Quote:
Originally Posted by jphughan
Of COURSE the retrofit will be more expensive; the upgrade is the marginal cost over the steel brake system, but unless you can find a buyback for your (used) steel brakes when you upgrade to carbon ceramic, you're essentially ending up with both brake sets, hence the added cost.
I wouldn't recommend an aftermarket setup since I figure the ABS and DSC systems would need to be recalibrated in order to function properly with carbon ceramic given they have vastly different properties -- unless you can also find someone who knows how to code the car appropriately.
$20K might be a bit high, but probably not outrageous. The carbon ceramic option on the M5/M6 was priced at $8700, which is similar to Porsche's upgrade pricing, and Porsche ceramic front rotors are $4K -- each. Double that, add the cost of rear rotors, a full set of pads, plus possibly new calipers, and I can see that reaching near $20K. In fact Porsche DOES offer a carbon ceramic retrofit kit, which might be a good reference point, but I don't have time to look its price up right now.
And all of this completely ignores that point that for a street car, carbon ceramics are ALL downsides except for reduced brake dust. Otherwise, you'll be dealing with squealing, obscenely expensive brake replacement (which I suspect will actually hurt resale from prospective second owners not wanting to have that looming on the horizon), and very fragile rotors that have to be replaced at huge cost if they're nicked by road debris or while mounting/unmounting a wheel. Carbon ceramic has no place on a street car IMHO, and even track junkies on the Porsche side end up switching back to a steel after damaging or wearing out a couple rotors because of the obscene cost. A steel BBK can often deliver similar fade resistance to carbon ceramic at a fraction of the cost.
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I agree with all of this, John. Though I would add that the one benefit of having ceramic brakes over steel is the weight savings, and that's a benefit that can be felt both on the track and on the street. I believe BMW said that the ceramic option saves 44 pounds of unsprung weight, and that's enough to be felt . I felt a difference in steering when I added about 5 pounds of unsprung weight by switching wheels and tires two years ago, so I'm guessing 44 pounds will make a much more noticeable difference.
Now, is that difference worth the price? Not if I'm writing the check.