If you haven’t guessed it yet, what I am talking about is a custom fitted car cover for your bimmer. Yes, even if you garage your car or other fine vehicle, time and the elements will certainly attack your car’s finish. Sure, you can do regular washes and waxes, but the inevitable will happen: something, somewhere will damage the finish. Besides, do you want to spend every weekend polishing your car? I doubt that!

No, you can’t drive with a car cover on, but you can certainly have a car cover on hand to keep your parked car safe. Yes, there are enough things out there that can harm an expensive finish, even damaging it to the point where only an expensive repair can remedy the insult. The following are some of the hazards just waiting to happen:

1.    Bird excrement – You don’t need to be parked under a tree for your car to get hit; a single drive-by bombing by a winged creature can do your finish in.

2.    Weather – Rain, snow, ice, and especially hail can damage a car in mere moments.

3.    Trees – A small branch can scratch any finish.

4.    Sun – Harmful solar rays are bad for your skin and your car’s skin too.

5.    Pollution – There is no place on earth that is pollution free. Acid rain and airborne driven particles just love a new car’s finish.

6.    Kids – Try keeping your neighbor’s kids away from the car. You may succeed, but hit balls can make a beeline for your wheels. Some car covers even offer protection against minor impacts.

All right, so you are cleverly thinking that your garaged vehicle is immune to such petty insults, right? Well, in one word you are incorrect. Indoor air pollution and dust can take its toll on your car’s finish as can small impacts from anything that falls off of a wall and onto your car.

The solution? Select a car cover that is right for your vehicle. Even if you keep your car garaged most of the time, the best car cover on the market can protect your bimmer from moisture, the sun, dirt, pollution, and small impacts. Choose one that is custom made for your car with side mirror pockets built in and four layers of quick drying polypropylene material to provide the ultimate level of protection. You don’t want something so thin that it doesn’t provide all around protection – you just never know when you will have to have your car outside for an extended period of time – and you don’t want a car cover that entombs your BMW either. Instead, select one that works with your beamer, not against it.

Best of all, premium car covers can be had for under £200, a worthy investment for any car luxury or not. So, enjoy your new car, but give yourself some peace of mind by selecting a car cover that can protect its finish and keep it looking great for many years.

That is why it is good to use BMW parts when changing anything, even a fan belt. You should always replace them with genuine BMW parts. To always ensure good performance from your BMW and to maintain its authenticity.

But of course that doesn’t mean you have to pay dealership prices for the parts. A better place to get the parts is online, do a little research. There are many stores online which specialize in BMW parts new or used. The prices are lot less then dealership prices, but be cautious as they might not have knowledgeable staffs like at the dealership. They might sell you a part that isn’t right for what you need.

But if you want to get your parts threw the dealership, the mechanics might tell you exactly what you need, and you can also ask them questions. That is a great way to ensure you get what you want. At the end of the day, you don’t want to be made a fool of.

But indeed the best place to buy any type of BMW parts is at the dealer. They either have the item in stock or they can order it for you. Yes, they will be more expensive, but it does give you peace in mind that you are getting the right genuine BMW parts. Take care of your investment; you’ll be sorry if you don’t.

I’ve been buying my BMW Car Parts online for nearly two and a half years now. On average, I believe I have cut my repair and maintenance bills down by 40%. There are great savings to be made out there!

Now, I have to admit, that I have also been let down badly on at least two occasions by what I would describe as ‘suspect’ online suppliers. On one occasion by a company that turned out to actually be one individual selling BMW parts straight from their bedroom! I don’t have any problem with anyone looking to start out in business from home, provided the service is there. The part in question here was actually supplied fine, it was simply six weeks late! Not a good thing when your brake lights need new bulbs prior to an annual MOT! If said ‘individual’ had told me about his extended delivery schedules everything would have been fine, I would have simply gone elsewhere, yet my online payment receipt promised  ‘All BMW accessories delivered within 48 hours’.

The second occasion that really springs to mind for me is when I never received any parts at all, despite the supplier being convinced I had done and that I was trying to swindle him instead of the other way round! On this occasion I had dealt with a fully staffed company with a web sales helpline…yet despite this we never managed to resolve our disagreement and I simply went elsewhere £85 out of pocket.

On hindsight, both of these breakdowns in order were good lessons. I was angry at the time, but after some reflection, I came to believe that these breakdowns were really the fault of the individual & company involved and not the internet. I persevered, learnt from these events and began to formulate how I would take measures to minimise the chances of this happening again. I’m glad I did, my savings to date more than make up for my said losses by over 10 times in relative savings. Later on, I’ll let you know about my favourite supplier. For now, here are the steps I used to eventually find my source.

1. Always search on google.co.uk with ‘search pages from the UK’ selected. This will filter your results to show only websites and companies based here in the UK.

2. Search google.co.uk for ’bmw car parts’, ‘bmw car accessories’, even ‘bmw brake  pads’ and see who ranks within the top ten for your searches. Companies who have invested in achieving good Google rankings tend to have also invested in their online service.

3. When you find a potential supplier, browse to their website contact page and note down their postcode. Now go to Google Maps type in their postcode and change your map view to ‘satellite’.  Zoom in on their postcode address, what can you see? A business park is good, a semi-detached council house is bad!

4. Now search for the website business name in Google Maps, does it show a Local Business listing? If so, that’s good – this means that the local business listing must have been verified by Google .

5. Finally, do they have a telephone number? If so, call. Ask for your desired part, ask if it is available from their website. How do they sound? Do the same on email form any address provided. How quickly and politely does the company respond? Does their response give you confidence? If so, you’re good to go!

One more tip I’d like to give you is to consider buying in bulk the car parts and accessories you go through relatively quickly. I usually order my light bulbs, fuses, wipers and even cleaner fluid and de-icer in bulk. It’s much cheaper, you just need to remember where you stored them when needed!

So that’s it, I hope the above has offered you some insight into how you can use the web to drive down the costs of maintaining your car. BMW’s are wonderful vehicles, I wish you many years of happy driving and happy online car parts hunting!