about to import e90 320i, should i get one with idrive?

[andybchch 0]

Hi new here, my current car is a beautiful old merc c280 96, its getting long in the tooth, so i am thinking about going back to a Bmw, since the new mercs dont do it for me!

Have been browsing Carwebs.co.nz and checking out the 320i, and wondered how hard it is to re software the idrive system ?, from the jap one to Nz.

I am a bit of a computer geek so dont mind farting about with software side of things, and browsing through the electrical forum most talk is only about retrofitting an idrive, and not reprogramming an existing jap version.

Any advice or tips or even if someone would be able to do it for a price of course please let me know.

And has anyone here used carwebs to bring a car in???

Cheers

Andy

[Tristan 338]

Not familiar with retrofitting or reprogramming and such but I have used the iDrive system a few times and personally I like it very much and if I had it as an option I'd definitely be considering it.

[RvT 9]

Hi & Welcome Andy

I am more of an expert on e60s rather than e90s so I am making some assumptions that they are similar. In my e60 jap import, there is a menu option to change language to English. If you want to reprogram sat nav or radio in the iDrive then there are complications. Question is what do you want to reprogram ???

With bringing a car from Japan, I am not familiar with Carwebs.co.nz. I am assuming they are a middle man that clip the ticket. I have imported 15+ cars personally ex Japan. I recommend this company ....

http://www.kadoco.co.jp/auction/home.htm

Basically car importing is a DIY and you don't need a middleman. I have mentored several friends through the process for a carton of Steiny Pures Feel free to PM me for more info.

Ron

[deeveus 81]

Hi & Welcome Andy

I am more of an expert on e60s rather than e90s so I am making some assumptions that they are similar. In my e60 jap import, there is a menu option to change language to English. If you want to reprogram sat nav or radio in the iDrive then there are complications. Question is what do you want to reprogram ???

With bringing a car from Japan, I am not familiar with Carwebs.co.nz. I am assuming they are a middle man that clip the ticket. I have imported 15+ cars personally ex Japan. I recommend this company ....

http://www.kadoco.co.jp/auction/home.htm

Basically car importing is a DIY and you don't need a middleman. I have mentored several friends through the process for a carton of Steiny Pures Feel free to PM me for more info.

Ron

Out of curiosity Ron, what kind of savings can be achieved by importing yourself mate?

Is there any way to search for cars on that site without an account and obtain prices? Just being nosey at this stage.

[$toffz 0]

Just tried to register to see if that allows you to nosey but once you fill in the form and click next it comes up with an error saying the link is broken.

[RvT 9]

Hi Clinton & $toffz

If you are looking to import a car that is under $NZ15k in the yards here, then I would suggest that Trademe is a better option. If you are looking at cars over this then importing should be looked at more seriously.

If you take any car that is on a yard for say $20k and is a fresh import, you should be able to negotiate the cash purchase price to say $18k from the dealer. On that basis, the dealer probably imported the car for around $14 to 15k. This is the price you would be importing the car for ex Japan, if you did it yourself.

My theory, which I follow, is that cars depreciate (obviously) over time. My method is to buy a car at say $15k ex Japan, use it for say 6 months then sell it on Trademe for $17k. After a while you reduce the price and maybe after a year, you finally sell it for $15k. Then you back to Japan and repeat the exercise and again buy it a later model car for again $15k and then do it again. What happens is that you end up updating your car continuously without depreciation having an effect on your original stake money - $15k.

One thing I do like about the process is that you can be sure your car has no accident damage in Japan as you have the history of the vehicle plus you know the condition of the car in Japan. In a dealer, you rely on the honesty of the salesman to tell the truth about a car which is another subject.

The Kadoco company is the company to buy the car from and I usually ask prices and get auction data from the guys there by email rather than looking on their web site. The web site is painful as it doesn't show pricing.

I use another company for looking online as they have a better web site showing prices. Sign up and use them for info only (do the actual bidding with Kadoco is my advise). On the IBC web site, they have some cars for sale but the real data is on the 'auction' tab as this looks at 35,000 cars a week and is like looking at the NZ version of 'Turners'. We can't bid directly at the 'Turners' auctions which is why you have to have a Japanese agent bidding on your behalf.

http://www.ibcjapan.co.jp/login.asp?destin...=%2Fmy_home.asp

Yell out if you need anything else....