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Originally Posted by marcx5
i have not noticed this at all.... my current x5 (in the USA) does not have it and most other cars on the road do not have the reflectors. maybe it's not a bad safety idea.... but i just don't know that it's a requirement.
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It is and has been a requirement in the US for decades to have a yellow (amber) reflector on the side at the front end of the car and a red reflector on the side at the rear end of the car. It's just that most cars (including the current E53 X5) have the yellow side reflector incorporated with the headlights or the corner turn signal. Also, the red rear reflectors are usually incorporated with the tail lights.
I actually prefer the separate bumper mounted reflectors better because they are easier to replace/remove. When I wanted the clear Euro side lights for my E36 M3 all I needed to do was replace the turn signal section which was next to, but separate from the headlight for $40 each. Then with the E39 the amber reflector was incorporated with the headlight cover (lens), but you could still replace the headlght covers with Euro ones that did not have the amber reflector for a couple of hundred dollars. Then starting with the E53 and continuing up to now almost all BMW's have had not only the amber reflector incorporated with the headlight cover, but also they have covers that are glued to the headlight and can't be separated. BMW doesn't even sell the covers separately. So if anyone with recent BMW's wants to have the clear Euro lights and wants to get rid of the amber reflectors they would have to replace the ENTIRE headlights. This can cost a couple of thousand dollars and is cost prohibitive. I decided not to do this on my 545 because it would have been more than $2000 for a set of Bi-Xenon Adaptive headlights. I would have spent a few hundred dollars to get rid of the amber reflectors, but not $2000.
So I like the fact that the E70 has bumper mounted amber reflectors because of two reasons. The first reason is that since they are not part of the headlight they don't ruin the clear look of the headlights, which now look the same as the Euro ones. The second reason is that even if the clear headlights are not enough and someone wanted to get rid of the small yellow reflector they could just paint it the color of the car. There are aftermarket BMW parts and accessories dealers that sell pre-painted or even clear reflectors for the E46 coupes (which have bumper mounted amber reflectors as well), so I am sure those will be available for the E70's as well.
There is one additional thing that one could do to make the US lights look completely like the Euro lights and that is to replace the turn signal amber light bulbs with silver or chrome coated ones that get rid of the egg yolk look but still look amber when the bulbs light up.
11-01-2006, 04:59 AM
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