[The Automotive Enthusiast]

We were sent this amazing picture of a brand-new BMW X5 by a dealer who’d like to remain anonymous, if you don’t mind. This is how the car came from the factory, with one black leather seat back, and one white one. Somehow, this made it past the final quality inspection. Somebody looked at this and said “Sure, looks great! Send it off!” Amazing.

It’d be fun to blame this on normally-fastidious Germans, but we really can’t since X5s are made at BMWs factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina. This one’s on us Americans.

Maybe someone ordered it this way? Maybe someone felt really strong about making a statement about diversity, or perhaps someone is just a huge fan of those black-and-white cookies. Maybe the driver is normally good, and the passenger is normally evil, and they wanted to have seat upholstery that reflected this dichotomy in the simplest possible way?

Really, almost any explanation is more believable than some quality inspector not noticing this. Because, come on–what do they use for QC over there, drunk moles who flunked out of community college?

I wonder if this inspector was in charge of BMW turn indicator functionality, too

http://jalopnik.com/bmw-has-at-least...lay-1793020065

[nyalpine90]

i guess there is no quality control.

[MalibuBimmer]

The seats must be covered as they get installed. But that doesn't excuse BMW when the coverings were removed.

Makes me wonder if this is a true story.

(A neighbor of mine ordered a 650i with automatic transmission for his wife and a European delivery. BMW proudly delivered the car at the factory with stick shift. And insisted that's what he ordered. He took out a copy of his build sheet and showed BMW that it had really made a mistake.)

[mrfattbill]

Maybe their spouse is ALWAYS cold.....

Bill

[nyalpine90]

the seats do not come cover...regular clear plastic over them.
plenty of youtube videos of SC plant

[mojobmw_e90]

Was probably his last day at the job so he said fuck it

[zx10guy]

Friday car.....

[The Automotive Enthusiast]

It's late....And time to go home!

[IndotagSwizz]

could be real...or very well could also be some sort of showroom display car....too small of a pic...not enough info..

[Wolf 335]

This is clearly either

a) ordered this way by customer or

b) original seat got damaged, and in order to meet the shipment deadline they installed a spare black seat.

It's cheaper for the dealer to replace the seat than to delay a whole shipment of 100 cars.

Don't kid yourselves, this has nothing to do with quality control. Each seat is scanned and has to match the VIN before it can be installed.

[The Automotive Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by IndotagSwizz

could be real...or very well could also be some sort of showroom display car....too small of a pic...not enough info..

I doubt it's a showroom display car. Usually, showroom cars are for sale, and only display products like tire and wheel protection or paint protection.

[David70]

Originally Posted by MalibuBimmer

Makes me wonder if this is a true story.

X2, person that installed it and everyone else that saw the car on the way and no one said anything.

[Maynard]

I think this is a photoshop deal - color doesn't match well (looks like tan interior, white seat), and implausible to say the least.

[///3dkn]

Originally Posted by Maynard

I think this is a photoshop deal - color doesn't match well (looks like tan interior, white seat), and implausible to say the least.

Thats really good fuckin photoshop then. Looks pretty real to me.

[The Automotive Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by David70

X2, person that installed it and everyone else that saw the car on the way and no one said anything.

"We were sent this amazing picture of a brand-new BMW X5 by a dealer"

[Chihuahua]

Go home X5, you're drunk.

[Maynard]

Check out some of the color-change pics in the photo section - it seems fairly easy to re-color pics, especially starting with such a light color as a white seat (if you know what you are doing - for me, MSPaint is high tech). I have trouble believing that this really just showed up at the dealership like this. Could be one of those other options (i.e. a super quick and temp replacement for damage so the purchaser could drive it away, while waiting for the correct part), but I'm voting for it just being click-bait.

[IndotagSwizz]

Originally Posted by Mo@BMWofFairfax

"We were sent this amazing picture of a brand-new BMW X5 by a dealer"

so because a dealer sent you 1/4 of a pic, then is true???

[MightyMouseTech]

Ya, gonna call bullshit on this one.

[Wolf 335]

I just saw that the bottom part is still white. Interesting.

[David70]

Originally Posted by Wolf 335

I just saw that the bottom part is still white. Interesting.

Agree, not only was the multi color seat installed without anyone noticing but since the whole seat is installed at once, there was some other part of the process where the seat was built and inspected using multi colored pieces. So we now have many people involved in the process and not one of them realized something that is very obvious. If there were two shades of tan I would buy it, not black and tan next to each other.

[lemetier]

Originally Posted by Mo@BMWofFairfax

http://jalopnik.com/bmw-has-at-least...lay-1793020065

Before questioning how the seat would have to be intentionally assembled that way at the adjacent Lear plant 90 minutes prior to installation, passing through no less than a dozen QC points along the way, and triggering the rapid correction major defect protocol to inspect the 10 cars ahead and 10 cars behind, something else stands out.

Why is a "brand new" X5 missing the anthracite headliner that's been standard equipment for 8 months?