# New owner with E39 540i questions.



## crwilsn (Feb 4, 2004)

Hello all,
I'm the proud new owner of a 99 540 that I got to replace my wifes Honda Accord that I spun and killed in ice. We found a great deal on the car and after two weeks I've come up with some questions about the car.

1. I have the auto transmission without steptronic. I have Tiptronic in my other car (93 Porsche 911) and miss having control of gears when I want. I saw in the bentley manual that the transmissions are the same but it shows different gear selectors. Can I replace the selector and the transmission brain with step ones?

2. There seems to be a slight delay between pushing down the accelerator and the car actually going. I mentioned this to the dealer and he said the car is not meant for accellerating 0-60 but this seems to happen at any speed. Throttle changes don't seem smooth. Is this just a factor of an electronic gas pedal or would this be improved with software (engine and or transmission) upgrades (i.e. Dinan). 

3. Wanted Nav but deal was to good to wait for one with. The general consensus is retrofit=bad/expensive. Any other aftermarket systems that have worked well. Looking for something integrated to dash. 

Thanks in advance to anyone with advise. I'm sure I'll be asking for it again soon.

Clay Wilson
99 BMW 540i
93 Porsche 911 Cabriolet


----------



## DSPTurtle (Oct 4, 2003)

Find another dealer... there is only one reason that people buy the 540.
JB


----------



## Ågent99 (Jan 7, 2002)

(1) Dunno on this...never heard of anyone swapping the normal auto for the tiptronic w/out doing the whole enchilada and then there are s/w things you might need to worry about. I guess the deal you got was good enough to not look for a 6-speed, eh? You can mod these cars but it is major dollars for something like that. It would be a better deal to find the car as you wanted it. Factor the cost of the mods into your great deal and see if it still a great deal. I am betting NOT. Double the cost of the mods for time and headaches for sure.

(2) Find another dealer or try an independent shop. Some tuners might suggest tranny software but see if you can get the car working like it is supposed to.

(3) If you have no NAV at all, the retrofit is a biatch and very, very expensive and it may be incredibly time consuming to get it all working. See my comments in (1)!  Go aftermarket for your NAV stuff in this case.

Be honest and now tell us if your great deal was all that great!! If it was great, perhaps you could dump it for a profit and find a 540i with a manual and the NAV and then you'll be way ahead...way ahead.

Chris


----------



## crwilsn (Feb 4, 2004)

Got it for 24,750 from a dealer CPO. Needed the warranty as the car is for my wife while I'm on deployment. Checking Edmunds and the like a CPO should be about 30,000.


----------



## flattothefloor (Feb 14, 2004)

DSPTurtle said:


> Find another dealer... there is only one reason that people buy the 540.
> JB


undefined
JB. Could you tell me? how you are able to post a pic by your post? 
trying to find upload pic in settings could not locate it. Much thanks 
flattothefloor

There is only one! lol


----------



## DSPTurtle (Oct 4, 2003)

There a two ways to get a pic by your name (otherwise known as an Avatar)...
1. Have over 1,000 posts
2. Capitalize on the poor administrator when they are going through server problems and then never say anything to anyone about it :angel: 

JB


----------



## BrettInLJ (Oct 3, 2003)

crwilsn said:


> 3. Wanted Nav but deal was to good to wait for one with. The general consensus is retrofit=bad/expensive. Any other aftermarket systems that have worked well. Looking for something integrated to dash.


Wait about a year and the Nav retrofit won't be quite as expensive (but still more than stock). Right now the best option is to go to a high end shop that will install a flip-up screen head unit such as those by Alpine and Panasonic. It can fit in the top area where the tape or CD player is, but will require the wood flip up door to be removed and they will have to cut into the control unit beneath it about 1/4 of an inch (you want a high-end place to do a clean job). You will have to buy the Nav separately.

The sales manager at La Jolla Audio told me that Eclipse is coming out with a single-DIN (normal size) unit that has a flip-up screen, DVD, and Nav built in. I may go with this when it comes out. Again, the install will not be cheap. I'll probably just live without Nav and save my money until the M4 comes out.


----------

