Will the machined aluminium knob from the 7 series fit the E60 as a replacement for the plastic one it is supplied with??

if so, I reckon this would be a worthwhile upgrade. Its the human-machine interfaces that convey the feeling of quality most!

Plastic???
Mine is aluminium.

It just pulls off, the one on the demo car I borrowed (feb04 build) was definitely plastic.


Anyone else got the aluminium one as standard??

I am not sure about mine, it looks and feels like aluminium but it also feels extremely light. Maybe it's a platic knob with a layer of alu on top of it?

Well I would have sworn mine was Aluminum. Now I'll have to check, you say you can just lift it off??

Yup, clips on and off

the one I borrowed was metallic plastic

mine is for sure aluminium. it was felt like metal. maybe the bottom layer is plastic covered with aluminium .

Mine is aluminium, and i know this because of the bracelet i used to wear i kept hearing a chinging noise could not figure it out till one day it hit me the ching was my bracelet hiting the knob.

Doctor Diesel,

Mine I-Drive feels like plastic. Have to check to make sure.

Bit off the subject but why did you change your picture? Previous one was much nicer! :)

Okay, here's a new twist on things...

I went out to my car to look at the knob. It felt kind of like plastic and looked like it too. My son's little toy metal detector was sitting right there in a pile of toys so I decided to put it to some use.

The metal detector went off over the knob but not anywhere around it. I decided then to pull the knob straight up and lo and behold, it popped off.

Here's where it gets strange. The knob was clearly plastic. It even had "PC-ABS" stamped on the inside. (ABS is a type of plastic.) I tried the metal detector and it still went off over the knob (which was now in my hand and away from all other metal objects).

The only thing I can think of now is that the plastic is painted with some sort of metallic coating. There's no way there's any aluminum skin wrapped around it. It's too lightweight feeling in my hand.