Stu in Austin

Took delivery of my 530IA this past Saturday. Happy to report that everything is working perfectly, including the voice recognition which I had read was not functioning properly in some regions. I have already mastered the I-drive, any find myself looking for excuses to jump in the car and drive...

Only real complaint is the cup holders!!! My god, the two front cupholders have to be the worst I have ever used. In fact, I do not feel comfortable leaving ANY cup in there while I am driving. The holder basically squeezes the cup so that it is tilting about 20 degrees. Unacceptable! I was prepared for them to be prone to breaking, but not even functioning is another story.

The navigation and premium sound are awesome. FYI, for those who are still waiting for delivery, the total time from placing the order to taking delivery was 46 days.

Flowerfred

eh, how big are your drinks exactly?


Oh, Texas, ic, never mind.. <_<

Flowerfred

Congrats on the car btw, what did you get?

Stu in Austin

Heck, I can't get any drink to sit flat in the things...

Just thought that maybe a $60K car would have a bit more thought put into "the little things".

Anybody know of any good aftermarket cupholders? Website maybe?

JDN

Well, Stu, we are polar opposites on this one. I thought the front and rear cup holders were exceptional compared to what I put up with for 7-8 years with the 540-6. I find the rear to be well thought out so they can accommodate a variety of containers. The front, too, are very stable. I sometimes haul coffee in a tall stainless thermos sipping cup plus a small sealed stainless thermos. I can drive the way I want to without either tipping. A fast food cup is a snap.

I'm curious as to the type of container you are having a problem with. Can you share?

Stu in Austin

16-24oz. cups from fast food, Starbucks "grandes" and 16 ounce water bottles so far. Doesn't even look like my coffee mugs will fit; but haven't tried them yet.

What size cups work best?

jksanford

I like the 20oz Mountain Dew bottles, and I keep thinking that I'm going to break the darn cupholders if I put them in there.

Also, my favorite coffee mug from Starbucks doesn't fit in there. If I put it in the cup holder, it won't come out (some sort of protrusion at the bottom of the cup ). I'm on a quest for a cool coffee mug that fits in the car. Both my old lexus (2001 RX, and 2001 GS300 had exceptional cupholders ---- In fact, when I picked up the car, both cars had _2_ cool coffee cups in there!).

I guess I'm stuck with cans of mountain dew. Heck, my wife's Expedition has close to 12 cup holders, and can accomodate all the coffee cups in our house, every beverage container from the fountain at Quicktrip, and the plastic bottles.

I can't believe someone didn't think about this. It's really an outrage. I think we should sue.

Actually, I don't care , but our Euro friends keep laughing that the americans keep bringing it up.

I really NEVER thought to check out the cupholders when I test drove. I was soooo surprised to see how cheesy they were when I got home, pulled out a mountain dew, and couldn't find a place to put it when I started to review the owners manual.

JDN

I just went to the wet bar and picked up a couple of plastic cups. The big one fits front or rear. The little one was tall and slender. So slender in fact that the front tension bar could not get a grip. But both cups worked in the rear just fine.

Flowerfred

Cupholders to Americans are like beer to Germans..

Great pictures though

gdavis

I currently drive a passat (until I get my 530 in 2 weeks!) and I gotta say the VW ones are really awful. They only have a short depth to hold soft drink size diameters only. These 5ers gotta be somewhat better, and you know us Americans. One might think that we don't drink anything unless it's whilst we are driving!!!!

But we've got sweltering heat and humidity sometimes in places and we could drive for 3 days straight to get from one side of the country to the other. And deserts too that reach unbearable temps.

We have refined the critique of cup holders to a fine science, and we never agree on the results anyway, only that the ultimate holder has yet to be invented....