I replaced my original roundel with this one. Yes, this one is made from plastic, but I wouldn’t call it cheap, and it was identical to the original roundel on my BMW e39 (which was also plastic).

This device won’t save your life, but it’ll definitely play your iPod in your Bimmer. I installed mine yesterday in my ‘01 330xi– it took about 10 minutes. Yes, the controls aren’t absolutely precise, but it’s not a big deal. Tracks change as desired, and it’s easy enough to create appropriate playlists on your iPod. My one gripe is that, once you purchase, you find out that you can only use four custom playists (the 5th and 6th playlist slots are for “direct” play of all of your songs, and “aux,” respectively). But since it’s an iPod, I can make the playlists as long as I want. Recommended.

This is a cool item. I was using it for my work keys. I manage a retail pharmacy. And I would get comments from customers saying, “I know what you drive outside.” Sad thing is I broke it days after getting it. Now I have to order a new one. I won’t say how I broke it.

These used to be sold in Brookstone and I bought one around 2000. Had it nine years and battery finally died and couldn’t find another. Then to my amazement, I saw one with a BMW lable and purchased four. Didn’t want to run out again. It’s got a beep that tells you when accurate pressure is read; this isn’t mentioned in ad copy for some reason but it’s a great feature. Durable and long lasting. Love it.

Fast shipping, decent price, OEM filters. Came with all the replacement O-rings, which is more than the store-bought Purolator filters come with (they only have the large one). What more is there to say?

I was a bit leery about purchasing this since others seem to have had problems with this. However, I took the plunge since I can buy it from Amazon (good price, free shipping and a good return policy). I have had it for 3 weeks and it’s works as advertised. The sound is CD quality. I can control the play by song, list, album or artist via my OEM radio head unit (2005 X5 3.0 with Business CD and No DSP). The titles scroll through the display in the dash only and not in the head unit – I think because I’m connecting it through a blitzsafe adapter for XM satellite radio. That’s okay though since it’s much easier and safer to scan the information directly in front of you in the instrument pod instead of looking at the radio. A nice surprise, it charges my Touch, but not my wife’s Nano.

The installation was relatively easy if you know where BMW keeps its CD changer (in the hatch area on the driver’s side). Per instruction, I disconnected the batteries before I hooked up the Dice unit – I think this may explain the issues experienced by some. Since you have to remove the spare before you can disconnect the battery (sits under the spare) I think some users didn’t bother to do this the first time they hook up the Dice unit. The electronics in the unit is a bit sensitive and if you don’t let the power drain completely during the initial startup it causes issues – just a guess here though – I may change my mind if the unit starts to have problems with extended use.

At first I left IPOD connection in the hatch, but then got ambitious last weekend and ran the wires into the cabin and put the connection (along with the Dice unit) in the center armrest bin. Now it’s just like an OEM hookup and even thought it took 2 hours I’m very happy with it (so’s my wife – it’s her car).

I purchased this travel mug as a gift for my boyfriend’s birthday. It’s very nice and sturdy, easy to clean. A little smaller than I was expecting, but very nice.

I wrote this as a review for the Scosche branded one:

I actually purchased the Metra version here from Amazon, but the pics are identical, and I wanted to share my thoughts about the product.

First, it includes front and rear speakers, power, ground, full time power (clock, memory presets), Illumination/dimming *(one wire for both), power antenna/amp turn on *(one wire for both).

My factory harness had phone mute, which this adapter did not include. Also, maybe it’s a BMW thing, but notice the Illumination and dimming are one wire, also the power antenna and the amp turn-on is one lead. On both my cars, the aftermarket stereos (Sony, JVC) illuminate when powered on, and dim when the parking lights are on, the amount of dimming can be controlled via menu, but not by the car, and neither of them have power antenna’s.

One important difference between the Metra and the Scosche, is the Metra has a huge filter/choke one of the power leads, the memory lead I think it was. Made for a difficult installation, as it was located close to the already huge factory connector. Tucking them both inside the hole in the dash was difficult. On the other hand, they surely thought it was necessary, and the Scosche appears to exclude it, via the picture. I have no noise issues on either the Coupe (no choke filter) or the convertible (has choke filter).

