Some good news after nearly four long, torturous months!

[AttyGunther]

I'm happy to report to the community that finally, after my October 6 run-in with a deer, my beast and I will be reunited! I got word today that he's ready, so first thing Monday morning I will be making the four hour trek up to Appleton, WI, for the reunion.

Unfortunately, though, the celebration will be short lived. The weather has been horrible, and I didn't get a winter wheel setup (yet) so I will have the beast transported back to the NW suburbs of Chicago where he will have to wait for better driving weather. But at least the beast will be back home where he belongs! Since the repair shop has had the car longer than I have, it'll be like taking delivery all over again!

A special thanks to Nate at iND who has been fantastic working with my repair shop to replace the custom iND bits and trying to source the ever-elusive LCI grill with night vision and other pieces! The guys at iND are the best in the business, bar none.

And a special thanks to you--my Bimmerpost community--for sustaining me these months with your posts and pictures! It has helped to deal with the withdrawal symptoms! You may recall that I had the early August LCI delivery that was featured on Bimmerpost (Sakhir/Sakhir), so the loss has been difficult!

[Desmond Is My Constant]

I'm sorry but it took 4 months to fix your car after you hit a deer? How is that possible?

[RPiM5]

Wow, congrats on getting her back. That's a long time. Dang!

[Willie_Beamen69]

Wow 4 months?

[AttyGunther]

Originally Posted by Desmond Is My Constant

I'm sorry but it took 4 months to fix your car after you hit a deer? How is that possible?

Unfortunately, yes. As this is a 2014 LCI, the problems primarily were twofold. First, the BMW parts catalogue was not available for 2014 yet. The repair shop had to manually record each damaged part number and send those in to BMW for pricing and availability. While many of the parts were carry-over, many were new parts or new part numbers. Second, some of the new parts were just not available from BMW. First it was the LED headlight assembly, then it was the night vision camera (apparently a new part with the animal detection feature), and finally it was the LCI grill for night vision, which only recently arrived.

Apparently programming and calibrating the new night vision camera also was quite the challenge and involved a head engineer from BMW NA accessing the car's software over the Internet from his office in New Jersey.

I think it was just bad timing. It's amazing that the car was ordered, built, and delivered in just six weeks, but it took at least that to get some of the replacement parts from Germany.

[ezmaass]

Originally Posted by AttyGunther

... the night vision camera (apparently a new part with the animal detection feature), and finally it was the LCI grill for night vision, which only recently arrived.

Now, if you hit this deer at night, that would be ironic? In all seriousness, glad you got your car back - that's a long time to wait! I guess they're still ramping up production of spare parts for the LCI cars.

I was insisting on the night vision option for my car when the CA finally talked me out of it. I'm curious how useful folks have found it as the reviews online have been less than stellar... not just for BMW but all-around it seems.

[AttyGunther]

Originally Posted by ezmaass

Now, if you hit this deer at night, that would be ironic?

Indeed it was at night, with night vision on! I specifically ordered this option because I vacation in Wisconsin and know deer to be a problem at certain times of the year. This particular deer ran out from the side, outside the view of the camera and hit the front driver's quarter panel and headlight. Night vision did pick it up, albeit too late, and flashed the red jumping deer symbol in the HUD. Had the deer run out in front of the car, things might have been different. Of course, a head on collision could have been substantially worse too. Even so, the damage was $15k+.

Here's some pics of the damage from my earlier thread: http://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthr...highlight=deer

[ezmaass]

Originally Posted by AttyGunther

Indeed it was at night, with night vision on! I specifically ordered this option because I vacation in Wisconsin and know deer to be a problem at certain times of the year. This particular deer ran out from the side, outside the view of the camera and hit the front driver's quarter panel and headlight. Night vision did pick it up, albeit too late, and flashed the red jumping deer symbol in the HUD. Had the deer run out in front of the car, things might have been different. Of course, a head on collision could have been substantially worse too. Even so, the damage was $15k+.

Here's some pics of the damage from my earlier thread: http://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthr...highlight=deer

Wow, that's incredible. The damage could have been 10x worse in a head-on, you're right... more dangerous for you, too. I suppose there's nothing the NV system was going to help you with if the deer approached from the side with little distance to spare. I'm glad you have the car back - enjoy it! Nice weather is around the corner.