Clement Demsey

I have a 2003 530d SE with a leather interior and I love it. It is by far the best car I have owned: Great performance, good looks, comfort, style, decent fuel economy, lots of high tech toys to play with,...need I go on?

As a rule I don't like to whine, but I do have one minor grumble:

The armrest in the drivers door becomes very uncomfortable so much so that after 2 or 3 hour journeys my elbow gets sore.

My normal driving position is with both hands on the wheel in the '10 to 2' position, and when I am cruising on the motorway, then I also have both elbows on the armrests.

(For this reason I dislike cars without a central armrest).

This is the third BMW I have owned - the other two were the previous two generations of the 3 series. I had no such problems with these cars.

I just think that the amount of padding used is insufficient. It doesn't take much force to push down on the armrest and feel the hard surface below.

Again, I want to stress that this is not a big issue - it is just something minor which is a repeat annoyance.

Does anyone else suffer in a similar way?

Any advice?

jet190rs

get a pillow

530i_msport

Iceman

I don't have any problems with it. But most of the times I have my hands on the steering wheel, even when standing at a red light.

dlevi67

I can't even touch the armrests without putting the hands on a "20 to 4" position, which I find rather uncomfortable (not to mention feeling unsafe in terms of reaction time). I normally hold the wheel at 15 to 3 or thereabouts.

Having just tried, yes, I agree with you the door armrest IS uncomfortable, but it definitely is not something I would ever have thought of.

znod

Welcome, and hummmm. I've never tried using the left one and almost never use the center one. I'l have to give the left one a try. Actually, even though they are called armrests, I can't remember ever using one that's on a door.

Ray Hull

First, Welcome Clement,
Second, please forgive the smart-ass non-responses that you sometimes get around here; some people can't control themselves, even when they have nothing to offer.

Third, I thoroughly agree with you. And, it is only compounded when wearing short sleeves and when you stick to the leather.

Unfortunately, this is something of a long-standing tradition/problem with BMWs. At least you don't have to endure the horrible posture (read: negative lumbar support) sport seats that I first encountered in my 87 535iS. I tried to improve on the comfort for long highway driving by having the dealer install a center armrest. Not only did it not work, it got in the way of shifting, even though it was very short.

Over the years and several 5 series, they have sometimes gotten better, (my 540S was decent), but still not perfeclty comfortable.

My main complaint about this door design is the diagonal wood-veneer grab handle that clashes with my knee. Combine that with the severly limited left-foot clutching space (I continually hit the dead pedal, even wearing narrow driving mocs) and this starts to be a fairly un-ergonomic design.

Frankly, I am surprised since BMW has always prided thiemselves on being ergonomicallly advanced, yet having everything fall to hand, rather naturally. I think this model has some serious shortcomings.

Cheers,
Ray Hull

VIIV

I didn't have any problem wth this during my 8-12 hour days driving to NC, and I did use the armrests. Maybe it is the angle your elbows hit though? I doubt I could even reach the left arm rest if my left hand was at 10 o'clock.

I never really had problems with arm rests or arm rest positions, however. The one exception is my A4, which has totally useless center arm rest that interferes with shifting, which i kept in the raised position 100% of the time.

jrsamps

It's because the arm rest is too high and narrow. It does annoy me on longer rides

znod

I tried my door armrest in the wee hours this morning. It felt pretty decent to me. But, I could never drive with my arms/elbows on armrests.

Advice? I'll only mention that it probably is safer not to drive with your arms on armrests, but, hey, no big deal. But, for safety and not having your problem bother you, then you might want to work on driving in a different position.