Just posted an engine tuning review as well. As stated in that post, i just shipped my car back to California from Germany, and contacted The Tech to get an appointment for some coding. He set me up with Mike and they both worked with my schedule to get what i wanted done in the short amount of time i had to do it.
A little back story. I ordered my sedan through military car sales in Feb 11 and it was built and delivered in April 11. It's a US spec car, but had the German Nav maps loaded from the factory. I tried to get it to the local German dealership to get the maps swapped to US prior to shipping, but they weren't able to get them in. I had been following the 2012 Nav update thread, downloaded the ISO's from Kmarei's home server, contacted Sergej for the FSC code, bought 3 16gb USB sticks all formatted to FAT32, and thought i had everything ready to go for the update. I get to California, pick up the car, plug the USB into the glove box, it says an update is available, and then it gives me the error screen about incomplete/manipulated data, see your service center. So I've got no maps, it shows me in the Atlantic Ocean, wonderful...
I make it to Mikes place by iPhone and tell him the story. No problem he says, we'll get it fixed. Turns out when i formatted the USB sticks I didn't set it to the default allocation unit, guess the Nav didn't like that. He reformatted my sticks and reloaded the files, inserted into the glove box and it started updating.
While the Nav is updating, Mike gets started on the coding i wanted done. He ran down the whole list of options and explained everything in detail while he was working. I had some questions about a few of the options and he was more than happy to show me how they worked on his vehicle. When i ordered my car, BMW Live/Internet/Apps had just become available, but i didn't select it on my build. He took me for a spin and gave me the full demo, i had to have it. I noticed the engine tune as well during the ride and was sold on that as well.
So we get back to his place, headed to the elevator to go get the laptop again, and out comes a 2 or 3 year old kid with no parents in sight, on the garage level. We both look at each other like WTF? The kid sees Mike, gives him a High Five, and just clings to his leg. Interesting. We head up to the Lobby with the kid to start trying to contact the parents, when the Mom comes running down the hall. Mike explains the situation and everything is well. I thought she was gonna accuse us of kidnapping or something, but she was just happy we found her kid. Disaster averted. Mike "Child Savior" Benvo: Hero of the Day.
Finally get back to coding in the BMW Live/Internet/Apps and everything works like a champ. The NAV finished updating, I'm no longer in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the car doesn't have the annoying gong sound, along with the NAV accept screens, seat belt warnings, amber corners, etc. the list goes on. Amazing. It's like an entirely new car.
I got the "stage 1" engine tune as well (see separate review)
I started my 9 hour drive to Tucson and had absolutely no issues with anything, car drove flawlessly.
Once again, if your thinking about getting some coding done, remotely or locally, let Mike take care of you, he knows his sh*t and was great to deal with. Thanks again to The Tech as well for setting it all up.
