Quote:
I just bought an '04 BMW 330 convertible and I'm afraid I won't be able to get my Empeg installed without incurring huge expense!

Let me know what you find out.

Here's the story as I understand it up to this point.

• Someone posted here a few years ago saying they had mounted an Empeg in an E46 BMW and included a link to the installation picture galleries. When I checked it the link was dead and the poster claimed that the pictures had all been "lost."
  
  
• Justin claimed he had done it. I set up an appointment to meet with him to look at his install. When I got there, he claimed he had "pulled it out temporarily" while he was having a custom enclosure built. He later "sold" his empeg by ripping off someone on this board. If I recall correctly, law enforcement had to be called in order to get him to deliver.
  
  
• I went to an installer who claimed he had "put lots of these in M3's back in the dot-com years and all we have to do his move this, wire that, blah, blah, blah." When I showed up, the shop manager said that it was impossible and that he never committed to doing it. Another worker said he could do it for me anyway, but he would have to cut the wiring harness (voiding the entire BMW 4-year electrical system warranty) and put in a tacky-looking black plastic surround in the dash.
  
  Incidentally, I had these guy confirm they could do this exact install BEFORE I bought the car. And it was actually one of my criteria for buying the car. This was before I realized that every single car audio installation shop in the entire country is just a bunch of lying, cheating, disreputable bastards. Without exception. Yes, that shop near you as well.
  
  
• You could try using the display extender. That's what TigerJimmy and I are going to try to do.
  

JBJorgen is right, if you decide to do a console install, you will need to get the part from your BMW dealer that lets you reconfigure your console so you can move the climate control down to the cubby and install the Empeg in the center.

There is not much room back there even so. So you might have to cut into the factory harness to install the right adapters. So think about whether you want to sacrifice the last year or two of your factory electrical warranty.

If this information is out-of-date or incomplete, or anyone has examples/pictures of actual successful E46 installs that don't look like a drunken after hours party with duct tape and staple-guns, then please post them here.

To date, I don't believe there are any.

But that should change soon if TigerJimmy or I actually get anything working.