I?m talking with a sales person, from Long Island, NY, on a 2010 535xi, and he?s telling me that selecting the wooden steering wheel will not work with the cold weather package ?cause the heated steering wheel feature of that package only works with the all-leather steering wheel.

Is there any truth to this, or does the sales person just not know what he?s talking about?

Oh, and what is your opinion on whether the wooden steering wheel is even worth getting?

Thx

 

From what I have heard he is telling the truth, its either one or the other. However I think that leather is not only more comfortable but also looks better especially on a BMW.

 

The leather steering wheel has metal coils wrapped around the wheel, underneath. I doubt the heat would be able to penetrate any wood over top of any coils, if they attempted it, which they wouldn't....my leather wheel barely gets hot enough.

 

My dad had a wooden steering wheel on a 1960's jaguar, but in 1970 he swapped it for a leather one because the wooden ones went out of fashion

 

But mine is damn hot within few mins.. Hence I switch it off once it gets comfortable to hold..

 

The wooden steering wheel will work just fine in the winter, if you wear gloves...

Seriously, my wife has the wooden wheel on her Lexus and while it looks "pretty", I wouldn't swap my heated, leather wheel for it under any circumstances...No way.

That damn heated steering wheel is awful nice to have and (outside of ZSP and a V8) high on my prio list of options. Besides, does anything really look better than a big, fat black leather bimmer steering wheel?

BTW, how much is that option on a BMW? I think it's close to a grand++ on a MB.