[Davidson]

Originally Posted by tawia

BMW sales suck. Ok, if the sales person doesn't know every last option/feature of every model it should be in BMW's interest to have one person in the dealership thats trained to knows absolutely everything about every option on every model.
You don't walk into an apple store and ask about Siri for the guy to hum and make something up. For me buying a BMW is a much bigger deal/expense than buying a mac.

As for the black panel display, my dealer gave me the old 'don't bother' talk as he avoided telling me what it consisted of because he didn't know. (Along with every other option i asked about) Now that he has seen it on my car, he recommends it to all new customers...

Likewise in BMW Hong Kong!

I also wonder if this can be order as retrofit item.

[ovekvam]

I test drove cars with black panel, and decided it was completely unnecessary, so I ordered our car without it. I don't regret that decision. I would definitely like to have more instrumentation (like temp gauges), but you don't get it with the black panel.

[papertiger]

I didn't order it on my car, and I definitely don't miss it! Ok - so I don't have the new electronic consumption-o-meter below the rev dial, but I have it on the little screen in the middle of the dials. That does it for me - and I totally agree with ovekvam here; the car does not know best when it comes to economic driving tips.

The only thing I miss in the instrument cluster is a water temp gauge. Like the one in the new F30, a manual gauge rightmost in the instrument cluster.

[rickk]

I have the black panel and I agree it offers no real added functionality, except maybe for the ability to see the next road/junction name when navigating

I do think it makes the dash look nicer though, and secretly/foolishly I hope that some day the functionality will be extended, with temp gauges for example..