Quote:
Originally Posted by tony20009
(New observations added to original post.)
You might be right. I don't really know.
Loaner -- PP, CWP, and nothing else I can discern. Beige inside.
My E92 -- Red leather, iPod hookup, upgraded stereo and heated seats. Those are the only options I bought on it. And I do love it just the way it is.
Dad's E92 -- Loaded to the gills!!
Cousin Cheryl's E90 -- PP, heated seats, navigation. Her's has wood trim whereas the loaner has aluminum, as does mine. Hers is the one I was comparing to the F30 loaner as both have the beige leather.
My daughter's E91 - Loaded. Black on Oyster
My F10 -- Loaded to high heaven. Black on black nappa. I wouldn't think it fair to compare any 3er to this car.
One thing I have noticed is that the 3er beige leather I've encountered seems different from my red leather or leather of other colors.
Crazy as it sounds, my seats feel like Dooney and Bourke pebbled leather (check your wife's/girlfriend's purses). The texture is quite nice. They look and feel like quality leather. Even the back seats feel this way, and they haven't been used more than 15-20 times since I got the car in '07.
My kid's oyster seats also feel nice, as do Dad's black seats. Cheryl's seats, however, feel downright crappy to me, like antique parchment or a paper towel. The seats in the loaner feel the same way.
Be that as it may, it was really Cheryl's car that to me seems, for all intents and purposes, only a tad cushier, but only because she a has a tab more wood than does the loaner aluminum. And that's really the basis for my thinking the F30 isn't as luxurious as the E90.
There is no question that for typical around town driving, the F30 offers a much softer/smoother and quieter ride than any of my family's E9x cars. And I noticed later today that at speed and during heavy acceleration, the car is quieter than the 328i E90, and the steering does get better feeling -- not by a lot, but better. Despite the lack of steering feel, the F30 does handle just fine, you just don't feel the expansion joints and manhole covers and surface scabs and divets through the steering wheel.
I suspect the greater quietude and lesser "feel" is what makes folk find the F30 more luxurious. One of those, I'd agree contributes to luxury; the other, not so much.
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Unless someone knows different, the leather in all 3 series of the same series, sedan or coupe, use the same quality leather, which is ok quality, not the greatest.
Also, I don't know if BMW changes leather grade/quality for different series. The 3 still uses the "dakota" named leather, but I don't know if it's any different from the "dakota" used in the E90.
My 135i uses "Boston" named leather. I don't know if it's lower or higher quality in comparison.
I do know I was surprised, and impressed, that BMW used leather on the WHOLE seat, not just on "seating areas".