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Ha! Reviving a dead topic? A beat to death post?
Yeah it was I, the infamous RPiM5 that got BMW NA to officially release a bulletin about the missing 20-way seats, aka adjustable side bolsters.
The final conclusions of the investigation were that BMW did not include them in North American M5's due to difficulty in federalizing the design with the U.S. government. I think it was either the same case with the Canadian government or it was just laziness to have all M5's shipped to North America not have them.
Regarding the second question, no they are in fact not retrofittable. If you want them, you will have to buy a whole new seat. The mechanical inner workings of adjustable side bolsters are just not present in the North American seats. I have heard of one guy over here that went ahead and bought entirely new seats with the adjustable side bolsters in them I think. it's THE only way.
Also, in case anybody is wondering, it is still unknown if BMW actually listened to the tantrum we threw about this last year with the 2013 model M5 was finally released to the North American market, but we are hoping that for the 2014 LCI generation F10 M5, they redesigned the air bag design so that we could have adjustable side bolsters again. However, this would be a slap in the face to 2013 owners and I wouldn't hold your breath. Just my opinion.
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