535i Loaner

[Pinecone]

I took the M3 in for the passenger air bag recall. BMW in its infinite wisdom seems to have NO idea what part is installed in what car, so they take your car, disassemble the dash, find out what is there, and then they order the new one. Which then takes 1 - 2 days or so. So I have had a 2013 535i over the long weekend (and the rest of the week as it will be Sat before I can get back to the dealer).

Annoying things -

It defaults to auto engine shutdown start up. Just plain weird to have the engine shut off randomly.

I cannot get the nav to get out of perspective mode to map display. I get to the other, but pushing the iDrive does not change the selection.

If you do something wrong, it displays an error message, but you have to hit the iDrive to get back to nav, even if you "fix" what you did wrong.

They switched the radio/phone and cruise controls on the wheel. Radio/phone is on the right now (on the left in the E46).

The shifter makes no sense. How many years have automatic transmissions be PRND???? This one assumes at start up you are in neutral, so you push FORWARD for REVERSE. Shifter works like you are in manual mode or SMG shifter, in that it comes back to center every time. From reverse to drive is pull it back once. So what happened to neutral???? For Park, you push a button on the top of the shifter. And to shift, you have to push a button on the side of the shifter, some of the time. And if you don't push the buttom when it wants you to, see the error message annoyance above.

iDrive, some things scroll by twisting the iDrive. But things like lists, look like you would step through them by pushing it forwards or backwards. And many left/right things seem backwards to me. Like if a menu is open in nav, you push right to make the menu go left to hide it.

This thing is HUGE. A BOAT.

It has Sport and Comfort, but sometimes it seems to be confused. I pushed Sport and it seemed very floaty on the suspension. So I pushed Comfort and it was more controlled. Pushed Sport again, and it really finally seemed like a Sport setting with a bit tighter and stiffer setup.

When you get in after the car has been sitting in the sun, the AC does not ramp up to full blower. You have to push Max A/C to get that. And Max A/C auto sets the temp setting to 60. So if you don't turn Max off, you can cool your beverages.

They have an MPG guage on the dash, but it isn't really MPG, it is a vacuum guage like the E36 MPG. This is on the right. One the left, you have selectable digital read outs that include instantaneous and average MPG, and those are real MPG numbers.

The bottom of left guage has an analog range indicator. A red bar that shows you how many miles to empty. Right next to this is the fuel gauge. WTF?!

Likes -

Good power.

The dash is semi driver oriented, in that the center section is slightly angled towards the driver, not the flat dash they had for a while.

Not bad gas mileage. When I picked it up (12K miles on it) the average MPG readout was showing 24.3. I drove it for a while, then reset it and am seeing over 25 in mixed driving. And I have been standing on it at times.

Typical BMW, it doesn't feel happy until at fairly high speed.

Who cares -

"Keyless" entry. You have to use the fob to lock the car, but if you walk up with the "key" in your pocket, you just pull the driver door handle and the car unlocks.

Power trunk, push on hold the fob button and the trunk unlocks and opens. Push a button on the trunk, and it closes and locks.

Start/stop button. Really? WHY?

Efficient Dynamics. Huh? Seems that to save energy, the battery is charged using regenerative braking when you are off the gas or using the brakes. No idea if the system is smart enough to charge using fuel if needed. And the "mpg" gauge has to tell you this by going into the Efficient Dynamics range of the gauge when this is happening.

Overall, better than expected, but not enough to make me want to buy another BMW.

[Nick M3]

You don't like the erectile dysfunction badging?r

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

It defaults to auto engine shutdown start up. Just plain weird to have the engine shut off randomly.

Blame this on new fuel economy regulations. I found it funny that when I had a Panamera for a loaner, that the Porsche admin person who did the walk through on the car made sure to mention how to turn it off I ended up leaving it on and it didn't really bothered me. Car only went off when stopped at a light, and came back on fast enough, although there is a split second delay to go...

Originally Posted by Pinecone

"Keyless" entry. You have to use the fob to lock the car, but if you walk up with the "key" in your pocket, you just pull the driver door handle and the car unlocks.

Power trunk, push on hold the fob button and the trunk unlocks and opens. Push a button on the trunk, and it closes and locks.

I don't understand BMW's not auto-locking when you walk away. You either have to push the button on the key or press the button on the exterior door handle to unlock it. My wife's Mini also requires you to push the button on the door to open -- it doesn't unlock with just trying to open the door (this is one of those software dumbing-down things that BMW does with MINIs -- like temp settings being 2 degrees apart instead of one...).

