7 years & 40,000 km with my modified 320D: My experience so far

Overall, I am extremely happy with my 320d. It has aged like fine wine and hopefully will continue it's great performance in the years to come.

BHPian Kelly66 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My BMW 320d | 7 Year Review | DIY Mods | Highlights | Lowlights

Hi Friends,

It's been 7 years since I bought my BMW 320d F30 LCI Prestige model. Here's a summary of my ownership experience after the 7th year service at 42783 kms in Jul'24:

Bye Cruze & Buy BMW

Flashback:

Well, I was quite happy with my earlier daily driver, Chevrolet Cruze LTZ (Velvet Red). One fine day, in Mar'17, there was an article in the newspaper stating that Chevrolet is going to stop production of Cruze in India. I had done only 38800 km in 6.5 years but didn't want to run the risk of market value dropping in the subsequent years coupled with spares shortage.

We quickly started thinking of selling the car and going for a lateral upgrade. We looked at options like the Toyota Corolla Altis and Innova. My son suggested going for a level upgrade since we will be keeping the car for at least 10 years if not more....Got lucky and sold Cruze on OLX within 7 days of posting for 50% of buy price.

Cruze Velvet Red

Shortlisting & Buying:

We then shortlisted and test drove the Audi A3, Merc CLA, Volvo D60 and BMW X1. Each of these had some limitations. The common issue (except D60) was the space constraint and comfort at the back for my wife. X1 was the least comfortable with it's stiff suspension. The BMW sales guy asked me to try the 3 series (since I wasn't planning to keep a driver) and said that he had a couple of models in stock at a good discount since next gen was expected in 2019.

BMW 320d Sportline (Red) was available for Rs.45L (fixed price), BMW 320d Luxury Line (Black) was available at Rs.43.5L (fixed price) and BMW 320d Prestige White at Rs.40.5L (negotiable). Since it was a significant upgrade for me, wanted to keep the spend to a bare minimum. Even though I was keen on the Sportline, the final price difference of nearly 7L was not digestible and I didn't want to go for Red again. Somehow, I always felt the Melbourne Red spoils the rear look since the tail lights blend with the body colour. Had it been a different colour would have definitely given it a serious consideration since a HUD, a bigger iDrive and a rear camera are features I would have loved to have.

Anyway, we negotiated and brought the price down to Rs.38.4L for the Prestige and closed the deal since they were not budging on the other models. It was a June 2016 manufactured model.

BMW 320d Prestige 2017

BMW 320d Prestige 2024 (with Bimmercode mods)

DIY MODS

• Bimmercode Mods:
• Bought the Bimmercode app and a Vgate iCar Pro BT OBD2 dongle to enable the following hidden features in the car:
• Angel light & Welcome light setting changes
• Auto Start Stop function off by default
• Daytime running lights for rear
• Cornering lights activation
• Door handle lights when reverse gear is engaged
• Fog lights with parking lights
• Fold/unfold mirrors automatically
• Pressure and temperature in tyre pressure monitor
• Seat belt reminder duration & distance
• SPORT+ driving mode
• Easy entry seat travel
• Digital speed in board computer
• AC display color change from orange to white
• Brake Force Display (still haven't got this to work though)

Putting BT OBD2 dongle to better use:

Since the Prestige model comes with a 6.5" iDrive without navigation I wanted to create a digital dashboard that can display a lot more vehicle parameters and also has built-in Navigation, a Dashcam view and can play Spotify. The BT dongle came in handy since it was anyway lying idle after the Bimmercode changes. No need to worry about Apple Carplay or Android Auto support.

My Digital dashboard:

Components used for Digital dashboard with built in Navigation, Dashcam, Spotify (Total cost Rs.14200/-):

• Vgate iCar Pro BT OBD dongle (Rs.1.2K)
• 8" Lenovo Android tablet (Rs.10.5K)
• Realdash app with a premium dashboard (Rs.600)
• Wifi camera with free V380 Pro app (Rs.1.2K)
• Car Magnetic holders to hold the tablet (Rs.700)

Initially I was keeping a 10" Android tablet behind the steering wheel or against the iDrive with a Free version of Realdash (RD). Later on moved to an 8" tablet to make it more compact so that I can place it near the AC vent without blocking the MID and the iDrive screen.

RD Free version on 10" Tablet

RD Premium version on 8" Tablet

Subsequently, I tweaked the RD Premium dashboard for different modes and mostly place the tablet near the AC vent.

I have placed shortcut buttons for Night mode, Navigation, Spotify and Dashcam at the bottom left and right in all RD modes. RD also supports select voice based commands.

Some of the Vehicle parameters that I have set on RD apart from the regular ones (see the small dials in each mode):

• Boost
• Distance to Service
• IAT
• MAP
• MAF
• Max Speed
• Barometric Pressure
• Weather
• Altitude
• Engine Load
• Average Speed
• Screen Brightness
• Oil Pressure
• Humidity
• Throttle Position

RD can display a lot more if we can map it to CANBUS. But we need to know the BMW F30 specific PID numbers for that. Any of you have access to these PIDs? OBD connectivity has its limitations.

Have set a timer to switch between the following modes every 30-45 secs.

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