1999 323ia

[Carl Geenen <C.Geenen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Fellow Enthusiasts!!

After several months hiatus, I've resubscribed to the bmw-digest.
Yesterday, my wife and I traded in our 1991 525ia (sniff, sniff) on a brand
new 1999 323ia.  It took quite a bit of doing and haggling, but we hung in
and finally got our numbers without too much blood being spilled.  The 525
was becoming quite a problem and we just didn't feel like hassling with it
any more.  It was one thing after another - 14 trips to the shop since we
had it.  You name it, and we probably had it replaced or repaired.  So we
finally put ourselves out of our misery and got a new bimmer.  And the
monthly payment is only marginally more per month than we were paying to
have the 525 repaired.

There's nothing like a new car!!  The way it smells, the feel and handling,
the gleam of everything new, and the knowledge that we are the first and
only drivers is a wonderful sensation.  So the price to pay for these
sensations is the cost of the first year's depreciation.

Anyway, what the salesman couldn't get from me in the negotiations the
finance person tried to get from me in the form of equipment and
accessories, most notably the alarm and CD changer.  I passed on both
thinking I really don't need the alarm and I could probably get a CD changer
from somewhere else much cheaper than the $895 installed price I was quoted
at the dealer (they started at $1100, then backed off to $995, and the final
price I heard was the $895).  I called around to a couple of the car audio
places and was told there are no adapters available yet for the BMW CD
changer.

So my question is this:  Does anyone know where I can buy the CD changer
plus bracket kit for my 1999 323ia for cheaper than the price quoted by BMW
Concord?  I would prefer to find a place here in the San Francisco bay area
that would install it for me because I'm not so mechanically inclined and if
I screw it up I'd only have myself to blame ;>{)  A mail order place would
be OK, too, in which case I'd take it somewhere to have it installed.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Sincerely yours,

Carl T. Geenen
BMWCCA #143136
1999 323ia

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