E36 airbag steering wheel with 4 easy horn-buttons

[ed323i]

Nostalgia: Both my wife and I really miss the E30 4-spoke steering wheel we had before in our E30:
serie1.jpg

The reason: The 4 very easily-accessible horn buttons. In semi-dangerous situations, I would move my thumb over one of the horn-buttons, so that when the situation would eventually turn dangerous, I could press the button instantly. With our current E36 airbag steering wheel, I have to take off one hand from the steering wheel and press the big center horn button hard to sound the horn. Safety-wise I find this a really big step back.. My wife completely agrees.

So, I'm wondering, is there an E36 (type 2, later style steering wheel) steering wheel that also has these four convenient horn buttons?

Thanks!

P.S. This is what our E36 currently has (doesn't have the nice stitches, and is made of fake leather):
13b945db-a408-416a-ad66-f0f18ea8f29b.JPG

[GuildenNL]

I'll try to find a post that has pics of all e36 compatible steering wheels. I don't remember any of them having that configuration. I'm thinking it may have been on the former RoadFly site.

Having said that, I'm not a "honker" but it seems trying to get a thumb on a button while trying to steer through a dicey situation would take away control. Again, no idea as I tend not to honk. In 20 yrs opening my e36, I've honked no more than twice.

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[GuildenNL]

In 20 yrs opening my e36, I've honked no more than twice.

owning my e36.....

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[ed323i]

It's to prevent getting in a dicy situation. For example, I see a car approaching on a cross-road, and I have priority over him, but the guy still hasn't looked in my direction. Then I place my thumb over the horn button, and if 1-2 seconds later the car doesn't decrease speed, and/or he still hasn't looked in my direction, I press the button.

Or, on the highway, me on the left lane (in Europe left lane is overtake/fast-lane) I sense someone on the right lane might not be paying attention enough and might decide to move to the left lane, with me approaching, I move my thumb over the button, and if I see the other driver start to move to the left, I press the button to warn him I'm approaching fast.

With the difficult-to-reach center button, I can't position my hand over the button beforehand, because I would loose control that way. So, I can't anticipate the situation. If the other driver decides to make the dangerous move, I then have to decide to hit the brakes and/or maneuver myself out of danger (two hands on the weel), OR to take one hand off the steering wheel and honk.

If you drive with your hands on 9 and 3 o'clock, a horn button is always in reach, and I only have to extend my thumb a little and I maintain complete control with both hands on the steering wheel.

I did some more research and I think the standard E34 airbag wheel might do the job.. It's not a very sporty looking wheel, and a bit big, but I think it will do the job. I think I'd need a 94+ E34 steering wheel though, otherwise the spline is different. Not sure if these wheels were fitted to 94+ E34's though. Also, I don't know if the E36 had a wheel in this style?

I think it has 4 horn buttons (just) within thumb's reach (the E30 wheel was better as the buttons were a bit closer to the outside of the wheel):
airbagWheel.jpg