (purchasing used from a fellow 1Addicts member)
- Black kidney grills (on order)
- Eventually, a nice set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports

I have two questions that maybe you folks could weigh in on:

1) Where's the best place to purchase the PPK, and how much should I expect a dealer to charge for labor to install?

2) Is there anything else you might recommend for me? I keep hearing about a recommended replacement of bushings in the rear suspension, but I'm not sure how to go about it, purchase, etc. As you can see, any mods/accessories I'm doing are deliberately simple and/or pretty low-key.

Thanks!

Looking good Justin. Glad to see it finally arrived and that lovely stubby antenna is on there now.

Not sure about the PPK, try the forum vendors like bmwpartspros or getbmwparts (who has coupons expiring today) and then I think you can take that to any dealer to have it installed which should take an hour I believe.

As for the bushings, money-wise you may be better off getting the whiteline bushing inserts which cost like $50 vs the full on m3 rear subframe bushings swap as it may cost you an extra $1000-1200 in labor to install those $200 in parts and the benefits may not be noticeably different compared to going with the inserts in normal daily driving to justify it.

Blackline tail lights are quite pretty and would look great, especially on a black car, so you may want to look into those and get from either ECS or schmiedmann.

I'm sure everyone can chime in though and find fun ways of spending your money on various additional things for your car. =) We're good like that.

[Cavpilot2k]

On the Blacked-out grille:

I have a black-on-black coupe, and I originally wanted the grill too. It sounds good in theory. But in person, I actually like the stock grille a whole lot. And then I saw a black car with the black grill, and it looked fine, but I still liked stock better.

Your taste may vary, but try to see one in person before spending several hundred bucks on it. I'm glad I held off.

Just my $.02

Oh, and congrats on the purchase. You will not be disappointed. I've had mine for 2.5 years as a daily driver and I still take it out for unnecessary joy rides.

[gregthegr8]

Originally Posted by Cavpilot2k

On the Blacked-out grille:

I have a black-on-black coupe, and I originally wanted the grill too. It sounds good in theory. But in person, I actually like the stock grille a whole lot. And then I saw a black car with the black grill, and it looked fine, but I still liked stock better.

Your taste may vary, but try to see one in person before spending several hundred bucks on it. I'm glad I held off.

Just my $.02

Oh, and congrats on the purchase. You will not be disappointed. I've had mine for 2.5 years as a daily driver and I still take it out for unnecessary joy rides.

Ya, i was going to say, hard to tell from the photos if you have chrome grille slats or not. I personally prefer the chrome surround with black slats look as it's more blacked out than ones with chrome slats, but still gives good definition and contrast with the chrome surround, really defining the kidneys. Obviously a matter of opinion and personal choice between that and a fully blacked out one.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by gregthegr8

Ya, i was going to say, hard to tell from the photos if you have chrome grille slats or not. I personally prefer the chrome surround with black slats look as it's more blacked out than ones with chrome slats, but still gives good definition and contrast with the chrome surround, really defining the kidneys. Obviously a matter of opinion and personal choice between that and a fully blacked out one.

I have this and agree 100%!

[Cavpilot2k]

Originally Posted by EvenEsteban

Also, forgot to mention the blackline tail lights are another tasteful, subtle mod that you can add. It's not very expensive and you can DIY.
http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E82-135...S86/ES2550272/

I may have to look into these.

Now if only there were a reasonably-priced replacement for the orange turn signal glass...

[JimD]

Congratulations.

I like my aluminum pedals (with soft rubber inserts). I also carry a Viair 70P compressor with an adapter so I can pull power direct from the battery and a plugging kit. I had this stuff when I had run flats but I have Michelin PSS now. They are much better.

I used to use "flash2pass" but my current garage door opener won't work with it.

If you don't have comfort access you can lower your top with the remote by some coding.

Enjoy.

[gregthegr8]

Originally Posted by JimD

I like my aluminum pedals (with soft rubber inserts).

I used to use "flash2pass" but my current garage door opener won't work with it.

If you don't have comfort access you can lower your top with the remote by some coding.

Ooh, forgot about pedals. I got and like the stainless steel ones personally, but again, tastes/opinions may very. Here's a link so you can see some of the various styles, though you can pay much less than their suggested retail price:

http://www.shopbmwusa.com/ACCESSORIE...RESTS---PEDALS

I second that recommendation on getting some coding done, especially with a convertible and I like and use the digital speedo option they can unlock as well. It's not quite as nice with a DCT since it overtakes both lines of your digital cluster, but I use it every time I drive. There's a guy on the forums that is in LA I believe who does it, like alex @ alpinecoding or something, can't remember exactly. There are a million lil things you can code in/out that are nice.

What else can we spend your money on...

