What a dopey accessory. That's what I thought until I got it on my 460. Used it for the first time this season. I can't imagine having a car without it. I would rate it right up there with flow thru heaters and electric wipers. Anyone remember lifting off the gas so the wipers could make a pass or two, so you could see. Remember wind wings opened to get a little air moving to clear the fog off the windows. Remember when passenger side rear view mirrors, turn signals and backup lights were options. Power steering, power brakes and automatic transmissions were considered extravagances. Don't even think about A/C. Now today, I can't imagine buying a car without all of these and many more options as a necessity.

 

Every car has a different strength to it’s heated steering wheel. They all won’t be as good as what you have. So make sure to try them out in the future when you get a new car.

use it in good health. Enjoy.

 

And how about when you changed the plugs and points every 5000 miles.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I think many of the audience here don't know about those days.

 

Oh I've dealt with points.....dealt with them by swapping them out to a hall sensor lol!

 

Remember them fancy hi tech tubeless tires that we could get 10000 miles out of. Dad got mad at Mom for rubbing the tires sidewalls, put on curb squeelers. They went nicely with the red plastic bug deflector clamped to the chrome strip in the middle of the hood. He did rip off the propeller on the deflector. He thought it went a little over the top.

 

Wait until you experience a car where the whole rim of the wheel is heated, not just the leather parts. The feel of heated wood is even better than the feel of heated leather...no clue why Lexus does it that way...

 

Long term wear/safety, if you have ever been around one that the wood is chipped off for any reason you would know what I mean.....hot wires that really could hurt you. That or they just do not want to put heat into the wood I guess?

 

I mean, somehow everybody else can heat the wood and everybody survives. Its just them being cheap.

I've never seen a car with a wood leather wheel with a big chip out of the wood.

 

I've seen dozens, mostly BMWs that people screw up. It happens a lot once the car moves past the 1st owners.

 

I look at a lot of used cars and have never seen anything like that. BMW also doesn't offer a wood/leather wheel as an option except on very few models offered sporadically over the years. I havent seen dozens of BMWs with wood/leather steering wheels period. To remove a chunk of solid wood down enough to expose the heating element? Please.

 

The bengal era 7 series owned by certain demographics.....those are the types of ones who do things like that. The wood is very thin actually, only 1-3mm max and it's surprisingly easy to chip off, I replaced 3 wheels due to said chipping but the cars needed so much more to just stay alive that was the least of their issues.

 

Those 7 Series never had a wood/leather steering wheel from the factory. If you saw cars that did they were aftermarket.

The wood in a wood wheel is pretty solid, it’s not like a wood interior panel. The urethane finish can chip off, but they actually can be sanded and refinished. Anyways like I said with very few exceptions BMW doesn’t make wheels like that. Really the only German company that does is Mercedes.

 

Uh....

https://www.google.com/shopping/prod...622959362,cs:1

They absolutely did/do and it was a factory wheel. The element runs though the wood and I have seen quite a few damaged and I remember it so well since I was surprised it was an issue at all.

 

Thats an aftermarket steering wheel. I shopped for one when they were new, there was absolutely no option for a wood leather wheel from the factory. That feature is one of my favorite features and not having them is seriously a reason why I have never gotten a BMW, so I know.

This is that seller's eBay store. He sells aftermarket wood/leather wheels. Did a Honda Accord have a factory wood leather wheel? No lol

https://www.ebay.com/usr/terrw_2?_tr...145687.l151931

Here is a link to the Brochure for a 2004 Bangle 7 Series:

https://www.auto-brochures.com/makes...eries_2004.pdf

These are the trim options, as you can see even with the extended wood package on the 760, there was no wood/leather wheel:

 

https://www.b-parts.com/auto-parts/i...08-2009-437683

It's absolutely a stock wheel, here's another one from a parts car. I'm not sure if it simply was not an initial US option or if just everyone swapped euro wheels on the cars I fixed.