Rieger R-style bumper
Well it only took me about a month to get it together but it is together.
While I was away I bought this Rieger bumper because my OEM one was brutally beat. Between rock chips from the autobahn and the desert in SoCal, as well as the holes and scrapes in the bottom, I had been looking for other options for a while.
I knew I wanted an R style bumper but most were out of stock or questionably built. I picked the Rieger because it looked true enough to the original but just a bit more aggressive. It is German made which gave me more confidence about the fit and quality as well. And the few cars I had seen it on looked stellar. So i bit the bullet (about 900 dollar bullet from ESE tuning).
Packaging 5/5:
My wife unboxed it while I was away but she said it looked great. Everything was appropriately wrapped and handled. Because of the size it does come via freight mail and it comes from Germany... so it did take about a month or two.
Installation 2/5:
Seeing that the instructions were entirely in German the installation was going to be a problem (hence the long delay). Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch but it was not enough to translate it all. So i just did it without instructions. However the big issue with installation is just how much work it is. For a body part that is so expensive I would have imagined more clips and screws. Instead they basically give you a high strength silicon caulk and tell you to go at it. The side panels are the worst as they are plastic that are quite finicky. Once i got everything in place i hit it with the caulk and let it stay overnight. I will say that stuff is basically jbweld... it wont go anywhere.
Fitment 2/5: There are significant but certainly not deal breaking panel gap issues where the bumper meets the fender. I have an idea of how to fix this though. The fender liner in the wheel well did not match up to holes predrilled on the bumper. Because of this they are secured with two on each side (one lower and one higher) as opposed to 4. The center grill doesnt really want to sit nicely in the recess. The side pieces I also mentioned were quite finicky. Again... for the better part of a grand I expected A LOT better in this area.
Build Quailty 4/5: As far as the over all integrity of the bumper I dont have any issues (so far). Its is made from some thick and tough plastic that is still flexible enough to latch on where it needs. Wiith the 8 bolts that hold the whole thing in place it has zero movement and play. I docked another point off due to fitment again here though as fitment was so bad I do feel the build quality suffers.
Looks 5/5: Yeah im still going to give this a perfect score regardless of the aforementioned issues. It just looks amazing in my opinion. Its aggressive but not ricey; and once i fabricate some functional air ducts from where the lights should go it will be even better.
Value 3/5: Body parts are hard... you do pay for what you get. I think the 900 dollar range is fair... but also not. I expect better scores in the above areas particularly because i had to pay to get it paint matched. For comparison when i bought my carbon fiber hood from the hated ECS it was cheaper and fit better. The saving grace with this is that it looks so damn mean without being over the top.
Overall 3/5: i would recommend this ONLY to people looking to really break away from the crowd. A more skilled body guy could probably make this fit better and look better but most of us are not that guy/gal. If I am being honest and were doing this over again I might reconsider the traditional R bumper because assembly/fitment would be 200% easier. But only a dozen or so people in the US run this bumper so... yay for scene points?
Lastly, this thing is low. about 1.5 inch drop or so. I lifted the front end a bit to help but she will scrape. Here is hoping I can at least get a year on this thing. Lol.