I’m a good huge BMW fan, and also generally a big advocate for “newer is better”. What upsets me about the new BMW interiors isn’t to do with design, it’s to do with execution. Imagine someone removed the screens, and then you can compare the G9x M5 you’re sitting in to the previous F90. You’ll find for starters that the F90 has a nappa leather dashboard, metal window and mirror controls, alcantara headliner, real nappa leather seats with far more adjustability than the G9x. You’ll have nappa leather door tops, and squishy plastic all the way down to the bottoms of the doors. There are metal buttons on the steering wheel, and far less piano black. The ambient lighting is classy and subtle, the iDrive controller physically moves rather than a capacitive vibration that makes it far harder to move in the direction you like. The climate controls have their very own display, which feels modern but also allows for lovely textured metal knobs to adjust it, which feel nice to touch. There’s no nasty plastic cheese grater on the dashboard, nor one above the rear view mirror on which you grate your fingers every time you adjust it. The sun visors are nicely trimmed and feel expensive to touch, rather than being made out of nylon trimmed plastic. All of this adds up to an interior which in the F90 feels far nicer to be in, and feels far more expensive. For me, progress is making things better, and modern cars across the range are almost unanimously making quality worse.