From digest.v5.n95 Sat Aug 10 17:26:30 1996
From: Tay Systems Research <tsr_at_taysystems.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 1996 18:16:49 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: RE: <E36> 318ti foglights

Christopher Kean wrote:

> From: "Christopher, Kean" <Kean.Christopher_at_den.mmc.com>
> Date: 07 Aug 1996 10:35:15 -0700
> Subject: FW: 318ti foglights
>
> several 318 ti owners posted info on installing fog lights on their 318
> ti active models. Iam interested in any info reguarding price the dealer
> charged for the work and any problems if any. If you bought the fog
> light kit from Bavarian Autosport or BMW store did it include the
> harness. I have a '96 318 ti and wasn't able to locate a prewired
> harness.

First, my apologies for the delay in replying to your request, Chris.

I have a '95 318ti Active and when I heard that BMW had came out with the long-awaited foglight kit for the 318ti, I knew that I had to had it; the car looked "incomplete" without it. :)

When I took my car in for an oil change, it just so happened that they had it in stock! So I told the service dept. to go ahead and install it, after being told that the estimated labor will be about an hour to hour and half, _at_ $64/hr. The 318ti foglight kit retails for $199.

To my horror, the dealer called the next day and said that it was done, but it took more than four hours to install it! If you do the math, you'll find that the labor costs more than the foglights! Finally, after complaining to my salesman who brought it up to the service manager, they agreed to reduce the costs significantly.

Apparently, the service tech had to install a wiring front to the instrument cluster (which involved removing the whole entire instrument cluster off the dashboard), run wires to the fusebox, install a fuse, which was why it took more than four hours. The cost breakdown was:

        BMW FOGLIGHT KIT        P/N 63 17 1 469 706     160.00
        BMW FUSE/15A            P/N 61 13 1 372 626        .30
        LABOR (4 HOURS)                                 144.00

As you can see, they gave me a price break on the labor ($34/hr. vs the standard $64/hr) and also reduced the price of the foglight kit. I don't know if my BMW CCA discount applied but I'm sure they took that and applied an additional discount/reduction on top of that. Bottom line: they said that they don't want to see another 318ti in for foglight installation because it takes too long! :)

By the way, I'm surprised (and pretty sure) that the '96 318ti's, with the exception of the sport package, which comes standard with fogs, aren't prewired for foglights. What is BMW's rational for not prewiring them at the factory, with the exception of the sport package?

Anyhow, my '95 318ti Active now looks like the Sport package. :)

Regards, Tay Systems Research David Tay (BMW CCA #130574 '95 318ti)
3554 Chain Bridge Road, #100 tsr_at_taysystems.com CompuServe: 74213,2471
Fairfax, VA 22030-2709, USA Tel. 703/760-9022 - Fax 703/893-1154