Even without children it easily catches grease. It is enough to sit in the car wearing some brown colour leather jacket...I was surprised to see that the armrests on the 3-series demonstration car (NICE LEMON LEATHER) had already dark spots from elbows and they clean it every hour....

You also mentioned jet black? If I were you I wud consider Sterling Grey exterior.....one of the best BMW colours IMHO... so many shades....

BTW I consider Individual door sills (they are illumintaed )to be better than M- ones.

 

ISUK. Do drive the Cayenne. I know it's up for a facelift . But even the current car has heaps going for it .The interior quality is good. The leather is far better than Merc/BM. It is great fun to drive.
The residuals are very good. It's ( well the V6 is ! ) phenomenal value for money.
My friends V6 sounds incredible.
I had a loaner from the friendly dealer at Chiswick and loved it, the fuel bills would have been too much for me though.
I think it would go well with the 997, a practical choice!
Stu

 

I think to be fair it all depends on whether or not you like to drive a car sporty or leisurely

 

I like the car to have good mid range performance for acceleration and have a slightly sporting tone and look.

Stu,

I have driven the V6 Cayenne but am a bit worried that is a bit underpowered hence my decision to look at the S model with the V8. I really like the looks of the Cayenne and as you say the leather quality and interior is much better than BMW's (don't know that Individual Eq2 will make a huge difference either). If I went for the Cayenne I'd go for full leather which gets all interior surfaces, dash/doors, centre console trimmed in leather. The trouble with Porsche dealers is that they will not give you the car for a day on your own. MY Porsche centre won't even let customers go out in the cars alone which is ridiculous. I may try another Porsche dealer if anyone has any suggestions that aren't too far away from me in Northants?

igor,

I had Sterling grey on my Z4 but don't think it would look too good on an E60 personally.

 

There is one up here in Nottingham, but it depends how you class "not too far away". Never been in, so not sure what they're like. Phone call to them should provide you with answers though.

 

If you cud consider Cayenee than you shud be able to consider Eq1.That's a way big dif (just look at these SHINY plastic door pockets and cheesy dashboard). Also if you don't like what they propose in package (and I understand you want smth dark, but not shade of blue in particular) consider Havanna and Sparkling Graphite (1-series colours, also nice IMHO).Good luck Stay BMW

 

The Cayenne V6 is way too slow and thirsty. Buy the S if you are going for the pepper. On a 100L fill-up I managed to go 460kms... That's not fun at all. And as I said, slow. It scared off bigtime me a couple of times when I was overtaking... The 530d is a Porsche if you compare it with the Cayenne V6.. I don't know how much ?? the individual packs are in the UK, but here in Sweden the EQ1 costs 16000?... That's much for a couple of ugly rims and some other stuffs IMO... And the individual packs won't help you much when you trade your car in some day.

 

With German prices it costs EUR 13,550
I agree with rims but you can drop them for a credit of EUR 1,270
And some other stuff cud make you a happy owner of a luxury car who wud not have to close his eyes on some vivid BMW cutting costs measures. As for the trade in....sometimes people are looking for smth special which you wud not come across on every corner and are ready to pay dear for that....

 

igor,

You should be a salesman for Individual If I go down the route of a 535d Sport I think Eq2 would be the maximum I would go to as I am not prepared to pay the huge difference in cost for Eq 1 just to get get the alcantara headliner and leather dash etc. It would be nice but I'd take a pasting come resale. The Eq3 option of just the different leather works out at a similar cost for the nasca leather which is pretty good. The Individual colour options can be had for around ?1600 in the UK but colours like Le Mans blue are just over ?2000. This is just a serious rip off as the paint does not cost BMW any more to buy. It is outrageous that car manufacturers still charge extra for metalic paint as well as this costs no more than a basic colour to them.

Le Mans Blue with either champagne or caramel is my current favourite colour comibination. I'm not sure about the havanah you mentioned as I haven't seen it but I'd prefer to go with something very different is splashing out for Individual and the Le Mans blue looks a superb colour on the X5 4.8iS.

The one decisive factor could be that I've been offered 10% discount on the 535D sport if I option it up with the Individual kit

ipp,

I think you are right about the V6 pepper. It is getting a serious power hike as part of the facelift next year and the demo model I drove felt slow at the important 50 - 70 mph band for overtaking.

 

Try also to have a look at the new Indvidual package exterior colour (offered in German price list at least) - Black Rubin (I understand you prefer brunettes ). Though for my understanding (if you like Le Mans Blue) Carbon Black shud be also fine with you....Or take Jet Black (you win a lot for Eq1-hehe)...