Curious if anyone has heard/seen this done. The one thing I wish I had on my car - do a lot of cycling and would like to put my bike in the trunk. Likely it is next to impossible or cost prohibitive - if it is a matter of a new seatback - that may be something I could find from a wrecked car.
I think it is more complex than that as there is a piece of metal separating the car interior from the trunk - this piece of metal is absent on a folding rear seat model. If I am incorrect please let me know .
I think you are right - I was a bit "fatigued" of buying roof racks I just spend a bunch of time and money to have our family SUV set up with roof racks. My thought was that I just needed to put my bike in the car for our Tuesday night club rides - so I thought that the rear folding seat would suffice. I also fear the wind noise / appearance of a roof rack on my 535.
I have the folding rear seats, but still use a bike rack to carry my bike. I hate dirtying or scraping the carpeting on the back of the seats! Also it's extremely easy to scratch the bumper when loading the bike. I'll take and upload a pic of the back of the car with the rack on by this weekend.
Can you easily punch a hole in the backseat for skis? Somehow I remember tapping there and it seems like only plastic behind the rear center console. But when I check again later, I couldn't even figure out how to expose that area.
When I purchased my E60, I researched whether the folding seat option decreased torsional rigidity. The answer is that it does not because the frame is exactly the same: models with the folding seat and without the folding seat have the same frame with a hole through to the trunk. Thus, I believe the only difference is the seat.
I can't imagine why you think that. It certainly leaves the lines of the car unmolested to put the bike inside. It also protects the expensive bike from theft, vandalism, low-clearance parking garages, etc. And while a careless person could scratch their trunk putting it in, I've seen plenty of people leave a scratch getting a bike down off the roof rack, too.
That said, if I were the OP, i'd just take off both wheels for now, and make sure to get fold-downs on my next trade.
I have the fold down rear seats and one of the first things I did when I got the car home was check to see if my road bike would fit in the trunk with the seats folded down. It did, but it still required removing the front wheel. With the seat folded down, most any dirt or mud that might be a problem would be limited to the trunk, so that might not be much of an issue (depends on the person). However, I am still considering purchasing a rack for times when I need to transport more than one bike.
This topic was kicked around on the 5series forum. From what I remember is the rear structure is completely different to compensate for the loss of rigidity lost by not having a sold metal back. I know it sounds crazy but believe me that adds a bunch to the car. Kinda like windows on conversion vans. There walls a very weak and flimsy when you take out the big side windows
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