E 70 will have a brand new X drive system

[xx3]

Originally Posted by scott27

BMW have learnt the lesson: they tripled the testing milage & testing time. Upcoming vehicles will be much more reliable. The history won't be repeated.

Mind that E53 X5 and E65/6 7er have been developed in the period when BMW were having financial problems due to Rover debacle. So cost cutting was also very present in development - incl. testing phases. And you know the result. Now BMW have enough resources to make the cars right.

Hmm that might be true... but in my experience BMW rarely has anything go wrong mechanically. Subsystems such as DSC aren't even truly BMW (bosch) and thus are very reliable. Its when it comes to in-house BMW electronics is where the problems arise...

[scott27]

Originally Posted by xx3

Hmm that might be true... but in my experience BMW rarely has anything go wrong mechanically. Subsystems such as DSC aren't even truly BMW (bosch) and thus are very reliable. Its when it comes to in-house BMW electronics is where the problems arise...

Not exactly true.

Yes, mechanically the German cars are usually great engineered & the quality is OK.

Electronic systems are not so reliable. Neither Bosch is immune: remember MB SCB braking system, and the debacle with pumps for diesel engines that stopped the production in BMW & MB factories.

Also the BMW was so determined to be the first one to offer iDrive kind of controller, that they released it to early - if not, Audi would be the first one. So initially they released very buggy software.

But this is history ... Today the times are very different.

[fln8tive]

Does scott27 happen to work in a big white building outside of Spartanburg?

[Bavarian]

Finally BMW has a competitive AWD system...

The first-gen AWD system in the original X5 was a joke.

The xDrive was an improvement, but again - it was nothing special.

Finally they've created something to compete with quattro and 4Matic! Geez, it took 'em like 10 years to catch up.

[LeMansX5]

Originally Posted by accella4.4

Does scott27 happen to work in a big white building outside of Spartanburg?

He said that he does not work for BMW NA, may be BMW europe .

[xx3]

Originally Posted by LeMansX5

He said that he does not work for BMW NA, may be BMW europe .

He works for BMW Germany... has been instrumental in laying out many future BMW plans on other forums. This is why I was so excited to see him here !

[DinanX5]

Originally Posted by scott27

Exactly!


New xDrive will be much more capable than the current one. Not so much off-road, but mainly on-road - in all road conditions - allowing even more dynamic drive with extremely good handling & traction.

The trick is in quicker response of xDrive system, other electronic systems (ABS, DSC, DCU, etc) are even more connected to xDrive operations, more factors / parameters included in xDrive operations, torque distribution also left/right not only front/rear - distributing torque dynamicly and separately to each wheel without torque loss, etc.

On-road test showed the new xDrive is much capable than the famous Audi's new rear-biased Quattro system.

Also: E70 will also be the first production vehicle to use FlexRay communication protocol (for communication between various control units in a vehicle) - allowing higher transfer rates & less errors. But the use of FlexRay will be limited in E70 - for dumper control only. New BMW F01/2 7-series will be the first car with full capacity FlexRay and many other revolutionary systems and solutions including heavily revised iDrive - this time having iPod for a role model.

Very interesting.
Do you know if BMW have any plans to include adjustable suspension firmness settings on the e70? I'd be more interested in this than adjustable ride height (which I passed on for my current e53)

[vinuneuro]

Originally Posted by Bavarian

Finally BMW has a competitive AWD system...

The first-gen AWD system in the original X5 was a joke.

The xDrive was an improvement, but again - it was nothing special.

Finally they've created something to compete with quattro and 4Matic! Geez, it took 'em like 10 years to catch up.

Care to tell us what's so damn great about 4matic? It doesn't even have the variability of x-drive. The manual diff locks and low-range transfer-case gear set is useless on-road..

[scott27]

Originally Posted by DinanX5

Very interesting.
Do you know if BMW have any plans to include adjustable suspension firmness settings on the e70? I'd be more interested in this than adjustable ride height (which I passed on for my current e53)

According to my info E70 will have an active suspension system similar to the one of 7er: Adaptive Drive of some kind (combining DynamicDrive, EDC-C, air suspension self leveling). For more info wait for the upcoming "Change teh rules" articles.

[DinanX5]

Originally Posted by scott27

According to my info E70 will have an active suspension system similar to the one of 7er: Adaptive Drive of some kind (combining DynamicDrive, EDC-C, air suspension self leveling). For more info wait for the upcoming "Change teh rules" articles.

Thanks Scott. If I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like the e70 suspension system in the works will have some level of driver-adjustable ride firmness, yes?
Where will the 'Change the Rules' article run?