How much interior wear is normal?

B

benlumley

Member
 Bath
Hello.

Just been to look at a couple of Z4's and was suprised by the level of wear and tear inside. Two in particular:

A 2007 2.5, 37K miles - noticed that the steering wheel felt very well worn, and the gearstick had most of the silver worn off on the top as well. Seats (cloth) also showing a fair bit of wear.

A 2005 3.0, 56K - steering wheel felt better, and geatstick less worn. But leather seats had a lot of wear/cracking - main bit was drivers side by the door, all the way up was worn grey and looked cracked.

Not especially worried about any of this if its the norm for age/mileage - but wondering what you guys think? Is it normal? Or should i expect to find ones in better nick?

Also in the back of my mind is that I've often seen it said that wear/tear inside is a sign its not been well looked after, or that its been clocked (no idea if its possible to clock a Z4, and no reason to think either had been ...).

Ta

Ben
 
Cracking around the right hand bolster is common unfortunately. At 56k it wouldn't be unusual at all.
 
Basically to get out you need to rest on it, so the bolsters always will have wear. Plus when I bought mine the gear knob was a grey/chrome BMW standard one, which was also very worn, and the steering wheel had very slight wear. And mine is a 2004 with 36k on :)
 
Cool, sounds like its fairly normal wear/tear then!

Guessing gear knobs are as easy to replace as in any other car?
 
i found using a seat cover basically stop 98% of this wear, sadly they are unsightly, my z4 has had a cover on the seats since new, the seats are like the moment i picked the car up from brand spankers so they much work.
 
As said above how they are treated helps condition mine still look like they did when i bought the car on 11k now showing around 25k but i look after them.
 
Why use a seat cover to preserve the seats for the next owner- enjoy them and accept the wear!??
 
I think that with a low slung sports car with a low roof line. It is very normal to have more than average wear on the entry side bolsters. I'm not sure about worn shift knobs. Could it be that with right hand drive the knobs are subject to more wear from wedding rings. I've only rarely seen a worn shifter knob in the states on anything less than 10 years old.

I found that my wife's cars tend to show more wear on the entry bolster. Not sure why girls do this. But she like most girls seems to want the steering wheel pressed right up against the twins. As a result she has to squeeze into the car. Dragging her bottom bits across the leather. I have without success tried to convince her to put the seat to the rear before she exits so that entry is less of a problem.

With me and my Z. I find that if the roof is down. I am able to get in with barely touching the side bolster. But when the roof is up. I am less able to gracefully enter. and do a one cheek drag. But then I am getting on in years and seem to be less flexible than I was in the past.

But the Z is worlds better to get into than my 356 speedster was. with the roof up on that thing I would always end up pulling the hat off my head with the top. I would actually have take my arm that was in the car and pull at the back of my
head to get in. and the seats were suffering for it.




cheers
Jerry
 
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