KeithL

The interior of my March 2004 e60 530d se is a mishmash of materials. There are signs of very good engineering and design, like the centre armrest, the speedometer and housing, sports steering wheel, folding rear seats etc. However there are also signs of exceptionally poor materials, like the flimsy band which houses the centre air vents, the hard plastic niche under the slot cd player and the inside of the glove compartment. In slow traffic I can hear the dash creaking as the flimsy hard plastics move about. I find this unacceptable in vehicle that, when new, would have cost close to 40k. My wife?s Audi A4 has an exemplary interior and costs about half my BMW.

Keith

Landlord

Hi Keith!

I have a 525i MY05 and have the same feeling as you, its too poor interior quality for this car. I drove an brand new Audi A6 this weekend and its like night and day. So I also wonder from some who has a brand new LCI if there have been any changes in this matter. My last car, a 525 MY02 E39 hadn?t any problems with the quality by the way.

Stefan

colejl

But which machine would you rather drive??? Coming from a Vauxhall the interior is amazing! Still not a single creak for me...

tonye60

the drive on the audi to the bmw is a close call, the bmw does drive slightly better but the interior is 100% worse, so its down to how often you get to go down a nice fast windy lane or how often you just commute

colejl

I spend most of my time looking out the windscreen and driving... Whether there's a floppy piece of plastic to the left of the widget doesn't really matter from day-to-day...

KeithL

I tend to agree with some replies: as the interior quality of my wife's A4 is to my e60, my e60 drives immeasurably better than the A4. Nonetheless, it is no excuse for poor fit and cheap plastics. The strange thing is that other parts of the interior are really very satisfying. It's as if a junior, inexperienced designer was let loose on certain parts of the interior.
Keith

hinckley

I believe that the interior quality has improved vastly with the LCI. If your interested, see my topic here: http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=39278.

KeithL

Thankfully I have found the cause of the creaking. The creaking came from the driver's seat being at one of its highest settings. Once I lowered the setting, the creaking vanished! Hopefully the nasty, hard plastic trims will stay in place and remain silent. If so, I'll soon forget about them and continue to enjoy the driving experience of this fine car.
Keith