Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr.Darwin
Hi sabot,
please tell me if you needed to have any changes made to the US spec X5 in order to get Spanish plates on it.
What are the differences between the US and European spec cars?
How will BMW in Spain deal with any warranty issues?
A quick calculation shows I will save close to $70000 (yes, seventy thousand dollars) by purchasing a fully equipped car in the US!
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Hi Dr. D,
No doubt that you saved much on your X5. I am an American service member so I bought my X5 through Diplomatic channels. Recieved a considerable discount over the normal US MSRP and compared to what the Europeans pay for the X5, I saved a small fortune. Now I cannot attest to being an expert on the differences between the plate mounts on the European X5 and the US X5, but I know that there must be a difference because of the way that the German dealer had to bend the temporary plate on the front of the vehicle when he mounted it to the US plate mount. He had to bend it so that the extended size of the plate would not set off the parking sensor. Since the Spanish plate is the same size as the German tourist plate, I am now in a similar situation. I really don't want to bend up the Spanish plate and would like to find a way to mount the plate without modification to the vehicle bumper (ie drilling holes). It may be as simple as removing the US plate mount and then adding a European plate mount using the holes (I assume that there are holes) for the US plate mount. I really don't know and was hoping that some one else would know. I can special order a Spanish plate that is smaller in width and mount it to the US plate mount. But this is not all that appealing to the eye as the plate height is only about half of the US plate mount and the smaller plate is not quite the same width. Further, I want my X5 to look like any other Spanish registered vehicle on the road. I want nothing that says, "look at me, I am different" when I am on the road. Oh, as to the warranty, I have a dual warranty that runs simultaneously. The standard US warranty and the European warranty. When I ship the vehicle back to the US (at BMW's expense), the US warranty continues but for now, the European warranty is in force which is a shorter warranty than in the US.