OE Front Bumper without freight shipping charge?

[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.

[simon_c]

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

[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.

[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

[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!

[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]

Just don't mess up your hood. Have you seen those prices lately?

Oh yeah. It was a suggested part at all of these online parts when browsing for bumpers. It ain't pretty.

[bigjae46]

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 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).

Just don't mess up your hood. Have you seen those prices lately?

[ATB88]

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.

[bigjae46]

This - CA dealers don’t give a shit about online prices. They are 30-50% higher than online prices consistently and don’t care. Moreover, most of them won’t order euro parts anymore.

When dealers get matrix-ed or grid pricing on parts over the counter and in service then why even bother?


So here's a lesson in dealership pricing:

You start off with dealer cost - its what BMWNA charges the dealership for the part.

Wholesale pricing - usually 10%-ish above dealer cost. If you look at Tischer BMW or getbmwparts.com - they are pretty close to this on almost all of the parts I've bought from them.

Warranty pricing - this is what BMWNA pays a dealership for warranty work - different from MSRP. Oddly sometimes BMWNA pays over MSRP for a warranty part.

MSRP - list price or the retail price that BMWNA lists the part for. Typically about 30% to 35% above dealer cost.

Matrix or Grid - This is what we typically pay. If you show up to the parts counter or take your car into service and pay out of pocket - they charge MSRP + a certain markup. It varies on how rape-ish the dealer is feeling. Some charge 10% to 20%. I've seen some parts guys try to charge 33%. This is pure profit - same as a market adjustment on a new car. Goes right into the dealership's pocket. The parts guy and if in service, service advisor, all make more money.

The same goes for service labor - dealers try and get matrix pricing. Service advisors, parts counter people...they all work on commission at almost every dealer. If its owned by a large corporation (Penske, Hendrick, AutoNation, Sonic)....they make commission. Suprise - service and parts are graded on gross profit. The more parts and hours they can get at the matrix or grid rate...it makes it that much easier to make gross profit targets.

Let's say a part is $1000 MSRP, cost is about $650 and the matrix pricing is $1250. The gross profit is $350 at MSRP. If you can get matrix pricing - its $600.That's almost a 100% gross profit at matrix vs 50% at MSRP.

The same goes for labor. 2 hrs would be $340 at MSRP, matrix would be $381 and add shop fees it was $440.

I'm sure in CA, matrix parts pricing is outrageous. Some dealer parts departments that are willing to put in the work will sell parts online or "out the back door" so they can increase the stock turnover which allows them to stock more parts and get parts faster from BMW's central hubs - so cars stay in service for less time and get more throughput in the shop. Nothing worse than a car stuck on a lift for a month waiting on a part.

[jet_dogg]

This - CA dealers don’t give a shit about online prices. They are 30-50% higher than online prices consistently and don’t care. Moreover, most of them won’t order euro parts anymore.

They really don't bro, that's why I laughed when someone said have your local dealer price match 😂

Thankfully I still have a parts hookup myself.

[bigjae46]

A bumper might be too big but I've flown Southwest to get a part, check it in as baggage, and fly back. I've used points or just planned around a low cost day. You're in LA...shouldn't be hard to find a cheap flight to a major city like AZ. That would expand your options.

[AWE46M3]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Unfortunately, every dealer I called in the LA area had super high prices (~$950-$1150 for US bumper vs ~$650 on getbmwparts.com, and ~$633 for front passenger fender vs ~$400 on getbmwparts.com) and refused to do any price matching. It will actually work out much cheaper to order from getbmwparts.com and pay the $270 freight shipping charge, it looks like.

Unless anyone knows a specific dealer in the area that'll price match?

It's crazy how expensive body panels for our cars are getting

This - CA dealers don’t give a shit about online prices. They are 30-50% higher than online prices consistently and don’t care. Moreover, most of them won’t order euro parts anymore.

[415]

Get it from bmwpartswarehouse and pick up in San Francisco.

[ATB88]

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

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

Thanks for the suggestion on thebmwminipartsstore, but I've checked all of these online bmw parts places that are fronted by dealership, and shipping starts at $270 no matter where in the US it's coming from Actually, thebmwminipartsstore said they won't even ship to me -- some of these places are pickup only for large pieces.

EDIT: on the other hand, thebmwminipartsstore has the best shipping quote I've seen on the fender -- $80, making it $480 all in pre-tax, which is great. Most places are quoting $200+ to ship the fender. Really wish they'd ship the bumper too!