e60 530D

[Scania]

The lacquer coming off the plastic on the steering wheel isn't just a BMW thing.

Indeed not. My 2008 Scania has this issue. It has nearly done 300k miles mind you!

As for e60 swirl flaps, my brother in law's 525d (e60) is around 140k and to my knowledge he has had no issues with it whatsoever (bar him filling it with unleaded!) that said, I'm not sure if the 525 has the same - swirl flap - issues as the 520 or 530d's ?

 

[Irish_Tom]

My door sill strips also corroded, I replaced them all for about £200. The alloy centre caps too.

If you buy new ones from BMW, they will be a slightly different design which is apparently less prone to corrosion. IIRC they're not particularly expensive and they look a bit nicer than the old ones too.

The bit of the steering wheel that peels can be replaced independently of the whole wheel anyway, so it's not a huge issue.

I'd be half tempted to replace the sill strips, the alloy centre caps, the steering-wheel trim and my matts and gear-top need replacing too.

However, the total is going to come somewhere near £400... to replace trim on a 5 year old car... that's done 60k miles... I could understand if it was my old Laguna but Like Fox says, for a BMW 5 Series, I just don't think its really acceptable.