C350 CDI - few questions and HELLO!

[moffC350]

Hi all,

My first post on here, so hello all!!

I've currently got a BMW 135i (modified a little) and my wife has a 6 month old C350 CDI Sport in Calacite white with a few options (18"s, Black leather, APS50, DAB, Htd Seats, linguatronic).

Long story short, as I am changing jobs and losing the 135i (company car) I am going to take my wife's car and she is getting something else.

But, as the car is specced for my wife, there are a few areas that I would like to enhance:

- Remap - considering Brabus (costly), Superchips and DMS

- Lights - no xenon's so want to know what the enhanced bulb options are for the high and dipped beams, and match the sidelights with an LED bulb

- Sound - base system which is pretty poor (compared to my Harmon Kardon), are there any easy options?

Any thoughts and comments on the above appreciated!

My 135i (my second 135i!!) is one of the best cars I have ever owned, seriously I can't think of a better petrol engine. It's currently remapped to 360bhp (0-60 <5secs 0-100 <11secs) and I get an average 26mpg. But, a change of job means I could buy the car from the lease company, but my mileage is increasing to 18k-20k, so better off with the C350.

I really like the C350 and it was my choice to move to it, wife previously had a 335d which had a sensational engine, but not as refined as the C350's. My only real criticism's of the C350 are the light steering and fairly poor fuel consumption (currently at 30-32mpg after 8000 miles).

Also keen to know any other enhancements that I should consider?

Love the new DRL's on the 2011 C350, gutted that they are not easy to retro!

 

[GuyW]

Interesting problem. I have re-mapped several diesels and it not only improves performance, it also improves economy. With the 350 CDI you may not be able to get a mapping from Superchips as they have to "crack" the protocol to install their mapping. I had to wait for them to do my C320 CDI last year. The Brabus is an external kit so gets around that, and there are some other cheaper external kits.

On the lights, Xenons require a headlamp washer system by law, which makes upgrading to them very expensive.

On the stereo, I upgraded the front 4 speakers in my C320 to the Harman Kardon speakers that MB supply and they cost £200. Made a huge difference, but a good third party audio company could do you a nice job too, including increasing the bass with a sub woofer. Name your price!