Owning a used BMW 530d: Few new observations I've made since purchase

Among all the things I found, there is also 1 missing feature on my 5 Series.

BHPian d3mon recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Jotting down a few more observations after spending some more time with Trie. Here's the story of how I acquired Trie, aka, 2018 BMW 530d G80.

There is an insane amount of sound deadening all around the car. Case in point - the door seals.

Most cars have 1 or 2 layers of rubber strips in order to insulate the cabin from the noises from outside. Trie has 4 separate layers, and 2 of them are felt lined to avoid the squeaking that is a common complaint on many such rubber strips rubbing against each other!

3 layers on the door, with 2 outer ones being felt lined.

Found one missing feature in my car - The 2017 brochure said that these cars should have a cooled glovebox, but there's no such thing in Trie's glovebox.

Passenger airbag off switch - hidden on the left of the dashboard. Accessible only with the passenger door open, and operated with the mechanical key.

This area is a little busy in design, but I absolutely love the metal strip on the door that turns into a large triangular shape. It feels absolutely solid and cold to the touch, just like the door handle next to it.

Rear seat AC.

There's a good amount of airflow available to both rear passengers. The airflow can be directed to just your upper body (via the centre & the B-pillar vent) or your legs (via the under seat vent), or both.

Unlike the front cockpit, the two passengers share a common blower speed setting, but the temperature can be adjusted independently.

Rear AC controls. The rear climate can only be switched on/off from the front, but the temperature/blower settings can't be changed. There is an option to set the rear climate to default settings (22C) every time the car starts up though.

The middle seat headrest can be flipped back to aid in visibility. It's interesting that even in the flipped position, it actually provides decent support for your head. Having said that, the middle seat is not a very comfortable place to be, because of the scooped-out bucket seat design for the outer 2 rear seats.

You can also see the button which allows you to flip open up the middle seat to access the boot.

Flipped position

The cupholders are overengineered as well. They can rest in 3 different positions depending on the size of your drink.

Large

Small

Every single control on the car is backlit, and the rear seat entertainment remote is no exception.

Android screen mirroring at work, mirroring my camera viewfinder.

Like almost everything in the car, even the fuel filler lid is damped and opens smoothly on its own! Also, BMW has fixed the 'bug' in the F-series cars that if you tried opening the fuel filler lid with the car locked, while it'd not open up, it would get partially unlocked and pop open by itself the next time you unlocked the car.

No fake exhausts here - even this diesel gets fully functioning dual exhausts!

And finally, a few samples of the different leathers on offer from BMW were taken from the web. Dakota & Vernasca have a high grain finish, while Nappa & Merino leathers are completely matte, with no grain visible. The difference in quality is clearly visible as you climb up from Dakota -> Vernasca -> Nappa. While Nappa & Merino look quite similar (at least in these photos), I'm sure Merino would be even softer in person.

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