All posts by ScottHuntington

Car Care

How to Wash Your BMW

There’s nothing better than seeing a freshly washed BMW glinting in the sun, except maybe sitting behind the wheel and feeling it roar to life. While you can take your car to a car wash once a week for a wash and wax, that can get expensive quickly — especially if you’re springing for the hand detailing. If you want to save a bit of money, how can you wash your BMW at home?

Clean It Often

You might not think you need to wash your BMW every week, but if you run into a situation where you end up with bird poop or tree sap on your paint job, you’ll want to break out the cleaning supplies. These substances are often acidic enough to burn right through the clear coat and paint, leaving your vehicle susceptible to rust. 

The best thing you can do to maintain your BMW’s appearance is to wash it once a week. Of course, before you start breaking out the buckets and sponges, you’ll need to know what type of supplies to use.

Choose the Right Supplies

How many times did your dad let you help wash the car as a kid? The first thing you were sent to retrieve was probably the dish soap from the kitchen, because it made great suds and easily cut through road grease and grime.

Don’t make that mistake as an adult, though. Make sure you’re using soap and other supplies that are specifically designed for use on cars. That standard dish soap may work great on road grime, but it often contains abrasives to help you cut through stuck-on food while you’re cleaning dishes. These micro-abrasives can damage your car’s clear coat and paint.

Choose a soap or cleaning solvent specifically designed to work without harming car paint. You have a number of different industrial and consumer cleaners to choose from, all with one specific purpose in mind — keeping your BMW as clean as the day it rolled off the line.

Park in a Shady Spot

You might be tempted to park out in your driveway or street on a sunny day so you can soak up some Vitamin D while you’re washing your car, but we recommend against it. Yes, washing your car in direct sunlight sill causes the water to evaporate faster, but that quick evaporation will leave water spots and other unsightly marks on your exterior.

Instead of using the sun, wash your car in a nice shady spot and dry it off with soft microfiber towels to prevent the water from leaving spots or streaks on your finish. It might sound like an extra chore, but it can help preserve your exterior and prevent little things from becoming bigger problems in the long run. 

Enjoy Your Hard Work

That’s all there is to it. As long as the water is beading up and rolling off your car, there’s no need for a new coat of wax, so all that’s left to do is sit back and enjoy all your hard work. Everybody loves the look of a freshly cleaned BMW, plus you get the satisfaction of a job well done.

Car Care

How to Keep Your BMW From Getting Stolen

No one wants to think about the possibility of their car getting stolen, but if you drive a luxury model like a BMW, you may find yourself the target of car thieves. What can you do to keep your BMW from getting stolen?

Don’t Make It Easy

While marketed as safer, more convenient and more secure, cars with keyless entry are disgustingly easy to break into. One series of tests looked at 237 models equipped with keyless entry. Of those vehicles, they were able to break into 230 of them using a relay device that augments the key fob’s signal, even when it’s not nearby. 

While BMW has taken steps to prevent this from working on their new models, don’t make it easy for potential thieves. Don’t leave your key fob in the car, and consider tossing it in the freezer or in a Faraday bag to make it impossible for thieves to use a relay device to steal your vehicle.

Lock Everything

This step might seem like common sense, but the statistics tend to indicate otherwise. According to one report, 50% of cars are unlocked when stolen, and 1 out of 8 have the keys in them.

Lock your car every single time you walk away, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Thieves aren’t looking to pick a lock or break a window if they can avoid it. They’re looking for an easy score, and what’s easier than someone who’s left their car unlocked with the keys in the ignition? 

Park It Indoors

The best thing you can do to protect your BMW from being stolen is to park it in a closed garage. LIke we said, car thieves are looking for an easy score. In most cases, they don’t want to add a breaking and entering charge to their rap sheet.

If your garage door isn’t working, getting stuck or making weird grinding noises when it opens, consider calling a professional to repair and maintain it. The garage door is the largest entryway into your home, and it’s essential to make sure it’s working correctly. 

Don’t Make It A Target

You wouldn’t walk into a wolf’s den with a steak around your neck, would you? Then why would you leave tempting morsels in your car while you’re not in it? Take all of your valuables out of your vehicle, including your wallet, phone, laptop and anything else that might be a tempting target. If you have to leave something nice in it, make sure you have a dash cam.

It takes almost no time for a thief to bust your window and make off with whatever you’ve left in the car, even if you have an alarm or anti-theft system. Don’t make your BMW a target by leaving valuables in plain sight.

Opt for a Manual Transmission

This idea sounds silly, but it’s more effective than you might think. In 2019, a group of carjackers attempted to steal a 1995 Honda Civic from a gas station. It should have been an easy snatch and grab — the car was unlocked, the engine running and the keys in the ignition. There was just one problem. 

None of the carjackers knew how to drive a stickshift. Therefore, when possible, opt for a manual transmission. It’s not foolproof but, with fewer people knowing how to drive a stickshift every year, it can reduce the chance that your BMW will disappear.

Be Prepared for Anything

While we can’t always prevent our BMWs from being stolen, we can take every possible step to reduce the possibility. Be prepared for anything, and you’ll never be surprised.

Car Care

What Kind of Options Should You Choose for Your New BMW?

Customizing a new BMW may be the closest any of us ever get to creating and owning a bespoke car. However, it’s easy to get lost in the options and build something you will pay through the nose for and never even use. Here are the things you should focus on to get the most bang for your buck.

Paint and Interior

How much money do you really want to spend on paint and upholstery? Usually, BMWs will come with a few standard colors that don’t cost you anything extra, and a range of options that will tack additional costs onto your price. For the 2020 BMW M4, for example, you’ve got one standard color — Alpine White. In addition, you’ve got 10 more shades to choose from, from Black Sapphire Metallic to Sakhir Orange II Metallic, and each will tack an additional $550 onto the cost of your M4.

The same goes for the interior. The M4 gets black leather/anthracite cloth as its standard upholstery. You can spend an extra $950 for extended merino leather, or a whopping $3,500 for full merino leather. 

Wheels and Brakes

AC Schnitzer M3 Wheel

Most cars come with a couple of wheel options — one that’s included in the vehicle’s price, and the rest that cost extra. Let’s stick to that 2020 M4 as our example. Standard, it comes with a set of 19-inch wheels, but you’ve got the option to pay extra for 20-inch wheels. The M4 handles beautifully on both sizes, so opting for the larger ones just empties your wallet. 

The M4 has a lot of options for brakes, as well. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time on the track, you might want to opt for the M carbon-ceramic brakes. It’ll add an astonishing $8,150 to your price tag, but it’s worth it if you’re regularly going to be putting the M4 through its paces. 

Under the Hood

This is where you’re going to be tempted to spend a ton of money, but you need to be mindful. Big numbers sound great when it comes to horsepower and torque, but do you really need that much power if all you’re doing is commuting to and from work and driving to the grocery store once a week? More power can also mean less fuel efficiency, which can get expensive as gas prices fluctuate.

If you’re looking for a daily driver, don’t spend a ton of money on the most expensive engine, even if it sounds amazing. You’re not going to get the most out of it, and you’re just going to waste your money. Instead, test-drive a few different options and see which one will suit your needs best. 

Safety Features

Safety features are becoming standard equipment on many new cars, so you might not have many things to choose from in this category. When it comes to keeping yourself and your family safe, you can never spend too much money. Take a close look at what comes standard on your BMW of choice. For the M4, that includes parking sensors, rearview cameras, daytime running lights and tire pressure monitoring. 

That might not sound like much, but you can add the Active Driving bundle that includes things like lane departure warnings, collision warning, blind-spot detection, automatic high beams and more. Packages and bundles like this can make adding all the safety features you want a little more affordable. 

Infotainment

M3 30th Anniversary Interior

There are a lot of options available when it comes to tech and infotainment. BMW uses its proprietary iDrive system, which includes Apple CarPlay, as well as USB and Bluetooth connections. Most of these options come standard with cars like the M4, though things like wireless charging and a Wi-Fi hotspot are add-ons that will cost extra. 

In addition to keeping you connected and entertained on long drives, you can sync your BMW’s system to things like your Wi-Fi-enabled garage door opener. This enables you to open and close your door with a screen tap, or even by proximity. With some systems, once the opener detects your car is in range, it opens the garage automatically for you. 

Choose What You Need, Not What You Want

Don’t end up with a ton of features you’re never going to use just because they sounded good or your salesperson talked you into them. Be mindful of the options available, but make sure you’re choosing what you need, rather than what you want. It will save you a lot of money and help you build the BMW of your dreams without breaking the bank.