E70 - Week one impressions

[adje2007]

Here's my addition to the ever growing list of "week one reviews" appearing on the forum.

I will post some pictures soon.

I have the 3.0Diesel with the Exec Pack (nav, back up camera etc).

Positives

Blue tooth pairing is sensational. It works with my Blackberry and with the Nokia phone that came with the car. My entire BB address book doesn’t seem to sink with the E70 but that is no big deal as there are several thousand entries. The Nokia works like a dream and pairs instantly when my wife gets into the car.

Handling – amazing. Drives better than my 2001 E46 3.20i. More power. Just as much cornering ability (without active suspension). I am amazed at how BMW have made a very heavy and tall car feel like a sports car to drive.

Fuel economy – superb. I am getting 12.5l / 100km around the city (as good as my 3.20i). On the highway after the car has been run in I expect this to be down around 8l/100km.

Sun roof – a must have in my opinion. Makes the car so light and airy. Works well. The kids love it.

iDrive short cuts – without this I suspect my wife would never use the phone or turn on the radio.

Look – the best looking 4wd on the road at the moment (although I still like the look of the Range Rover Sport)

Build quality – no squeaks, rattles, bits falling off (yet). The dealer did to a crappy job installing the tinting leaving a couple of bubbles but this can be easily fixed.

Lights – fantastic carry and clarity. I like the adaptive headlights but can’t really see their effect in the city. I suspect on country roads they will be very useful.

Reversing camera in the day - in well lit conditions it is fantastic. The way bmw have managed to superimpose the turning circle guides and park distance control guides is very cleaver and very useful.

Shortcut keys on the steering wheel – all cars have them these days but I like them anyway.

Servicing – first service is at 30,000 km – incredible! No wonder they give away the first 3 years of servicing free.

Sound system – base model sounds fantastic in my opinion. Annoying that BMW are asking us to pay more for the IPOD adapter but the Aux input seems to work fine.

Jury is out

Transmission – initially I found that the car was a little sluggish off the mark. This could be me getting used to the tubo lag. More lately I have found that if I drive the car a little harder it really responds well and drives much more smoothly.

Head up display – Yes I like it because it is a gadget but is it really worth the money. Probably not. My wife finds it annoying.


Comfort access – I’m warming to this. But again not sure if it is worth the money. Certainly it is easy to just jump in the car press start and go. But having to press the start button twice when I stop is something I’m bound to forget and wind up with a flat battery because I have left the radio on. Maybe there is a setting to get around this but I haven’t found it yet.

Navigation – not bad but not as good as some of the $300 systems you can buy at the local electronic stores (Tomtom etc).

Voice activation – I suspect that this will be completely useless but I didn’t pay more for it so who cares.

Colour - I think that Black looks best. I bought silver because I could cope with washing another black car every single week. Still - it doesn't look as good as black.


Negatives

Reversing camera at night – completely useless

PDC and reversing camera on same screen – It would be nice to have the PDC display and the reversing camera able to be seen on the same screen. The reversing camera screen does have a kind of superimposed line which changes colour as the you get closer to an obstacle but it would still be nice to have the PDC in one of the two screens.

It’s annoying that TV can’t be shown full screen. It can only be in the main window. Seems like this would be an easy thing for BMW to have fixed through software.

Summary

This is an expensive car so you expect a lot from it. But it does deliver in the most important areas of driveability, comfort and luxury. I can’t wait for my first long trip which will cost me less in petrol than my 3.20i, be more comfortable and safer due to all the passive safety mechanisms (Bluetooth, head-up display, adaptive lights etc).

Regrets

I have a niggling doubt that I made the right decision not to get the 3rd row of seats. I know they are small but they would have been nice to have had (at least I have a full size spare in the spot where the seats would have gone).

Might have wasted some money on head up display and comfort access but only time will tell.