[Fox530]

Hi all,

Looking at buying an early F10, most of the cars in my budget look to be 2010 models. This evening I've learnt that only cars produced after September 2010 are fitted with a Combox.

This therefore means that pre Sep 10 build cars don't do album art and lose a bunch of bluetooth connectivity. This is a bit annoying.

Is this the end of the world or does the combox bring only minor functionality?

Is it easily retrofitted without warranty implications?

Thanks!

[Andehh]

Bump, also in a similar position. From what I can gather the combo is a) worth getting and b) can be retrofitted. I'm not risking it though, and will only look for oct/Nov 10 car onwards to be safe. For such a big purchase, I'm taking no risks.

[martin mustang]

you can survive without the Album Art, after all you after the music not a video clip, I guess it is down to the difference you paying when going for a car with or without, I have a car with the combo, the Art is up on the screen, I see it for a second or two, before my eyes are back on the road, I find it quite distracting some times when a new white bright album cover is up on the screen following a dark one, in winter darkness, it's like side light was switched on, impacting on my outside vision, so in other words I truly believe the more gadgets you have, the more distraction from driving the car as you should when going after a rear wheel drive BMW.

[cipher5]

You can retrofit the combox for fairly cheap

[ghueser]

I had a post September 11 with the combox and thought it was worth it. I don't beleive you can retrofit the BMW combox in a pre September car unless you change part of the wiring loom. However, there may be some potential aftermarket kits that will add some or all of that functionality. You will have to search some of the aftermarket electronics suppliers for BMW. Good Luck.

[goldguilexx]

I'll be doing mine later this year. Bimmer-tech has the retro fit kit available.
My main reason to do it is for music via Bluetooth instead of dealing with pesky wires. There's other benefits to it as well but mostly minor.