New BMW owner

[leibniz]

Hi everyone!

I've been following these forums for a month or so, and just yesterday purchased my first piece of fabulous German craftsmanship, in the way of a 1997 328i. What a sweet sweet vehicle....

Anyway, first two things that I'd like to ask everyone about:

1. Owners circle membership - seems that oc.bmwusa.com works with a database that does not recognize any VINs that have not been registered in the USA (like mine.) Fair enough. However, the Canadian BMW mirror doesn't seem to have an owners circle area. What do fellow Canadians do for OC membership? (My car was manufactured in Germany and imported into Canada.)

2. My new BMW is equipped with mobile phone circuitry. wires, antenna, mic, etc... the phone bracket which is currently on the console does not fit my phone (of course.) The question is this: can I just obtain a bracket that will work for my cell phone (Sony Ericcson T616), install it, and expect it to work? Or is the phone apparatus somehow specific to either a phone network or BMW. ?

Thanks.

Bill

[leibniz]

Here's another question I hope someone can answer for me:

I would like to get my BMW certified. Anyone have any details / checklist etc. indicating exactly what is involved and modified or changed to accomplish this? What ball park $$ should I expect to pay to have the dealer accomplish it?

Thanks.


---
97 328i
112,000 kms.

[dutchbmw]

First: at the BMW forums!

Second: I can't answer your question, because I am not a Canadian! The only thing I can recognize is that Euro VIN numbers don't work at the carfax.com database. In the Netherlands (and nowhere in Europe so far as I know) is unfortunately not that car history system, only the kilometres a car has driven is registered

[leibniz]

Hi dutchbmw; thanks for the response.

Interesting. I'm not sure of the full length of Carfax's reach with respect to databases and information, but I can say that my 328i was definitely manufactured in Germany, and the owners manual has the original owner's name in it, dated Toronto, Canada, October 1997.

Having said that, it WAS in carfax.com, which helped me in my decision to buy it. I suppose the BMW USA's owners circle website does not have access to the same databases that carfax accesses.

Not a big deal, but I was hoping to find some free on line manuals for my BMW, that's all... there must be a collection of BMW enthousiasts in Canada... I just have to find them....

I'll just make a call to the local dealership to inquire about certification, I'm not going to jump at it right away anyway, so I have lots of time to do the homework so that I don't feel like I'm getting ripped off.