100 miles 2010 X5d Initial Impressions
 

Likes:

Interior size, and space coming from a 335i.

Comfort seats and ability to adjust thigh support as well as upper back/head rest angle seperate from thorax adj.

18" wheels, almost remind me of the "old" Cragar wheels which were knock off's of the 55 Chevy type wheels.

iDrive screen and controls. Ability to rip my CD's onto hardrive particularly. I have the iPod adaptor hooked up too.

Diesel rumble of the engine as well as effortless torque.

23 mpg on first half of tank GROSSLY. All city driving.

Titanium silver color is sharp and hides dirt/dust well after a rain til I can Quik Detail...

Quality of Leather map pockets on back of front seats.

Rear cargo area slider tracks with D-rings are actually useful.

Panoramic sunroof is impressive. I HATE sunroofs, particularly here in south FL, but I deeply tinted it and find it useful.

The auto activation of air circulation at two seprate times, ie before going out to lunch from office and before leaving office at end of day.

Voice activation seems to work well so far

Top down camera for parking lots

LED pressure/speed sensitive tail lights

hood and z-line creases in sheet metal of exterior



Dislikes:

Pushing forward to go into reverse and push button parking. not safe

black plastic lip under doors gets filthy

headrest in middle of rear seat blocks rear vision.

no real equliizer for average sounding stereo system

ventilated seat controls not intuitive

garage smell of diesel exhaust

10 week wait for my x5

Bridgestone instead of Micheline Tires

rear wiper control (off)

rear hatch door remote opening attempts sounding alert/alarm

top view back up staying on for 10 seconds or 25mph after going forward

park distance controls, not on when I want and on when I don't want- prob. my problem

tire pressure monitor not displaying actual numeric PSI for each tire (wives Lexus spoiled us)

aluminum trim under and around my walnut trim

bland, boring, repetitive tan trim (ventilated seats, black or tan only)



more to come...

I find it weird too that i have to push forward to go into Reverse....:thumbup:

I dont think its supposed to be an issue to have the top view camera still on after going forward. This is useful when you are trying to go back and forth on a tight space in you garage. Helps me a lot to have my X centered on a parking spot. :thumbup:

On a center console, you push forward to shift into reverse on EVERY car with

P R N D 1 2 3

Not from park....where I start every time I start the car...

:dunno:

but you will get use to it :)

true

It's not an issue if it is the only vehicle you drive, as you get use to almost anything. But it is mildly irritating if you drive a couple of vehicles, and one goes forward for reverse, and the other goes reverse for reverse.

You will also get used to this, don't hold the rear hatch button down or you are activating the panic mode. Press and release....That happened to me a lot initially but cant remember the last time.

Try going directly from an E65 7 series to anything else... you reach for the gear shifter on the column and turn on the damn wipers!

I had the same experience coming from a 2006 ML. For a while my hand was constantly going towards the steering wheel control, and my foot was pushing the non-existent parking brake.

Personally I feel the BMW design for the shifter makes more sense the way it is.

I have had my 535 for over a year now and still do not find the shifter as intuitive as the shifter on my old X5. I don't understand why BMW had to change the design?
It is different but not better.

It saves some space, looks different.

The E53 shifter was physically attached the transmission. The E70 shifter is compltetely electronic. It appears that BMW tried to make the E70 shifter work kind of like the "normal" console shifter (e.g. the E53). Note the arrangement of the letters on the E70 shifter (PRND) BUT then BMW made the E70 P a push button and allowed you to put the E70 in Park by just stopping the engine. So the physical layout of the letters no longer matches the order in which the shifter works. IOW when shifting from P to R you no longer pull the shifter back. FWIW the original PRND is not very intuitive for console shifters either but it is 'standard' for most automatics. And when it was developed, most automatic shifters were on the steering column where the order did not imply direction.

The truth is that the E70 is actually a push button automatic all gussied up to look like something its not. And as a consequence it no longer works like what it looks like and is not very intuitive in its own right. BTW you have glaring proof of this lack of intuitiveness when the iDrive has special instruction screens to tell you did it wrong -- again :(

Funf Dreisg

Yes, I wondered that if it wasn't for the bad memories of those "push button" transmissions in the past, such as the Edsel, would BMW have simply put buttons on the dash or steering wheel, rather than mimic a shift lever selector?


http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thum...ring-wheel.jpg

http://www.kitfoster.com/images/2006...hWeb-Large.jpg

1964 'Cuda:

http://64cuda.com/db1/00022/64cuda.c...Z_IMG_0066.JPG

Valiant:

Google Image Result for http://www.valiant.org/photos/1964/controls.jpg

Nash Rambler:

http://www.vhtrc.org/album2002/rambler03.jpg

What are these used for? Thanks.

:iagree: Nothing new with pushing forward to go reverse.
I have cars with each of shifters and I find the new shifter to be much safer. Car goes into park if you open door while in drive and other safety features.

HUH? Just exactly how do you "push forward to shift into reverse" on EVERY center console shifter when you get in the vehicle, start it up and it is in PARK? In fact, in almost EVERY center console vehicle you pull the shifter BACK from Park to Reverse -- but not the current BMWs.

OTOH once the vehicle is moving the shifter direction works as you describe. As I posted earlier, this is an artifact of copying the shift sequence from popular early automatic transmission shifters, which were on the steering column, to automatic "console shifters" when they were introduced.

FWIW the PRND pattern makes sense if you consider that in many situations the first thing you want to do after starting the vehicle in Park is to Reverse (e.g. out a a garage, parking space, etc.) then move through Neutral and into Drive. And often you do not need to return to Reverse until you Park the vehicle.

Funf Dreisig

Those images bring back many memories -- mostly bad :(

For example, a honkin' big (and heavy) Plymouth Suburban station wagon with a flat head six and a push button slush box. Now that's how to really impress the babes :rolleyes: If you wanted to burn rubber you needed matches :wow:

Funf Dreisig

what about pulling it backwards to go into D? :)

I'm happy with the E70 shifter. I can't see what the problem is.

To secure luggage. Being moveable gives you flexibility in terms of luggage size and where you want to locate it.

One can use bungie cords from D-ring across the cargo floor to a D-ring on the oposite side with a suit case or piece of electrical equiptment or kids bicycle or box of books or case of beer or a small chair/table....