Another new member from NJ

[illirep]

Hello ZHP mafia. I have been a long time reader and admirer of this fantastic site and a long time ZHP enthusiast.

I have a 2004 ZHP sedan, finished in Silver Gray Metallic. I just recently swapped my black cube trim for the silver with another ZHP owner and am loving the contrast against the black interior!

I was fortunate enough to buy my ZHP from another BMW CCA member / enthusiast that had very expensive taste. As such, my car came with the OEM Performance Exhaust, Intake, Pedals and Drilled Rotors, OEM European Lights all around, and the OEM Ipod hookup. The car also came with a binder of every service record since new and a really nice set of winter wheels / tires, which will hopefully come in handy if / when we actually see some winter weather this year in NJ!

I have since replaced the steering wheel, shift boot, ebrake handle and boot, shift knob and floor mats with new OEM parts. I also added the Dynavin D99+ unit, european black storage console that replaces the cup holders and coin tray, and the European First Aid box under the driver's seat.

Future plans include but are not limited a possible H&R cupkit, new control arm bushings, and installing the cooling system kit I ordered from Tischer.

I'm going to seek other members' opinions about having the Service Inspection II done at a dealer, as I'm at 64k miles and should get it. Princeton BMW wants $1,000 for the service, which I can probably do 80% of myself for a few hundred bucks. Just wondering if having them do the thorough inspection of the various things on the list justifies the huge premium.

Look forward to learning and contributing to this great site, as well as making new friends and hopefully attending events with other members of the mafia!

1/17/13
-Added a shot of the interior and a shot of the rear seat entertainment for my 2 boys. Every ZHP owner should have the Sauber-F1 bear in the back seat!
-I'll give the car a good cleaning this weekend before I show the exterior - weather has been bad in NJ.

[Ryans323i]

Welcome! We're definitely going to need pics!

[JupiterBMW]

Welcome to the forum, looking forward to see the pics of your car, sounds like a really nice example.

[BCS_ZHP]

Bill,
Welcome, and you can do the Service II yourself. It consists of changing all fluids & filters, only a couple of hundred in oil/fluids & filters. Plenty of DIYs around here for each piece of it.
Bruce

[johnrando]

Welcome Bill, sounds like you got a great car. IN for pics. $1K is too much for that. You could DIY, or find an Indy that's cheaper, or do a mix of DIY/Indy.

One thought is to get a PPI, which is cheaper, and from what they tell you is needed, you can decide how to get them fixed.

[danewilson77]

Welcome.

[Torxuvin]

Welcome to the family

[Fender215]

Hey Bill, def looks like some of the NJ based crew should get together though three of us are all still looking for ours!

In NJ, I've heard that Mr. M, Autocouture Motoring, and AK Motorwerk are good shops for service work and PPI's.

Raj

[Costello23]

Welcome. I see you are in the Accounting/Finance field. I'm currently an Accounting student.

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Welcome, Bill.

[Vas]

+1 for pictures.

Welcome.

[illirep]

Thanks guys - will try and take a few pictures this evening - unfortunately, she isn't as pretty with the winter shoes on...

[illirep]

Welcome. I see you are in the Accounting/Finance field. I'm currently an Accounting student.

Good choice of studies. Demand will always remain relatively strong for Accountants, regardless of economy. I went to TCNJ for Accounting. Where are you going to school?

[Avetiso]

Welcome.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[Costello23]

Good choice of studies. Demand will always remain relatively strong for Accountants, regardless of economy. I went to TCNJ for Accounting. Where are you going to school?

I go to Rider at night. Start my junior level accounting class in a couple weeks. Accounting theory and concepts 1. I have heard this is the toughest out of all accounting classes.

[echo46]

Welcome aboard. Save yourself a lot of money and do the service yourself.

[zhpnsnv]

Hello ZHP mafia. I have been a long time reader and admirer of this fantastic site and a long time ZHP enthusiast.

I have a 2004 ZHP sedan, finished in Silver Gray Metallic. I just recently swapped my black cube trim for the silver with another ZHP owner and am loving the contrast against the black interior!

I was fortunate enough to buy my ZHP from another BMW CCA member / enthusiast that had very expensive taste. As such, my car came with the OEM Performance Exhaust, Intake, Pedals and Drilled Rotors, OEM European Lights all around, and the OEM Ipod hookup. The car also came with a binder of every service record since new and a really nice set of winter wheels / tires, which will hopefully come in handy if / when we actually see some winter weather this year in NJ!

