Were HID's ever offered with standard bowls versus projector?

I have an old BMW with halogens in standard bowls and while this model did have an HID option later on in production, they were projectors and give the headlamps a very bug-eye appearance. It's clear that HID was an afterthought. I would like to convert to HID but retrofit units from a vehicle that used standard bowls - if that was ever a thing.

Yes, there have been reflector-type HID headlamps, not just projectors. No, HID was never an "afterthought" on a BMW -- or on most other makes, for that matter. Specifying, designing, engineering, and tooling a headlamp is a very involved, costly procedure. At the automaker level it's done very deliberately. It sounds like you do not like the appearance of a projector headlamp. That will prevent you from safely, legally, and effectively swapping HID headlamps onto your car, because all of BMW's HID headlamps have been projectors. The only effective, legal, and safe HID conversion involves swapping complete HID headlamp assemblies, designed and built as HID headlamp assemblies by a legitimate maker, onto a car. "HID kits" (and more recently "LED bulb conversions") are dangerous and illegal, and swapping non-original optics into a headlamp housing is differently but equally unsafe and unlawful.

1999-2000 model BMW 3-series never had HID's. The lights were designed around halogen bowls. In 2001, HID's were offered in the same chassis and it was clear they were an afterthought. Lack of space in the engine bay behind the housing forced the projector to be very far forward producing the bug-eye appearance. Also I never said I wanted to put HID bulbs in my car. I thought I made it very clear I wanted complete HID units. As far as your comment about it being illegal to use lights from one car on another car - that's completely untrue. As long as they are SAE/DOT, any swap into any vehicle is perfectly legal. SEMA has fought very hard for the rights of automotive enthusiasts to alter our cars in any way we see fit as long as they meet safety guidelines agreed upon. One of them being the swap of lighting into other vehicles.

The Municipality said:

In 2001, HID's were offered in the same chassis and it was clear they were an afterthought. Lack of space in the engine bay behind the housing forced the projector to be very far forward producing the bug-eye appearance.

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Your dislike of the appearance doesn't mean necessarily that it was an afterthought. As pointed out before, this is a very involved process, involving many departments responsible for bringing a car from drawing board to showroom.

Also I never said I wanted to put HID bulbs in my car. I thought I made it very clear I wanted complete HID units. As far as your comment about it being illegal to use lights from one car on another car - that's completely untrue. As long as they are SAE/DOT, any swap into any vehicle is perfectly legal.

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Well, if you REALLY REALLY must swap another car's headlamps into your own car, keep in mind that you must use that complete lamp assembly, including the complete outer lens used by that donor car. A manufacturer's certification that their headlamp is compliant with the law goes out the window as soon as you bake it apart and swap lenses around. The complete assembly, or nothing. I'll bet it's going to be less pretty than the bug eye look you describe.

SEMA has fought very hard for the rights of automotive enthusiasts to alter our cars in any way we see fit as long as they meet safety guidelines agreed upon. One of them being the swap of lighting into other vehicles.

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No, SEMA has fought very hard for people to do all kinds of nonsense. You can tell that by wandering around and seeing all the illegally modified cars at SEMA shows.

Why does SEMA do it? Money.

With over 2,000 New Products on display, with over 2,300 exhibiting companies filling over a million square feet of the Las Vegas Convention Center - there's more opportunities than even you can handle. Which means we're not just going to break-records, we're going to obliterate them.

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They sell booth space to vendors, and charge attendees for the privilege of walking around advertisers.

The Municipality said:

1999-2000 model BMW 3-series never had HID's

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Those are E46-chassis cars. HID headlamps were an option right from the start of production (mid '98 for Europe and rest of world; RHT HID headlamp part numbers 63 12 6 904 293 and 63 12 6 904 294; late '98 for USA/Canada; HID headlamp part numbers 63 12 6 904 297 and 63 12 6 904 298). Designed and planned as an integral part of the E46 vehicle engineering and tooling process. Not an afterthought.

The lights were designed around halogen bowls. In 2001, HID's were offered in the same chassis and it was clear they were an afterthought.

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No, sorry. Your chronology is mistaken and your "afterthought" thing seems to be a guess based on what sounds like a personal distaste for the appearance of projector headlamps. There are very sound reasons why BMW's HID headlamps have all been projectors: the frontal area constraint created by BMW's twin-round headlamp visual signature is such that a reflector-type HID headlamp would have difficulty meeting BMW's up-spec headlamp photometry standards (which are more stringent than the technical regulations; making a reflector HID headlamp of that size that meets the legal requirements is not difficult and has been done by other makers). A second reason for the reflector halogen/projector HID split BMW maintains is to advertise the buyer's having spent extra money. In the market demographic that makes up a significant chunk of BMW buyers, this is important enough to have an effect on take rates: fewer people will spend the extra money for the premium headlamps (or the option package that includes them) if they look about the same as the standard-equipment headlamps.

As far as your comment about it being illegal to use lights from one car on another car - that's completely untrue.

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You might have read that it's illegal to use lights from one car on another car, but that's not what was written. What's not OK is to remove the optics from a headlamp assembly and install other optics, whether they're from another car's headlamp or off the shelf from an outfit selling them for this purpose.

SEMA has fought very hard for the rights of automotive enthusiasts to alter our cars in any way we see fit as long as they meet safety guidelines agreed upon. One of them being the swap of lighting into other vehicles.

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You are mistaken; SEMA has not fought for your right to swap headlamps from one car to another. This was never illegal; there was never any need for any such fight.

(And you are very mistaken about SEMA's overall reason for existence and direction of activity -- though your version is consistent with the promotional buzz they put out to vehicle owners).

The Municipality said:

I have an old BMW with halogens in standard bowls and while this model did have an HID option later on in production, they were projectors and give the headlamps a very bug-eye appearance. It's clear that HID was an afterthought. I would like to convert to HID but retrofit units from a vehicle that used standard bowls - if that was ever a thing.

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I know it's an older post but the *hotlinked image removed used HID in a regular reflector headlight bowl.

notaname said:

I know it's an older post but the *hotlinked image removed used HID in a regular reflector headlight bowl.

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I didn't get a chance to see the image you hotlinked (perhaps you should have just named the vehicle, instead of hotlinking an image), but whatever vehicle it was, any vehicle that has reflector HID headlamps uses a different reflector from what they would use for a filament headlamp. Every time. This is due to the fundamental differences in how arc-discharge capsules and filament bulbs distribute light.

Yes, and the reflector HID's even have different bulbs, numbers ending in R instead of S.

D1R, D2R, etc. are for reflectors
D1S, D2S, etc. are for projectors