[angler]

Originally Posted by EvenEsteban

Also, forgot to mention the blackline tail lights are another tasteful, subtle mod that you can add. It's not very expensive and you can DIY.
http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E82-135...S86/ES2550272/

Now thats nice! Was it plug and play?

[justinmj]

Thanks, all!

And by the way, a HUGE shout-out and thank you to gregthegr8 for all his amazing advice leading up to the purchase of this car.

I think I'm not going to get the PE, just the PPK, which I JUST now ordered at getbmwparts.com since they had a coupon that expires today. The reason why I'm not opting for the PE is the volume. I have a newborn in the house, and I don't really want to wake him up more than I am already. Maybe someday, but for now, I'm fine with the sound of the stock exhaust, and the performance gain with the PPK should be satisfying for a while.

Those tail lights are GORGEOUS, but I think low priority, as better tires might be more important intitially.

Same with pedals. But that's a nice touch.

I had the black on black grills on order, but I just emailed getbmwparts.com to change my order to black with chrome surrounds. That, frankly, seems far better to me, and I wasn't actually aware of it when I ordered those black on black ones. Great tips. If I don't like them, I'll return them and stay stock.

Installing those Whiteline bushings seems like a great mod for little money, but I don't know if I'm mechanically inclined enough to do it, though I do have a jack and stands. Hmmm....

Thanks all!

[gregthegr8]

Originally Posted by justinmj

Thanks, all!

And by the way, a HUGE shout-out and thank you to gregthegr8 for all his amazing advice leading up to the purchase of this car.

I think I'm not going to get the PE, just the PPK, which I JUST now ordered at getbmwparts.com since they had a coupon that expires today. The reason why I'm not opting for the PE is the volume. I have a newborn in the house, and I don't really want to wake him up more than I am already. Maybe someday, but for now, I'm fine with the sound of the stock exhaust, and the performance gain with the PPK should be satisfying for a while.

Those tail lights are GORGEOUS, but I think low priority, as better tires might be more important intitially.

Same with pedals. But that's a nice touch.

I had the black on black grills on order, but I just emailed getbmwparts.com to change my order to black with chrome surrounds. That, frankly, seems far better to me, and I wasn't actually aware of it when I ordered those black on black ones. Great tips. If I don't like them, I'll return them and stay stock.

Installing those Whiteline bushings seems like a great mod for little money, but I don't know if I'm mechanically inclined enough to do it, though I do have a jack and stands. Hmmm....

Thanks all!

Ask the forum, I'm great at spending people's money. I have the part # for the black with chrome surrounds as I sent them to angler recently, so he may still have them handy. Luckily the grilles are easy to swap in/out and play around with to see what strikes your fancy.

Supposedly those whitelines are easy to install if you have various wrenches, tools and mostly jackstands. If you don't want to mess around with it, try that pit stop motor tuning shop in glendale that people swear by, in part cause I may have them do mine. =) Should only be an hour of labor + $50 in parts, no need for alignment or anything.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by angler

Now thats nice! Was it plug and play?

Yes it was. No wiring required. I didn't actually do the install. I had EAS in Anaheim, Ca do it because I was getting some other work done there as well and they are LCI update specialists so it just made sense to have them install the lights too.

[Marc08EX]

Stainless steel pedals are a nice upgrade for the interior.

Originally Posted by gregthegr8

What else can we spend your money on...

I can't believe you haven't recommended the performance suspension yet.

Originally Posted by angler

Now thats nice! Was it plug and play?

Yes it's plug and play.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by Marc08EX

I can't believe you haven't recommended the performance suspension yet.

That's part of the other work that I had EAS do.

[gregthegr8]

I already know the performance suspension is not available for the convertible for whatever reason, otherwise obviously, that'd be atop my list. O=)

The blacklines, I'm told by other forum members are so easy to install yourself that "a monkey could do it" one told me. So, I'd probably have to pay cause monkeys are pretty high up on the evolutionary chart.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by gregthegr8

The blacklines, I'm told by other forum members are so easy to install yourself that "a monkey could do it" one told me. So, I'd probably have to pay cause monkeys are pretty high up on the evolutionary chart.

I guess that means that I too, am not even as intelligent as a monkey.

[justinmj]

Email sent to Alex at Alpine Coding, thank you gregthegr8! Looking forward to doing that for sure.

[angler]

Another nice mod is coco matts for the interior. Just love them! I have the part numbers for the grilles if you need them. My dealer matched the best price I could get on the internet as a FYI. Nice car especially when the top is down. Welcome to The Tanning Machine club!

[CAVU]

Welcome aboard and congratulations on your new ride! I second all of the great suggestions from the other posters. I also understand your hesitation on the PE... my neighbors certainly don't appreciate it during cold starts at 6:40am each morning. On the other hand, the sound is one of the best parts of owning the car!

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by RickMsport

the sound is one of the best parts of owning the car!

This is true!