Generally, the fit and finish was very good, but the power and ground leads should have been heavier gauge wiring, as most head units have double to triple the output of the original Alpine unit.

Important note: Both my cars have factory amps installed, you MUST connect the blue wire to use the factory speakers. Replacing those will be my next challenge.

*****

General install notes on BMW E36 models (3-series, from 1991-1999):

1.) The factory radio has little tabs on left and right sides, pop open these tabs to reveal a funky/odd screw (5-sided). Use a hex/allen wrench (6-sided) and you USUALLY can get those screws loosened up, then the radio slides right out. The factor harnass has a sliding dis-engagement lever. Look for an icon on the connector, insert the screw driver as shown to remove the harnass. (thankfully, the wiring adapter connects and releases much more smoothly, no screw driver needed.)

2.) You have plenty of room to work. But if you are installing amps or other accessories, how the ^%$)! do you get the dash apart to route the wires? There are many paths, depending on your skill level and patience. My skill level and patience are both low on the scale, so here’s the easy way:

a) You have a empty box, for sunglasses, etc, located under the piece of crap on-board-computer, right? Feel inside the storage bin, on the top. There you will find an indentation/hole.

b) Press up and the on board computer above will pop out partially. Wiggle out the onboard computer, it’s only about 3 or 4 inches deep, and very light weight, and has a very long cable harness.

c) Remove the storage bin (and 12v power socket, and some switch(es)) by lifting up on the assembly.

d) On the right hand side (at least on right hand drive models), you will have quite a big space to drop your cables down behind the onboard computer and the storage bin.

e) I ran my cables inside the shifter-console tunnel, then under the very short bit of carpet between the console and the rear seat. But you will see many ways to route cables once you get them down from inside the radio box.

3.) Mounting amps. The rear seat on both my coupe and my convertible both remove VERY easily. On the bottom section, the seat is removed by simply lifting UP at the front (where your knees go.) Pop loose on the left and right (at the same time preferably), then just wiggle it out of there. The back rest removal is easy on the convertible, pull forward at the head rest area, and same as the bottom cushion, it will pop loose in two locations, then lift it up and out (with the top down). The coupe seats I couldn’t remove, they did fold down however and I was able to route the wires then.

I installed the USASpec PA12-BMW in a 2005 BMW M3. The installation was very easy and straight forward. The PA12 and other similar ipod adaptors mimic a CD changer and you can only have the ipod adaptor or the CD changer, not both. The PA12 uses ipod playlists to manage your music and “fool” the head unit into thinking its playing a CD. Since there are 6 CD for the CD Changer the PA12 has 6 selections to choose music. 4 are playlists you create, the 5th is all songs and 6th unlocks the ipod and allows you to browse and select music from the ipod directly. I arranged all my tunes into 3 playlists splitting them about evenly by alphabet. My 4th playlist is my ipod selected top 25 songs. The PA12 does not allow searching by artist or song using the head unit, but you can go to CD6 and select a particular song or artist using the ipod itself. This works fine for me and eliminates some of the complexity and lock ups of the Dice Silverline. On my M3, the headunit allows the PA12 to display track, song and artist in a scrolling fashion. I think the limit is 16 characters so if the song name is long, you’ll only see the first 16 characters. This is a cool feature but I find that it overrides the clock selection. If I press the clock button the time will display, but then the song text will pop back up. I’d like to be able to bring up the clock and have it stay for those times when you don’t want the text scrolling. Overall, I’m very happy with the USASpec PA12-BMW both in operation and sound quality and will soon be purchasing a similar USASpec unit for my daily driver truck. I purchased from Audiosource though Amazon and was very pleased with the communication or order status and quick delivery.

The negative comment here seems like it was written by a competitor. I am an end-user. I have bought BMW parts from eLuka twice now and been very satisfied with the speed of fufillment and quality of the part. The only reason this review is not a 5 is that to replace the emblem, you should buy the grommets as well and the description doesn’t make that recommendation.