Issue with trim colour
 

My X6 arrived at my dealer and I have a bit of a problem with the trim fitted by the factory. My dealer is contacting BMW to resolve the problem, but it may not as simple as we had first thought.

To save me posting a picture, take a look at the trim in the pictures on page 32 of this eBrochure. http://www.bmw.com/com/en/newvehicle...catalogue.html
I trust you will agree that it looks like quite a light/mid brown wood.

Well I ordered what's described in the UK brochure as 'Dark Ash Wood trim - Code 4BN' and which seems similar to the trim within the this PDF as 'Dark Ash - Code 4BN' (see Page 11 - http://resource.bmwusa.com/Pdf_9aec1...35af904eb.arox )

Now, if you look at the Dark Ash/Dark Ash Wood (4BN) you would agree with me that it's 'dark', darker than the 'Dark Bamboo' trim (4AZ).

Well, after ordering Dark Ash, what's actually fitted to my car looks 'exactly' like the sample in the first link above (i.e. the light/mid brown wood veneer).

As far as I can tell from the various brochures, there is no mid-brown trim available for the X6, so either BMW invented a new trim just for my car, or more worryingly Dark Ash is nothing of the sort, and is in fact a light to medium ash.

If Dark Ash does not really exist (i.e. is a configuration error) then either I live with it (no thanks) or insist that it is changed to Dark Bamboo instead.

I'll let you know what we work out, but if in the meantime anyone else has ordered Dark Ash, I would advise that you go and double-check what you've really ordered. Either the configuration system is wrong or perhaps the trim colour doesn't really exist...:confused:

That sucks, hope it works out.

Steve - If you look at the 'build your own' on the BMW NA site you see the same thing.

http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Conte...ModelCode=0860

If you look at the interior trim options - when you select the 'dark wood' it looks darker than the 'dark bamboo' on the selector buttons.

Now scroll up to the picture of the car interior and when you switch between the two interior colors the 'dark wood' looks a lot lighter than the 'dark bamboo' - like the light color your described.

Bizarre - looks to me like the 'dark wood' color that they have in the brochure is not accurate/misleading.

Hope it works out for you.

This also happened to me. I ordered the dark wood instead of the bamboo and it came light. Since I have the saddle interior and it still looked sharp, I didn't argue about it. Had no idea it was happening to others.

The same thing was about to happen to me, luckily the dealer somehow new this and we changed the configuration to Bamboo..

BMW should really address this, I guess a lot of people will fall in this trap...

Heard this before from few others. Nothing dark about dark wood. Bamboo is darker.

Steve, that sucks.
I bet you feel gutted that this situation has arisen after waiting so long for your car.
I hope you can find a solution which satisfies you.
ATB Simon

Weird situation, that is for sure :)
I am made it easy for my self and orderer Aluminium Flywheel, so there is no way that thay can change it to wood by mistake. If they would change it to Brushed Aluminium, I would not care that much. But flywheel looks unique and nice in combination with oyster leather, so that is the way to go for me. :cool:
I just dont like the wood any more after having it for a long time in my current 528iA.
Steved, hope you will get it right with your dealer!

I don't like wood in cars, but I dislike Aluminium even more, so I always choose the darkest possible wood. With my 4.6is I chose Piano Black inside an Estoril Blue, which looked nice and classy. In my two 4.8is, I chose what was called Dark Poplar (inside Le Mans Blue) which was as near as I could get to Piano Black.

This time Dark Ash seemed the least wood like, and I've now found that it's this mid-brown tone, which does not look good against Black Nevada leather inside a 'red' car.

I'm expecting BMW to play hardball (i.e. say they've built it to spec), and then I need to decide whether to bring my press credentials into play. I'd rather not - they should really treat all customers the same.

Let's see what they do, but if I can bring any influence then I will try and encourage them to change the brochures before it spoils the experience for any other customer.

Well, I think you should have ordered the Bamboo :)