I have since replaced the steering wheel, shift boot, ebrake handle and boot, shift knob and floor mats with new OEM parts. I also added the Dynavin D99+ unit, european black storage console that replaces the cup holders and coin tray, and the European First Aid box under the driver's seat.

Future plans include but are not limited a possible H&R cupkit, new control arm bushings, and installing the cooling system kit I ordered from Tischer.

I'm going to seek other members' opinions about having the Service Inspection II done at a dealer, as I'm at 64k miles and should get it. Princeton BMW wants $1,000 for the service, which I can probably do 80% of myself for a few hundred bucks. Just wondering if having them do the thorough inspection of the various things on the list justifies the huge premium.

Look forward to learning and contributing to this great site, as well as making new friends and hopefully attending events with other members of the mafia!

Bill

Welcome! My experience tells me to stay away from Princeton BMW at all costs. They will not do anything to lessen the blow of a service trip. However, if you call Circle BMW and Tim Meritzis, say you have a ZHP and that Marc sent you, you can go in, sit down with him, and plan your inspection II how YOU want it. This gives you leeway to do your own work if you wish. Tim and Circle serviced my ZHP from 30k to 106k, at which point it was sold to a member here with the car in excellent mechanical shape. Many here will tell you to do the work yourself, which is great if you can do it. If you can't, then Circle is the best option I've found in NJ. While Circle does obviously charge a premium, it was worth it to me for peace of mind of not being screwed, being taken care of the right way, all work and parts were warrantied for 2 years after install, and they gave me a loaner. They won't give you a loaner, however.

Also, if you're a CCA member, the NJ Chapter is having a meeting tomorrow night at the Deutscher Club in Clark. They're a great group (mafia-like) and it's a fun time. I'll be there after dropping my current car off to Tim @ Circle for its break in service!

[Oli77]

^ That's a Mafia tip right there!

Welcome silbergrau friend.

[kayger12]

Welcome to the family.

Unbelievable Jersey influx this week. :thumbsup

[illirep]

Unbelievable Jersey influx this week. :thumbsup

Well this is the mafia, isn't it?

Thanks to everyone, especially on the advice. Will post a teaser pic tonight and some more once the weather clears.

[kayger12]

Well this is the mafia, isn't it?



Lol-- valid point.

[nike001]

:hi

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Yes. I was running a 2-for-1 special on Jersey made this week.

[illirep]

Added a couple pic's to the first post. Will add more once I get her cleaned up.

[kayger12]

Silver cuber looks great.

How do you like the Dynavin?

[illirep]

Thanks, Dynavin is a good, relatively economical solution. It is a little buggy in terms of operating and switching between navigation and music module. The unit basically has two operating systems - one for media, and a windows mobile unit for the navigation program. Toggling between both causes slight display issues and gives strange feedback through the speakers. But the navigation works great. The install was very easy. The ipod interface works great - crystal clear. CD player takes a bit longer than normal to load and play. The best thing is that it actually looks and fits like OEM.

I originally had the Android version - but it definately wasn't for me. You have to tether it to your phone, which worked 1 in 5 times, in order to use the navigation, as there wasn't an 'offline' application on that version. And Lord knows what that would do to my Verizon data plan.....

I justified as follows:

I was looking at spending $200 on the DICE media bridge and $150 for a decent garmin. Plus my car came with the OEM BMW ipod hookup which I will try and sell in the next month or so. I figured it was only a few hundred dollar difference to have everything in one unit, versus buying the DICE and garmin.

[kayger12]

Good deal. Thanks for the info. I'm not really fond of the factory nav in my car. Evaluating options for down the road.

[illirep]

Well in that case, you can probably sell yours for $400-$500 and get the Dynavin for a couple hundred more.

I personally always prefer OEM, but the e46 nav system is a bit dated...

[illirep]

Didn't get a chance to clean her up, but here are a few exterior shots as promised - winter wheels remind me of the BMW style 161's that come on the e90 328i sport...

[Dave_B]

Welcome. Car looks great!

[jsfbmw]

Welcome. Agree on finding an indie or Tim. From another central NJ member.

[illirep]

Will do in the spring. Thanks.

[elric]

Welcome to the family!