Despite the work on the E90 interior, the new E91 still seemed very familiar inside and lacked the 'new car' feel. As such it needed an uplift of some sort, and the search for a new interior commenced in earnest.
After just 3 weeks of ownership or thereabouts, I happened upon a Saddle Brown interior on eBay, which was at a breakers about 35 miles from home. They'd listed the seats, door cards, and centre console. Needing pretty much everything else as well (THE. BEIGE. IS. EVERWHERE!) I messaged the seller and they agreed to let me visit and remove some additional parts. The original Dakota Beige interior has beige carpets, beige lower dash, beige side plastics, beige footwell plastics, beige upper/lower door cards, beige centre console, beige boot/trunk carpets, beige boot/trunk panels, and beige boot/trunk plastics. Phew! This won't be quick to do.
A side note.
Trims, steering wheel and cluster aside, the only other "interior trim" work I've done is to fit the BMW Alpine Audio kit. That adds front tweeters and better front door speakers, which saw me replace the front window frame surrounds. This swap was way, way, way beyond anything I'd tackled previously, but for some crazy reason I felt up to tackling it.
And so. The breakers and I agreed a day for me to visit, collect the interior, and make up a pile of extras too. Off I went with some tools and the rear seats removed in advance - would definitely need all the space I can find!
Some pics of the donor, their "carpet removal tool", and my tightly packed E91 after about 5 hours work with the trim removal tools, Torx, and regular socket set:
