websterize
Well-known member
I have the "grey leather steering wheel highlighted with blue BMW i accents" in a base Mega. I dislike the wheel for several reasons:
- No heated steering wheel. This omission defies logic. On all but the coldest days, I could drive to work in a down jacket, heated seats and heated steering wheel, with the heater off, probably adding 10 miles of range. Even at max output, the direct heating would likely require less energy than a running heat pump.
- At some point during a drive, my middle fingers find the torx screws on either side of the back of the wheel. The screw head is cold in winter and fairly sharp to the touch. Feel of material is not insignificant in interior car design. How on Earth did this get past the interior managers? The screw behind the door handle has a plastic cap. The screw holding the visor to the roof has a cap. Why, on a surface that I touch every time I drive the car, can I touch sharp torx screws?
- If there's any car that caters to the granola/fleece/vegan demographic, this is it. Why then, in this base model, is the wheel leather-wrapped? Many people have very strong feelings about the use of leather in products. And the wheel is so slick, it doesn't really feel like leather. Why not a Sensatec-wrapped wheel in the base model, like the seat vinyl?
- Orientation: The wheel appears upside down. It appears to suffer a glandular problem. The designers needed to accommodate a clear view of the selector lever behind the wheel, but in doing so they obscured other interface data, such as if the green LED on the wiper stalk is active and the LED level of the heated seat on the center stack. I have to move my head around the steering to see if I'm at one or two LEDs — oh, the horror!). The winning design of the wheel should have obscured none of these.
- Color: BMW steering wheels should be black. Not only is the gray wheel prone to discoloring, a non-black steering wheel in a BMW looks profoundly uncool. Next thing you know, we'll have FWD bimmers. We have to draw a line in the sand.
If the interior of the i3 is a tuxedo (and, overall, it really is), the steering wheel is a pair of brown shoes.
- No heated steering wheel. This omission defies logic. On all but the coldest days, I could drive to work in a down jacket, heated seats and heated steering wheel, with the heater off, probably adding 10 miles of range. Even at max output, the direct heating would likely require less energy than a running heat pump.
- At some point during a drive, my middle fingers find the torx screws on either side of the back of the wheel. The screw head is cold in winter and fairly sharp to the touch. Feel of material is not insignificant in interior car design. How on Earth did this get past the interior managers? The screw behind the door handle has a plastic cap. The screw holding the visor to the roof has a cap. Why, on a surface that I touch every time I drive the car, can I touch sharp torx screws?
- If there's any car that caters to the granola/fleece/vegan demographic, this is it. Why then, in this base model, is the wheel leather-wrapped? Many people have very strong feelings about the use of leather in products. And the wheel is so slick, it doesn't really feel like leather. Why not a Sensatec-wrapped wheel in the base model, like the seat vinyl?
- Orientation: The wheel appears upside down. It appears to suffer a glandular problem. The designers needed to accommodate a clear view of the selector lever behind the wheel, but in doing so they obscured other interface data, such as if the green LED on the wiper stalk is active and the LED level of the heated seat on the center stack. I have to move my head around the steering to see if I'm at one or two LEDs — oh, the horror!). The winning design of the wheel should have obscured none of these.
- Color: BMW steering wheels should be black. Not only is the gray wheel prone to discoloring, a non-black steering wheel in a BMW looks profoundly uncool. Next thing you know, we'll have FWD bimmers. We have to draw a line in the sand.
If the interior of the i3 is a tuxedo (and, overall, it really is), the steering wheel is a pair of brown shoes.