rodybmw

It looks like I will be going to London in August and would like to get one of the ALU trims that are available for the E60. Yes, I know the trims are different for Right Hand Drive cars, but last time I was in London in December one of the parts guys at Holland Park BMW said that he can order LHD parts from Germany and get them in about a weeks time.

Since there are a few different versions of Aluminum trim I would like to see if we can post pictures of the different ones in this thread to clear up some confusion. Here's a list of the ones I know about:

1. ALU Feinschliff.........saw a swatch picture of this in the German e61 brochure and it looked like brushed aluminum, but I have not seen it in real life or even pictures from people's cars. Does anyone have this in their car?

2. ALU Wellenschliff......Is this the same as Feinschliff above? I have only seen one reference to it in the ETK, but there are no part numbers.....It's in the section of the Feinschliff trim so I thought it may be the same thing. Does anyone know?

3. ALU Shadow.......This is supposed to be the M5's brushed ALU trim, but what is the difference between this and the Feinschliff? Usually "shadow" indicates a darker version, but in the M5 pics that I have seen it looks bright silver to me. Does anyone have pics of the ALU Shadow?

4. ALU CUBE PURE....I assume this is the same one that is in the European M-Sport version of the E60. I saw this in person in London, but would like to see more pics not just of the overall dash, but closeups of the individual trims (especially the trim below the CD/DVD slots and around the gear shifter. For some reason when I saw it in London I liked the dash and door handles, but thought that the section under the CD/DVD slots and around the gear shifter looked a little cheap. So I would love to see more close up pics of this trim. I know there are many M-Sport owners on this board who have this trim and am hoping that they will post lots of pics

5. ALU SILVER CUBE....This is another one like #2 above where there is only one mention of it in the ETK in the ALU CUBE PURE section, but no part numbers are listed. I think it may be the same as the ALU CUBE PURE. Again any info would be appreciated.

6. ALU WAVE.....This is the trim that has the diamond shaped wave pattern on it. I have seen pictures of it before but if anyone has good pictures you may want to post it here so that this thread would include all the ALU trims.

Also, if anyone knows of an ALU trim that I did not mention above please let me know.

I did not ask for pictures of Titan or Titan II as those are painted plastic and not real aluminum.

Thanks in Advance,

sg530

Rodybmw, I replaced wood to Al Feinshliff months ago and posted pictures.
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=...0+aluminum+trim

I am in US but special ordered from Deutschland.

I believe I have the first 5 made in 2004 with the 2005 trim.
Color to me is less brite than brushed aluminum as it has some color in the brush marks to make it less shiny.

rodybmw

Thanks for the link. I know that Feinschliff is the brushed trim, but in the ETK they specifically refer to the M5's "ALU Shadow" as "brushed aluminum", so I am trying to figure out what the difference is. I remember seeing some publicity photos of the M5's interior before the actual production M5's came out and the trim looked identical to yours. So I don't know if there is a different trim on production M5's now that is called "ALU Shadow" brushed, and if so what does it look like?

I tried buying the Feinschliff in November when I picked up my Euro Delivery 545i, but I made the mistake of going to BMW Niederlassung in Munich the last day I was going to be in Munich and they said it would take 2 days to get the parts. They gave me the part numbers and I think the cost was somewhere in the mid 500 Euro range for all the trims including the door handles. Then back in January I had my dealer here in the US check those part numbers and the list price for the set was $948. That price can go down quite a bit at the right dealer (w/ BMWCCA discount, etc.)

One thing that I don't know yet is whether the trim below the CD/DVD is available in Feinscliff or not. The ETK lists "ALU CUBE", "ALU WAVE", and "ALU" in the comments column for this piece. I don't know whether the "ALU" is the Feinscliff or whether that piece is not available in Feinscliff at all. The parts guy in Munich said that that piece was not available in Feinschliff, but since then the BMW of Nashville guy that posted on this board said that it was.....So maybe the one they listed as "ALU" IS the Feinschliff??

sg530

My parts were ordered in fall of last year but delivered at Christmas time. Had them installed in January. At that time dealer claimed what I got was all what they could get (no CD cover).
I agree re M5 trim, I confirmed with dealer my 2005 trim was that same trim in the M5 at that time ( a little wow factor).
I was trying to get Rhodium handles like in original models, but they no longer offered them. I can't expect the production trim to be the same even half a year later than it was made available, so if one needs to replace some trim due to damage, they may never get a match.
This trim is true metal over plastic and the surface has a coating. As I understand it, it must be this construction to call it ALU. Confusingly, titanium is not metal at all. I ordered Ti II thinking it was metallic, but no, it was not. Again, like I said, if I wanted Ti original, I could no longer get that either, just Ti II. So I have little faith that BMW will offer certain trim colors for more than a year. I have given 2 examples in my experience... Rhodium handles and Ti original. I even recall there may have been another handle color like Rhodium no longer made.
At my dealer, if I pay in advance, they will order most anything and if I don't like it, send it back for refund (already did it). All they ask that is that there is a known part number. I would order the small vent bezel on the dash as a test for real color. Photographs will not work and what is on the dealer floor might not be the same as what you order. The names for the finishes are also confusing as you are finding out, so I suggest getting a sample. They also guarantee that the trim will fit my model and year. It may happen that it is not possible to fit a euro version of a part to a US car.

BangleBox_530d

Aluminium Cube:

rodybmw

That's a good idea. I may do that if I end up ordering it here at a US dealer. However, if I get it during my trip to London I may not have enough time to do that because they would have to order the LHD pieces from Germany and wait a week or so to get it. So in order to get it in time I would have to order the pieces before leaving the US so that it will be there before I have to fly back. So if I end up ordering it ahead of time from the dealer in London I would go with a "known" trim....either Feinschliff or ALU CUBE.

rodybmw

Thanks for the pic. That looks really nice. I love the dash trim and door handles in ALU CUBE. I am only hesitant about the trim under the CD/DVD drives and the center console trim arond the gear shifter. Do you have any picture of those trims that would show the entire trim piece (not just part of it), yet not so far away that the detail is lost. I would love to see some more pics.

Thanks Again,

rodybmw

sg530,

I hope you don't mind me posting your Feinschliff pictures here. I would like this thread to eventually end up having a lot of pics of the various ALU trims all in the same place.

rodybmw

I found some pictures of the ALU CUBE in the gallery section. These were posted in joel_BE's gallery:

rodybmw

...and some more pictures I found in the Gallery section of the ALU CUBE. These are from Janne Karlsson's Gallery. These are especially helpful to me in deciding whether I want to go with the ALU CUBE or not because the car has Auburn interior (like mine), and there are many closeup pictures of the two center trim pieces that I asked about in my above posts. However, the car does not have NAV PRO, so the trim below the CD drive has the big storage bin hole in it and it is not solid like mine would be: