joekitch

im looking at getting an e60 in the coming months, and i'll probably grab a 530i or xi since most agree thats the "most" reliable engine from the e60 lineup, i think
but im looking at all the gizmos...and im not really clear on some of them, specifically years and restrictions;

what year did the e60 get active cruise control? and on what engine types (like, only the 545 and 550 etc)?

what year did the e60 get comfort access (keyless entry and ignition)? and on what engine types?

what year did the e60 get comfort SEATS (the ones with power headrest and thigh extension)? and on what engine types?

is the "through-loading feature" referring to a rear seat pass through? or legitimate split folding rear seats?

does iDrive with nav (and the larger screen) add anything aside from navigation?

what year did the e60 get the heads-up display? and on what engine types?

thanks

KyleB

1. available since day 1, on all cars
2. don't know
3. available since day 1, have them on my '04, available on all cars
4. don't know. i have ski-pass through on my car, but never tried to fold the seats down
5. not really. NAV is the big thing.
6. dont know

JayArras

You get more voice commands. Without nav, you just get commands to manage the phone.

joekitch

sort of answering my own questions but...
the HUD appears to be incredibly incredibly rare, out of the many 5-series ive put through bmwvin, only TWO had the heads-up-display as an option, it was a 2007 530xi and a 2008 528xi

any chance of retrofitting a HUD into a normal 5-series? i dont know how many wiring harnesses it needs

tonyb635

Sure, if you search for Sublime you will find a thread where he did this. But why would you want to toss this much money in installing it afterwards? Ok, if its already in the car when you buy it thats on thing. I personally think its a waste. We have it in our F15. Normally it only displays speed unless you have nav then if using the nav it will display directions. Also any warnings will appear. But the biggest turn off for me is that 99% of all sunglasses are polarized and if you have a pair of these, then you cannot see the display on the glass. I had to drop $120 on a second pair of non polarized sunglasses to keep in this car, otherwise you might as well just turn the HUD off.

KyleB

Yes it's possible. BIG, expensive retrofit. download an HUD app for your smartphone. Some are a dollar, some are free. I have one on my phone, and I never use it. HUD is nice, but I never understood the big deal about it.

joekitch

you probably never used it because its totally invisible in the day time, smartphone screens are too dim for it to work

a real, actual HUD is extremely bright during the day and automatically dims at night

that said a hud's effectiveness can be diminished if it doesnt have many features, just showing your speed is meh, speed and revs is nice, but a lot of new cars (see the cadillac ats) have full color huds with tons of options, those are one you'll wonder how you lived without

KyleB

oh I know that.

I used my HUD app once, for about 5 minutes. Even if my car had it, I don't know how much I'd be using it. To each his own, but it takes a lot of money and effort to retrofit HUD in an E60.

ski

If you are looking online, most pictures that people take you can tell which options it has. Seats are clearly obvious. Fold down seats is a little less obvious, but you can tell if the middle seat belt has an extra clip in it about 8in off the seat base, that is so you can unclip the belt totally to get it out of the way when the seats are folded.You can also tell foldable seats from pictures of the trunk, if the release is there or if you can see the gap for the split fold. HUD can be seen by the huge open area on the dash inline with the steering wheel or by the button to turn it on/off located very near to the headlight switch.