2011.5 E90 option package confusion

Thanks. E203176. It shows Combox but pretty sure it's missing Bluetooth (for calls) and folding mirrors.

-BEASTMW- wrote

Thanks. E203176. It shows Combox but pretty sure it's missing Bluetooth (for calls) and folding mirrors.

No joke my VIN is one digit off from yours. Does this mean ours were made on the assembly line one after the other?

|||||||||| wrote

No joke my VIN is one digit off from yours. Does this mean ours were made on the assembly line one after the other?

Oh wow, probably!! What are the chances?!

Looks to be the case per VIN. Well if you want it that bad.... Dust off that credit card

my 11.5 (7/11) has Bluetooth, voice control but no BMW apps. I'm confused with that build date if my is actually a 11.75. How can I tell?

Memory getting foggy but 2011.5 started with Sept 2010 production. 2011.75 started with Mar 2011 as I recall...

Mine was built close to this one also. I compared the options listings, and mine has a couple that might hold a clue that the car you're looking at doesn't have?

6AA BMW TELESERVICES
639 COMPLETE PREP. CELLULAR PHONE USA/CDN

I find it odd that any 2011 M3 wouldn't have bluetooth integration standard though. My 2006 E90 330i (ordered it new) has bluetooth, and my 2007 E91 does also. I recently bought the E91 and knew that I needed to look for a car that had BMW Assist in it to assure it had bluetooth. All three of my E9x cars have "639 COMPLETE PREP. CELLULAR PHONE USA/CDN", so perhaps that's the key one?

Hmm, mine doesn't have any of those. I guess I'm outta luck!

So it looks like I need to wire the mic and get it coded. Since I have Combox w/Bluetooth audio streaming, do I need a Bluetooth antenna or is that already in the car?

I can't answer that one... you MIGHT be able to find someone who has the wma1000 viseoo and see if that can stream your phone calls as well as BT audio.
I have one but not that local to you to try out.

kscarrol wrote

Memory getting foggy but 2011.5 started with Sept 2010 production. 2011.75 started with Mar 2011 as I recall...

Correct on both

OP, interesting that the car you're looking at has Combox without the Premium Package to get Bluetooth calling. I know that Combox wasn't standard on all cars as of 2011.5, but I never looked very closely to see what option selection(s) caused it to be added. I'm fairly certain you need iDrive either as a standalone option or as part of the Convenience Package (which was introduced for 2011.5 and then rolled into the Premium Package starting MY2012 a few months later) since most of Combox's functionality relates to infotainment, but if you don't have the Premium Package I suppose that would create the rather odd circumstance of having BT Audio streaming but not BT phone functionality. But as others have said, if you're really determined, you can retrofit it with the right hardware and coding expertise, although I probably wouldn't personally. I've found that I very seldom talk on the phone anymore.

jphughan wrote

OP, interesting that the car you're looking at has Combox without the Premium Package to get Bluetooth calling. I know that Combox wasn't standard on all cars as of 2011.5, but I never looked very closely to see what option selection(s) caused it to be added. I'm fairly certain you need iDrive either as a standalone option or as part of the Convenience Package (which was introduced for 2011.5 and then rolled into the Premium Package starting MY2012 a few months later) since most of Combox's functionality relates to infotainment, but if you don't have the Premium Package I suppose that would create the rather odd circumstance of having BT Audio streaming but not BT phone functionality. But as others have said, if you're really determined, you can retrofit it with the right hardware and coding expertise, although I probably wouldn't personally. I've found that I very seldom talk on the phone anymore.

Thanks for the input. It's pretty much loaded except for the Premium Pkg 2 and sunroof - I think the original owner prob didn't want Premium because in that year, that gave you the manual seats and judging by the slicktop, maybe that's why he/she chose that. It does have the Convenience Pkg with iDrive and all that, but the VIN lookup seems to indicate no Bluetooth phone calls. Doesn't Combox include Voice Command? If so, wouldn't there be a mic, and an antenna already for the Bluetooth audio? Meaning all I need is a coding since the hardware seems to be all there?

Speaking of weird combos, it has manual seats with the power bolsters and heating - talk about an odd combo.

Regardless, I bought the car and it should be here in two weeks from Chicago, and I'll see what it has. I do want Bluetooth for sure because it's going to be my family car for quite a while and my wife will be calling me while I'm driving often. I've been looking for M3s for a year and am so excited to join the party!!

-BEASTMW- wrote  

Thanks for the input. It's pretty much loaded except for the Premium Pkg 2 and sunroof - I think the original owner prob didn't want Premium because in that year, that gave you the manual seats and judging by the slicktop, maybe that's why he/she chose that. It does have the Convenience Pkg with iDrive and all that, but the VIN lookup seems to indicate no Bluetooth phone calls. Doesn't Combox include Voice Command? If so, wouldn't there be a mic, and an antenna already for the Bluetooth audio? Meaning all I need is a coding since the hardware seems to be all there?

Speaking of weird combos, it has manual seats with the power bolsters and heating - talk about an odd combo.