As for the power trunk, the Tesla has this too. You can also double click the trunk button on the FOB to close it when its open. Don't know if that's avail on BMW...

[JST]

I think you can lock it by pressing on the ridges on top of the door handle with the door closed and the key in your pocket.

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by JST

I think you can lock it by pressing on the ridges on top of the door handle with the door closed and the key in your pocket.

That was the "button" I'm referring to...

[Alan]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

It defaults to auto engine shutdown start up. Just plain weird to have the engine shut off randomly.

This is the worst feature ... Fortunately BMW now allows you to turn this feature to the last used ... so in other words it now stays off ... even when you restart the car.

Originally Posted by Pinecone

The shifter makes no sense. How many years have automatic transmissions be PRND???? This one assumes at start up you are in neutral, so you push FORWARD for REVERSE. Shifter works like you are in manual mode or SMG shifter, in that it comes back to center every time. From reverse to drive is pull it back once. So what happened to neutral???? For Park, you push a button on the top of the shifter. And to shift, you have to push a button on the side of the shifter, some of the time. And if you don't push the buttom when it wants you to, see the error message annoyance above.

You get used to it and it feels normal after a little time

Originally Posted by Pinecone

It has Sport and Comfort, but sometimes it seems to be confused. I pushed Sport and it seemed very floaty on the suspension. So I pushed Comfort and it was more controlled. Pushed Sport again, and it really finally seemed like a Sport setting with a bit tighter and stiffer setup. .

The M sport package gives you more of what you want ... 5 different modes and 2 of them are sport ... when packaged with the optional Sport auto transmission and you put both transmission and suspension settings in sport it becomes much more aggressive and the steering tightens up as well.
Plus the M sports larger wheels give a firmer ride

Originally Posted by Pinecone

"Keyless" entry. You have to use the fob to lock the car, but if you walk up with the "key" in your pocket, you just pull the driver door handle and the car unlocks.

With the keyless you should be able to touch the top of the door handle to lock the car

Originally Posted by Pinecone

Start/stop button. Really? WHY?

How are you going to start the car without this ?

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by AF

How are you going to start the car without this ?

There is no start/stop button in my Tesla... No keyhole either...

If the key is inside the car, the car is ready to drive once I sit down, step on the brake and put it into gear (either R or D). It powers down when you put it in park, get out and close the door. Accessories (displays, audio, A/C) come on when you open any of the passenger doors (but not the back hatch...).

About the only situation that this doesn't work is if you want to let people wait in the car while you run in to get something. The car and accessories shut down when the driver gets out and closes the door -- even if the key is in the pocket. My wife had to pop her door open just a bit in order to keep the A/C running and listen to music

[robg]

Not to hijack this thread with more Tesla talk...

But this is actually one of my nitpicks with the Model S. I get what they were going for (the car should be smart enough to serve the driver without unnecessary steps), but I don't think they're quite there yet. Adding a start/stop button would add a lot of flexibility without asking much more of the driver. Hopefully they'll add an "accessory mode" via a software update accessible via the screen. Or maybe by tapping the Park button.

Originally Posted by ZBB

There is no start/stop button in my Tesla... No keyhole either...

If the key is inside the car, the car is ready to drive once I sit down, step on the brake and put it into gear (either R or D). It powers down when you put it in park, get out and close the door. Accessories (displays, audio, A/C) come on when you open any of the passenger doors (but not the back hatch...).

About the only situation that this doesn't work is if you want to let people wait in the car while you run in to get something. The car and accessories shut down when the driver gets out and closes the door -- even if the key is in the pocket. My wife had to pop her door open just a bit in order to keep the A/C running and listen to music

[Alan]

Originally Posted by ZBB

There is no start/stop button in my Tesla... No keyhole either...

If the key is inside the car, the car is ready to drive once I sit down, step on the brake and put it into gear (either R or D). It powers down when you put it in park, get out and close the door. Accessories (displays, audio, A/C) come on when you open any of the passenger doors (but not the back hatch...).

Wow that is pretty cool ... I am sure that car has many other cool features that other cars don't.

[Pinecone]

Originally Posted by ZBB

There is no start/stop button in my Tesla... No keyhole either...

If the key is inside the car, the car is ready to drive once I sit down, step on the brake and put it into gear (either R or D). It powers down when you put it in park, get out and close the door. Accessories (displays, audio, A/C) come on when you open any of the passenger doors (but not the back hatch...).

With the auto shutdown, this actually makes sense. Just put it in gear, and it starts.

What was so wrong with a key to start.

Oh, and the radio plays and the lights stay on until you lock the car. Or maybe they shutdown in a couple of hours.