Re: <E36> climate controls

[Mark Dadgar <mdadgar@xxxxxxxxx>]

Phil wrote:
> >John Jensen wrote:
> >>Is it possible to change the dial-style climate control unit to the
> >>digital >>type?
> >>My 95 M3 has the dials but I think the digital type was an  
option on '95
> >>3ers.
>
> Jason Lile responded:
> >It's not really an option, but was phased into regular production  
in the 95
> >model year.  I remember someone (John F.?) posting some numbers  
for a retro
> >kit once.  I believe the price was somewhere in the $2000 range  
from BMW.
>
> I don't recall any '95 3ers with the digital controls.  As far as I know
> the digital controls were introduced on the 328i's which were '96  
models.
> Of course the '96 M3s came out real late, like April of '96 and  
were only
> built for 3 months.  The last '95 M3s were actually produced as late as
> December '95 and none contained digital controls that I ever saw.

Yup.  Some of the late '95 M3's had the new-for-96 stereo (mine  
does, 10/95 production).  But none of them has the new climate  
control.

I was bummed when I saw the '96 had the new controls (Hell, I was  
bummed there WAS a '96, after buying my '95 in 1/96 on the strength  
of BMW's statement that there were to be no '96's at all!).  But my  
wife bought a '97 528i with the new-style climate controls and we  
both hate it.  The system is *extremely* stupid about regulating fan  
speed, especially when switching to manual mode.  Bleahhh ...

Give me twisty dials for temperature and fan speed any day.

- - Mark
  '95 M3, Alpine White, twisty knobs as God intended
  '97 528i 5-spd, brain-dead climate control
- ---
Mark Dadgar
Product Manager
CoreOS, Mac OS X
Apple Computer	
mdadgar@domain.elided

------------------------------