re: M6, Euro Sport Seats - Opinions???

[Phil Marx <BMW@xxxxxxx>]

Tom Lesko asked:
>I am considering changing  the seats in my son's 635 from the rock hard
>stock seats to one of the following: M6 seats, Euro sport seats or 2
>door 325 stock seats. Would any of you who have those cars/seats care to
>comment on how comfortable they are? Not looking for a sofa, but the
>park bench is just too hard. Thoughts? Feel free to email me direct/cc
>to the group if you like. Thanks.

Not sure what you're describing.  Early 6ers could be had with Recaro seats
as used in the 320i (E21) sport package (but mostly in leather).  All US
635Csi's with sport seats were BMW sport seats, like the US M5 (E28) and
535iS (and for the manually adjustables, the E30 325e 2dr in '84 to 86(?)
and "s" models after that and all E30 convertibles).  These were not made
by Recaro.  A stock 2dr 325 seat after '86 is like a standard '84 318 seat.
The sport seat was standard in the 635 for a while then BMW switched to the
"comfort" seat.  The M6 (US) had the sport seats standard.  My confusion
with your question comes from the fact that the "comfort" seat has more
springs than the sport seat which is usually thought to be the harder of
the two.  The BMW sport seat is very comfortable (for me) for very long
distances although my old boss who was quite....wide used to say it gave
him a headache.  Little known fact is that the 6 series BMW sport seats are
actually the same seat as the 4dr car, with minor base changes, and the 4dr
seats even have the seat back release mechanism in the hinges, just not the
cables and the levers to operate them.  The seat frame is cut/drilled for
the levers, the hinges are just locked in 4dr mode.  Be careful when
choosing one of the BMW sport seats as the frames are very thin and an
abused one can be severely cracked in the frame (in addition to the common
side-bolster support breaking), often beyond the point of being repairable.
In addition the seat-back-angle/rear-height adjust gear boxes are prone to
damage when the seat frames crack and they cost each (two/seat) more than a
good after market seat.

- -Phil Marx   BMWCCA #6021

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