<all> Alpina wooden shift knob very nice and not too much $$$

["Aaron Bohnen" <bohnen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

I bought an Alpina wooden shift knob today (BMW #97-00-2-310-003) so that 
I'd have something on the car for a while until my black walnut one gets a 
few more coats of Varathane on it and a little 5-spd disc inlay.

Well, I really like this little Alpina knob. It is about 5/8" of an inch 
lower in overall height than the other larger (although admittedly 
much sexier looking) wooden one that was in the showcase down at my local 
dealer. I think that's a great improvement already. Short shifting seems 
silly when the lever sticks so far up out of the console and I'm working on 
that too, but whatever lowers the height of the shift knob helps.

The Alpina knob is also smaller in diameter and has a large inlaid acetate 
disc in the top with the Alpina logo in it. Nice upgrade to the stock shift 
knob, better in my mind anyway than the more expensive wooden ones at the 
dealer, but not as good as my homemade nice black walnut one.

Can't beat the price, though - $CDN 44 retail, less with club disount. 

The other sexier one with the 5 spd inlay (but not better in my mind) was 
$CDN 54, the same wooden one comes without the inlay for $CDN 119 (get 
less, pay more - what's that all about?) and the stock plasticky crappy one 
was $CDN 32. 

Anyway, the upshot is that the Alpina wooden knob is very nice - a very 
good upgrade and at a price that I could even get away without feeling too 
bad about (partiularly since I know how much work my own handmade little 
knob has taken!)

best of luck,

Aaron
___________________________________________________________
Aaron Bohnen                     email: bohnen@domain.elided
- -Ph.D. Candidate, Civil Engineering Department, U.B.C.
- -Technicraft Engineering Services

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