ISUK

Hi Stu,

Glad the cleaning tips helped. I made a big mistake and polished my car on Saturday in direct sunlight in 22deg weather I'm going to have to get my orbital buffer out and redo the bonnet and roof which have distinct discoloration marks from the polish drying on the hot metal.

Gdavis is spot on about wanting to be different. I love the two tone look of the auburn black interior and this is what sold me on the interior. I have had that type of combination in an MGF (cream & black), Alfa GTV (tan & black) and a 323Ci (light yellow and black). I had sapphire black with black leather interior on my X5 3.0 sport along with the privacy glass for the full gangsta effect. I didn't mind the all black combination on the X5 as the black leather interior on that is actually a two tone dark grey. A friend of mine had his silver grey 530d delivered with black cloth seats then had them professionally recovered in BMW's tanin red leather which used to be available on the E46 3 series. I thought it looked superb but he wasn't happy with it and has ended up having it redone in black leather. Fortunately for him, the trimmer took pity and gave him a good discount 2nd time round.

Each to their own though. I'm just glad there are so many people who opt for the "safe" combinations as it makes our cars more unique

Nearly forgot about your query on the X5. I'm going to hang on to my Z4 and forget the X5 idea for the time being. I am, however, seriously considering trading my 530d in for a new 535d sport in September. I'll keep you posted on developments

gdavis

I saw another car at a dealer tonight that has the auburn interior with black exterior and it looked great. It wasn't as orange as the photos indicate, actually more brown and less colorful as well.

It had the black/anthracite maple trim and looks really nice. It seems that the anthracite makes it look more refined, while the metal trim looks more sporty in some ways....

I like the combo of wood on the dsahboard with metal on the door handles, but it looks like all the cars that have wood trim on dash are now forced into wood trim on door handles as well.....