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Old 08-28-2009, 08:28 PM
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B-Line B-Line is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Los Angeles...
Posts: 4,460
B-Line is on a distinguished road
So I only drove about 10 miles and didn't get to hammer it through the twists but here's the low down..

I'll start with the bad..
1) The Wheels.. Shame on you BMW.. You could have done so much better. No one, not a single person at the dealership liked them. I can live with them, for now but was very unimpressed.
2) The sport seats.. I don't get it. There not really sport seats so those little side lip bolsters don't hold you in place. They just make getting in and out of the car more difficult and wish they didn't exist. The non sport seats on the 4.8is for example were great.. It's a small nuisance though.
3) Automatic tail gate. Well, 1/2 an automatic tail gate, anyway.. It doesn't close the bottom part of the tail gate, just the top.. So what's the point? If they are going to make the tailgate automatic, either make the entire tailgate one piece or make both pieces automatic..

What I loved...
1) Wow this car has some awesome power. You mash the throttle and it goes.
2) Exhaust note. At idle it's pedestrian, at wide open throttle, it's breath taking.
3) The brakes.. They're great.. But you still need to work to bring that missile of a behemoth to a top. It's not like driving a 911 with great brakes which you don't need to think about. The X5M has amazing stopping power, but it's still a heavy vehicle barreling down the road with mass.
4) Manual mode. I like the fact that the transmission doesn't automatically upshift for you like in the old steptronics.. The transmission will bounce off the rev limited all day in manual mode.
5) Blipping downshifts... The trans felt smooth and predictable.. I actually like it more than an SMG trans.. But if you know me, you know I don't like SMG anyway.

I drove the whole time with the M button depressed and the suspension in sport so can't really give much critique on the different settings.

I can tell you this though, on the highway on ramp I put the pedal to the floor and the salesman and I were doing triple digits like it was nothing.

Ohhh, I LOVE the thick steering wheel. It's brilliant. The idrive is much better than what I have in my current 7 series. The Heads Up Display worked quite nicely and gave both tach in M mode and speed (directions) in regular mode.

trying to think about other things.. Will add to this list as my memory pops.
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