chris.y

Hi -
This forum is one of the most active and most informative I've seen on any subject on the web - it's really unbelievable. There are very few topics that haven't been touched before, but I still wanted to contribute a summary of my experience as a first time e60 owner - maybe it'll be helpful to someone out there.

Buying process (Northern CA):
- No dealer anywhere carried a 6-speed 530i in any form, so I needed to order one
- Submitted quote requests via Edmunds, received a bunch of email quotes
- Picked the lowest one, called and negotiated down to roughly $980 over invoice
- Ordered the car - the dealer took my Amex for a $500 deposit and it turns out that they don't accept Amex so I was never charged (I'm still amazed that the commitment on my part was essentially zero)
- The way you can track a car via the BMW website is pretty cool
- Car came in 7 weeks later and I showed up, paid for it and drove it off the lot - no hassles, great experience
- For those of you in CA, the dealer did not install the front plate holder but I've heard you'll get ticketed at SFO (and possibly pulled over somewhere) if you don't have a front plate so I'm probably going to have it put on

Positive impressions:
- I think the car looks amazing. Thanks to this forum, I'm now familiar with M-Aero kits and the like and that's always an option for the future...
- I'm still in my break-in period, but the car handles extremely well and is very quiet; I don't have many squeaks/noises to report
- I'm not a speed demon, but I can appreciate power and the 255hp mated to the 6-speed manual is quick enough for me. You don't have the torque of a 545i or 550i but you get nice even power throughout the various gears.
- Comfort access: I love the feature, but $1,000?
- Bluetooth works great with my Treo 700p - favorites show up right on the I-drive display automatically
- Factory installed satellite radio comes with Sirius for one year free (didn't know that)

Some small disappointments:
- Navigation Perspective View: a very cool, 3D map view except for one thing - none of the local street names are displayed; it's still useful, but perhaps BMW will fix this in an upcoming software update?
- Logic 7 with Sirius hasn't sounded as good as I thought it would - FM Radio sounds better, I think (haven't tried my iPod yet). If I had to do this all over again I might go aftermarket for sound rather than spend the $1,200 for L7.
- When starting the car, I-drive needs to boot up and then you need to hit 'accept' every time to get past the user warning. If you want to use PDC right after starting the car, you'll have to wait (although you can hear the beeping right away). Also, I wish I-drive would default back to where you left off when you stopped the car.
- The black leather shows dirt (think little kids kicking the back of a black seat) a lot more than I thought it would

Stuff I didn't know but wish I did:
- Rear airbags - I thought it was a no-brainer (little kids under 7) but didn't bother to read this forum or talk to the sales guy more about it; turns out that there are mixed opinions on the safety of rear air bags for children but most seem to advise to have these turned off (I'm not sure that I would have bought them in retrospect)
- Folding rear seats - for some reason, I thought they were included. Should've known better. Haven't missed them yet but probably will. Can these be retrofit?

One last thing:
- A lot of forum members like Rejex so I bought a couple of bottles. I Rejexed the car today and really like how it works/looks.

Rudy

Welcome to the forums Chris!

Nice, accurate write-up. You've hit on pretty much the same issues that many have noticed but you'll soon get used to some of the little nagging things and they won't be such a big deal after a while.

As far as the retrofit of the fold-down seats, I think I remember a thread here a while ago about it but can't seem to find it. I think the verdict was that it would be a difficult and expensive retrofit.

Here's a recent post about it:
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=...mp;hl=fold-down

Good luck with your new baby...

CoolTones

Congrats Chris!

We just held our 3rd Bay Area Meet & Greet. Hopefully you can join us for the next one. Check out some pix from the event we had yesterday on the Meet & Greet Forum.

Cheers!
-CoolTones

mr_djurgarden

Welcome!! Enjoy your car!

ronald_adi

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the forum. A couple of answers to your questions,...

1. Even though you dont have the fold down seats, you do still have the large open space behind your seats. Difference is that there is no nice handle to pull down the seats. If you dont transport things too often, you can - on the occasion that u need to - remove the backrest and then put it back later. depends really on how handy you are with these things.

2. regarding the L7 speaker system, have you adjusted the Equalizer? And the base and treble?

3. The user warning when you start the car is not normal. You may have to ask your dealer to have it reset.

Ronald

300TTto545

It is in the United States....

ronald_adi

ah. interesting. ok. and the dealer will not remove it if asked? Cause we dont have it in europe. what kind of warning is it anyway?

SolarFactory

Welcome to the forumn! Nice writeup!

rlinger

for the l7 setup -- make sure you pick one o fthe two dsp settings, hall or theater. -- i like the concert hall setting for most music.

also, the warning screen is one for the lawyers in USA.

welcome to the forum
c

low_ball_88

Chris,

When you say you really like the look of using REJEX on your vehicle. What is the difference in look between this product and others?

BTW, Where did you buy the REJEX?