What I Strongly Dislike About the Refresh
01-10-2007, 03:36 AM
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The silver baseplate for the new shifter on top of the black filler panel looks hideous !!!!!!!! I cannot believe how ugly and tacky that is. How can such a wonderful car with a fine refresh gets such a dumb detail? As an design oriented architect, I believe that this fell through cracks and was a mindless compromise. BMW needs to bag to the truly stupid black filler panel and just make the silver baseplate for the shifter larger. Other than that the refresh with the new changes are incredibly well done. I just do not understand the black filler panel which looks horrible.
01-10-2007, 03:51 AM
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Originally Posted by pharding' post='376286' date='Jan 10 2007, 12:36 PM
The silver baseplate for the new shifter on top of the black filler panel looks hideous !!!!!!!! I cannot believe how ugly and tacky that is. How can such a wonderful car with a fine refresh gets such a dumb detail? As an design oriented architect, I believe that this fell through cracks and was a mindless compromise. BMW needs to bag to the truly stupid black filler panel and just make the silver baseplate for the shifter larger. Other than that the refresh with the new changes are incredibly well done. I just do not understand the black filler panel which looks horrible.
You are right it is absolutely hideous design and makes that gear shift look like a total hack.
It a shame that they didn't go the extra yard and do it properly. For cost and continuation engineering reasons it looks like they didn't want to alter the shape of the wood trim in that area (if you notice the new open cubby hold where the ashtray used to be is the same shape).
As much as I agree with you... it won't stop many of us from buying the facelift (and they know that).
01-10-2007, 04:22 AM
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Originally Posted by Raighne' post='376287' date='Jan 10 2007, 02:51 PM
You are right it is absolutely hideous design and makes that gear shift look like a total hack.
It a shame that they didn't go the extra yard and do it properly. For cost and continuation engineering reasons it looks like they didn't want to alter the shape of the wood trim in that area (if you notice the new open cubby hold where the ashtray used to be is the same shape).
As much as I agree with you... it won't stop many of us from buying the facelift (and they know that).
It a shame that they didn't go the extra yard and do it properly. For cost and continuation engineering reasons it looks like they didn't want to alter the shape of the wood trim in that area (if you notice the new open cubby hold where the ashtray used to be is the same shape).
As much as I agree with you... it won't stop many of us from buying the facelift (and they know that).
01-10-2007, 04:23 AM
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Originally Posted by Raighne' post='376287' date='Jan 10 2007, 12:51 PM
...the shape of the wood trim...
ABC
01-10-2007, 05:44 AM
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Originally Posted by Heikki' post='376294' date='Jan 10 2007, 01:22 PM
The new cubby hold hole in the trim panel is different from the old sliding cover ashtray. In the old design one side of the hole was open to allow the ashtray cover to slide, whereas in the new design the trim panel encloses the hole from all 4 sides. So they had to change the wood trim panel anyway! Probably the shifter hole is designed for the manual transmission gaiter and the auto is a stupid design compromise. They apparently wanted to mimic the X5 joystick shifter base plate in here as well, and did not bother to change the shape of the manual transmission gear lever gaiter.
It's shame they didn't just do 2 versions of the trim... one for the automatic cutout, one for the manual. Given that automatic probably accounts for most of the sales, it's strange that that is the configuration that suffers from the ugly hack.
01-10-2007, 05:51 AM
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01-10-2007, 05:58 AM
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completely see what you mean by the break in flow. i think my eye would also be continuously drawn to the stoppage as well......only when stopped though. Once in motion, I would hope that this would fade away as the lines get blurry.
As a point to the current e60 window control placement....I like it, but then I am 6'3" with long arms and can reach with no issues. I can imagine the difficulty if ones arms are not so long.
Something I might like to see though, is a flat steering wheel at the bottom (ala race car steering) as my knees can get in the way sometimes. Thoughts?
completely see what you mean by the break in flow. i think my eye would also be continuously drawn to the stoppage as well......only when stopped though. Once in motion, I would hope that this would fade away as the lines get blurry.
As a point to the current e60 window control placement....I like it, but then I am 6'3" with long arms and can reach with no issues. I can imagine the difficulty if ones arms are not so long.
Something I might like to see though, is a flat steering wheel at the bottom (ala race car steering) as my knees can get in the way sometimes. Thoughts?
01-10-2007, 06:02 AM
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The entire housing of the shift mechanism, resting on the "transmission tunnel", looks like it's been placed there as a push-in afterthought.
And the centre console "wood" trim is a joke. HOW many separate pieces?
ABC
And the centre console "wood" trim is a joke. HOW many separate pieces?
ABC