[KevinC]

Holy revived 5-yr-old thread Batman!

Yesterday my car was in the shop and I asked my mechanic to code the inner halos as DRLs, and to code the clown nose on the mirror to blink when the car is locked, despite the fact that the alarm is NOT present. You can't do this on many/most BMWs, but back in '07 or '08 when I had my first Z4MC, my dealer coded both of these changes without my asking for them while the car was in for one of its free services. So I knew it was possible.

Mechanic had no trouble coding DRL halos, but said he could not find a setting for the clown nose. So when I got home I locked the car in the garage and checked - and sure enough it's blinking - apparently it was already coded for it. Cool.

The whole reason I bring this up is that I think the blinking light is nearly as effective as the alarm. Anyone who REALLY wants to get into your car isn't going to be deterred by the alarm, while some amateur petty thief will see a blinking light, assume an alarm is present, and move on.