OE Front Bumper without freight shipping charge?

[dukeofchen]

Thanks for the discussion everyone. In the end, I opted to just get my old beat up bumper repaired and painted. It was just scraped up so it should come out looking great.

For those who are in my situation in the future -- the cheapest price I found for a new OE bumper shipped to me in LA was at 415's suggestion of bmwpartswarehouse.com: total price of about ~$840 ($630 for the bumper and $210 shipping).

In general, though, the move seems to be to hope that you can find one of these online parts retailers whose actual dealership that they're based on is close enough to you that you can do a local pickup.

Curious to see pics of condition before and after! I've considered going this route given that scrapes and chips are near impossible to avoid in LA. Makes the all-in cost of a new bumper hard to justify for a daily, that's Karb airbox territory for something that will end up damaged again sooner rather than later.

[ATB88]

Curious to see pics of condition before and after! I've considered going this route given that scrapes and chips are near impossible to avoid in LA. Makes the all-in cost of a new bumper hard to justify for a daily, that's Karb airbox territory for something that will end up damaged again sooner rather than later.

Totally. I liked the idea of just getting a new bumper for overall freshness, but at these prices it doesn't really feel like it makes sense anymore unless your current bumper is cracked/unrepairable. Will have pics in a few weeks!

[mpower22]

BTW, what the difference between the US and euro bumpers? Lack of side marker lights?

Technically, just the front reflector delete. A lot of people just end up painting theirs, but There is no other difference. If you have major sand blasting, probably worth it to go with the Euro bumper (comes primed from the factory) and PPF it. I did it and didn't look back. Blast from the past - here's my receipt from 2010 - only $323

[jet_dogg]

I don't think I ever bought a primed euro but I did pick up a couple of prepainted ones and I seem to recall having paid around 5-600.

[simon_c]

OE euro bumper at my local stealer was $1K so YMMV.

[Mayan-Viking]

Yeah, that's the only difference as far as I know. I honestly personally like the contrast of the orange side markers against carbon black paint, but I think I'm weird and in the minority on that

There was a time in my life when I was active duty and stationed in Europe with my E46 M3. Almost everyone I met in Europe preferred the US variant of the bumper to the Euro version. I thought that was a funny data point.

[9kracing]

Doesn't ECS have this bumper for $700ish?

That's where I got mine. They were selling them on Ebay last year.

[ATB88]

Doesn't ECS have this bumper for $700ish?

That's where I got mine. They were selling them on Ebay last year.

they quoted me ~$300 shipping :/ is this a recent screenshot? I'm guessing that they probably recently had a policy shift where free shipping doesn't apply to large freight items.

EDIT: indeed, from their shipping policy "Items marked as 'Free Shipping' may qualify for free standard economy ground shipping to the contiguous United States (48 states). Oversized products and direct ship products are excluded from this offer unless otherwise noted."

[9kracing]

That was last year.

$300 shipping seems absurd, it came UPS like any other largish box. I doubt it costs them that much to ship it, maybe try emailing them. See if they can get you a better shipping quote.

[ATB88]

That was last year.

$300 shipping seems absurd, it came UPS like any other largish box. I doubt it costs them that much to ship it, maybe try emailing them. See if they can get you a better shipping quote.

At this point, I've already had my old bumper repaired and repainted. But for kicks I went and asked ECS and got back

"I don't see any recent orders in your account's or the part's history where it has shipped for free, most of our freight prices are well below our cost to be honest"

so, RIP.

[jet_dogg]

There was a time in my life when I was active duty and stationed in Europe with my E46 M3. Almost everyone I met in Europe preferred the US variant of the bumper to the Euro version. I thought that was a funny data point.

That's wild, everything us spec looks worse.

[Casa de Mesa]

There was a time in my life when I was active duty and stationed in Europe with my E46 M3. Almost everyone I met in Europe preferred the US variant of the bumper to the Euro version. I thought that was a funny data point.

That's wild, everything us spec looks worse.

Came here to say the say thing and then I noticed you already did.

[Mayan-Viking]

That's wild, everything us spec looks worse.

I don't disagree. Maybe it's a want what you can't have or bling thing...

The funny thing is EU (UK specifically) auto regs are significantly more harsh/stringent than US regs. So how it is that they didn't need the reflector but we did? Been ponderin' that one for some time...

[jet_dogg]

I don't disagree. Maybe it's a want what you can't have or bling thing...

The funny thing is EU (UK specifically) auto regs are significantly more harsh/stringent than US regs. So how it is that they didn't need the reflector but we did? Been ponderin' that one for some time...

It's because DOT is garbage. That's the reason why they have superior mirrors and lighting as well.

If it's EU approved, it should by default be good enough for the US.

[Kdubski]

Wholesale price for post-facelift bumper cover is $814 in CT from a BMW dealer.