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      05-23-2019, 11:51 AM   #77
LOW4LYF
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Drives: E92 M3 & F85 X5M
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The HACK View Post
I've owned BMWs from the early 90s (E30) to current (i3), and the interior qualities were by far the best during the early to mid 2000s.

We had an E60 545i and the leather, soft touch plastic, and all other material in the car were light years better than any other BMW we've ever owned. Since the induction of the E9x the interior material has gone on a steady downward trend.

I'm not talking about design, as the E60 interior would look dated today, with the first ten iDrive. But it's a crying shame that my CHEVY has better dash material than the best BMW has to offer.

On the E60 545i, all the touchable material inside the car just screams "I'm expensive." The E46, the E60, and the E65 all had incredible quality touch materials that none of the subsequent generations can compare to.

Again, the design and features may be more modern, with updated touch screens and more ergonomic functionality in today's BMWs. The i3 for example has a lot of cool features that doesn't exist on the E60. And it has some neat materials (like the composite dash, that's kinda cool). But nothing screams luxury like the supple leather of the E60 and the incredible soft touch plastic that the dash is made from, or even the hard plastic...The older BMWs just seem to have an extra layer of whatever it is they put on the plastic to make it FEEL better.

The only exception here is the Z4. The E89 Z4 has much better interior "touch" components than the E85 Z4. Subsequent generation (G29) also has better interior touch materials. It's almost like the first gen Z4 got the start of the deterioration of the touch plastics kicked off, and for some reason, they decided to make it better rather than worse unlike other BMWs.
Are you sure you talking about a E60? The E60 together with the E65 had the worst interior ever. The soft plastic war peeling within couple years. My 2001 E38 with 263K miles is in a better shape interior wise than any used E60 with less than 100K miles.

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