Regardless, I bought the car and it should be here in two weeks from Chicago, and I'll see what it has. I do want Bluetooth for sure because it's going to be my family car for quite a while and my wife will be calling me while I'm driving often. I've been looking for M3s for a year and am so excited to join the party!!

I'm pretty sure Voice Command is just part of iDrive, not BMW Assist with Bluetooth. The problem is that I don't know if you can retrofit JUST Bluetooth phone. You might have to retrofit the equipment for BMW Assist and Bluetooth phone, in which case you very likely wouldn't have all the right hardware already. But the mic would probably be there (saves you some effort at least) and the Bluetooth radio is actually built into the iDrive unit itself (or maybe Combox), so you're good there. There aren't separate radios for calling and audio streaming on cars that have both.

jphughan wrote

I'm pretty sure Voice Command is just part of iDrive, not BMW Assist with Bluetooth. The problem is that I don't know if you can retrofit JUST Bluetooth phone. You might have to retrofit the equipment for BMW Assist and Bluetooth phone, in which case you very likely wouldn't have all the right hardware already. But the mic would probably be there (saves you some effort at least) and the Bluetooth radio is actually built into the iDrive unit itself (or maybe Combox), so you're good there. There aren't separate radios for calling and audio streaming on cars that have both.

So what type of hardware would that consist of?

BTW, I work with a guy in your area who just took delivery of a GT4 a week or two ago. Awesome car.

-BEASTMW- wrote  

So what type of hardware would that consist of?

BTW, I work with a guy in your area who just took delivery of a GT4 a week or two ago. Awesome car.

Well BMW Assist includes a full cellular modem and SIM in order to make SOS calls independent of any Bluetooth connection. There are a few Bluetooth retrofit threads around here and/or E90Post that lay it all out. But it costs several hundred bucks, so if your car arrives without the ability to place Bluetooth calls, think carefully how much you value handsfree calling here. I also don't know how or even if the instructions differ for Combox cars. I've done the coding for people who have gotten Bluetooth retrofits, and I think one of them may have even had Combox (it was a strange build that had iDrive as a standalone option rather than as a package that would have added Bluetooth), but I was never involved with the hardware side; they'd already done that by the time they came to me.

Yeah, the GT4 is definitely special, and I'm seeing quite a few around here. A friend of mine just got his white one last weekend after doing Euro Delivery.

To confuse things even further, I have a 2011.5 base model car+comp package. The PO opted for heated seats and bluetooth, but no iDrive. According to the VIN decoder, my car has combox and I also have the SOS button (for whatever that's worth). I do not have folding mirrors either.

It's quite interesting how many possible combinations of features one could have on these cars.

jphughan wrote

Well BMW Assist includes a full cellular modem and SIM in order to make SOS calls independent of any Bluetooth connection. There are a few Bluetooth retrofit threads around here and/or E90Post that lay it all out. But it costs several hundred bucks, so if your car arrives without the ability to place Bluetooth calls, think carefully how much you value handsfree calling here. I also don't know how or even if the instructions differ for Combox cars. I've done the coding for people who have gotten Bluetooth retrofits, and I think one of them may have even had Combox (it was a strange build that had iDrive as a standalone option rather than as a package that would have added Bluetooth), but I was never involved with the hardware side; they'd already done that by the time they came to me.

Yeah, the GT4 is definitely special, and I'm seeing quite a few around here. A friend of mine just got his white one last weekend after doing Euro Delivery.

Thanks - that's a bit discouraging. Is there a good aftermarket workaround to make Bluetooth calls possible? In my S2000, I just swapped in a $130 aftermarket deck and everything worked. Obviously that's not an option here, but it seems like there should be a cheaper, non-OEM solution, no? I've tried searching but everything talks about adding Bluetooth audio.

-BEASTMW- wrote

Thanks - that's a bit discouraging. Is there a good aftermarket workaround to make Bluetooth calls possible? In my S2000, I just swapped in a $130 aftermarket deck and everything worked. Obviously that's not an option here, but it seems like there should be a cheaper, non-OEM solution, no? I've tried searching but everything talks about adding Bluetooth audio.

You might be able to use the aftermarket bt adapter like I mentioned. Get it on Amazon and try it out. Return if it doesn't work

There are aftermarket Bluetooth speakerphones that clip onto your visor. The previously mentioned Tune2Air, while great, is intended to enable Bluetooth audio streaming and won't work for calls because it doesn't send audio back to the phone.

Thanks guys. I'm talking with Mike Benvo at BPM on what it might take to get this working. Once I get the car, I'll pull down the overhead lights to see if a mic is present.

If it's too much work and hardware needed, I did find a couple of aftermarket options on Amazon that might work - not as clean as OEM, but if a $25 plug & play device works well enough, I might just go with that. Seems like they use the USB + aux jack, which would make it so I can't use my ancient iPod that I have tons of music on, but I guess I can extract the mp3s (hopefully) and import them onto the car's hard drive via USB stick from the glove box.

Thanks everyone for your help!