carl said:Interesting question. Assume that you are your average car buyer. If you buy a car and it has a strut brace across the engine bay, stamped with "BMW", how would you know it was an aftermarket part? After all, a Nissan 350Z comes with a strut brace in the rear -- right across the load space. Are you really expected to research the spec of your second-hand car to understand what was standard and what was not?stevo///m3 said:Your strut brace - your description says OEM - excuse my lack of intelligence (which I am sure will have been noted by others already) but do you mean BMW sold you that or another manufacturer? The reason I ask is because my car had that exact part fitted and when it came to insurance, I declared that as a modification, and suddenly, half the insurance quotes disappeared.
Aye, insurance, who'd have it eh? Fact is, I've had to take mine off to fit in with the insurers. I'm going to try to refit it next year at insurance time - another year's NCB etc. I was on hold for about 25 mins when I got quoted for this car - basically they were asking round the office what one was?? And, ofc, the answer came back that it is non-standard and we have to decline the insurance etc etc.
FAOD mine does not have BMW stamped on it but it looks like this one Rene photo'd. Mine is in fact not absolutely straight - if you looked at it from above, it is a slight V-shape (pointing forwards if that makes any sense) and has, as far as I can tell, no markings on it at all. I suppose the answer is to down to my local BMW dealer and ask whether they would/can/did supply something like that - maybe they have one on the premises I can compare against...
Stevo

