GarryF

Just spent the last two weeks driving round the UK from the top end of Scotland getting as far down as bath and oxford, covered about 1600 miles. Car is now 3 months old and 7000 miles already

Some thoughts after getting home were

Overall I got 35.3 mpg from the trip, I expect it's pretty accurate as I checked the first few thousand miles and the system was +/- 1mpg.

Cruise control is the best I've ever used but the system is still harsh on the motorway if you are set at say 80 and then hit recall at 65-70. Engine insists on kicking down which had the habit of waking up the wife. Solution to this is to drive the car in M6 most of the time, the 530d torque means the thing pulls back to speed in secs anyways.

I've started driving in manual step mode probably two thirds of the time now, the auto box really can't get the best out of the diesel. I like to press the pedal a lot and the engine just wants to scream all the time. Putting the thing into M4 at 50 and pressing the pedal is much more fun as you hit 80 a few secs later using the endless torque. it's a pity as well the system doesn't drop to M1, I got caught out a few times at roundabouts trying to start off in M2. It's nice how even if you are in manual mode and you go for kick down the system will act auto again incase you've screwed up which gear your in. you often have to be glancing at the dash to check your gear, if HUD could display the gears I'd have it next time

Basic Climate Control really sucks. There are other threads about this but a climate control system that doesn't control fan is useless, the weather was really nice on most of my trip and when the sun was out I was having to play with settings all the time to keep the car the right temperature, BMW should be ashamed of supplying such a poor system in a car costing ?30-?40k (If I was buying again I'd spec advanced but I was led to believe from all sources that basic did the same as my old bmw)

Comfort seats are great, for long trips they really helped and having memory is nice for changing positions during the drive.

Dynamic Drive is fantastic, I was on a fair bit of back roads and a few times was in a corner thinking I was in trouble but this car has unbeliveable grip. On sharp motorway corners I expect peoples jaws were dropping watching the saloon go round the corner in the fast lane like a porsche hehe

idrive failed to come on after stopping at motorway services, unfortunately I was on the slip road before I noticed and only had time to quickly turn off and on the engine but it didn't cure it. It was a warm day and I'd been driving 3 hours before hand.

Anyways I have to say this is a fantastic car and if bmw would fix my climate control I'd be a very happy camper

Doctor Diesel

I was led to believe the climate control was as good as before and winged at having to spec advanced as I wanted pro-nav as well (linked options in the uk). your observations make me feel a little better at the ?495 extra they charged!...less than 1 week to go now

well impressed with your mpg, my cooper S struggles to get higher than 23mpg with super unleaded!!


did you enjoy Scotlands roads? (if youre from south of the divide), otherwise, aren't they one of the best kept secrets around...scenery, smooth tarmac and quiet roads up north!...watch out for sheep though!

GarryF

I'm from up north somewhere between Inverness and Aberdeen

Wierdly the only major road works I hit the whole holiday were half an hour of stationary traffic south of Aviemore on the A9 yesterday.

my usual mpg drops to closer to 30 for my local commute and running about, you can see the numbers climb as soon as you hit the motorways but this is still a heavy car and as soon as you start having to accelerate numbers plumet

As for climate control it looks like BMW are saying all cars to date with "broken" climate are working as intended. It looks like new cars now being delivered now also control the fan. While I am stuck with this for 4 years, if they won't lift a finger I would happily recommend people to avoid bmw because of this issue if they won't do the right thing. I'm guessing they deliberately tried to hobble the basic cc as much as possible to force us to upgrade, sadly their marketing and sales training neglected to convey how crap the basic system (who's gonna start selling you a car by saying the cc is crap hehe) now that a back lash has started they have probably fitted the extra 50p circuit that controls the fan but as they charge ?60 an hour for anyone to look at the car they are telling all us mugs that bought one early to get lost.

Doctor Diesel

Nice part of the world, I spent 3 yrs 87-90 working in and around there, Was based at ARI but also went to mcduff, banff, rhynie. etc to cover outlying specialist clinics. Used to golf at old meldrum!........great people and places

Now suburban Glasgow.........very south side at Newton Mearns

GarryF

Yeah, it's a nice area, I grew up in a little Village called Rothienorman, 10 miles from Oldmeldrum. Now I stay in Elgin which seems a really nice place, nice micro climate here as well . Everytime I'm in Glasgow it always rains, doesn't it depress you ? At least you'll have some nice wipers on the new car hehe

browellm

I have the same problem. Good tip about driving in M6 on the motorway, I'll try that next time. I'll be driving to Edinburgh/Stirling next week.

PhilS

Garry,

I agree with your sentiments regarding the fan. I expected better from BMW. I really like the car, but if they won't put this right, this will be my first and last BMW.

Phil.

LogicMan

Hey guys ... just have to chip in. Lovely country .... Scotland nice backroads and hills. Used to live in Aberdeen for quite some time .... doing old oil business (Engineer). Used to do a bit of driving up and down (Inverness - Aberdeen - Newcastle - Dundee - Invergordon).

I must say, BMW should be ashamed for this belittling act!! Not only have they openly misled their faithfull followers .... which we all are, otherwise we would'nt be spending time on this board, but they take it to another level by ignoring our complaints. I know BMW have people that scour the web and such boards to get a feel of the market & user impressions. To reciprocate for such a followership I expect them to at least issue an upgrade under warranty if not a recall.

BMW if you guys are listening, you must understand that your not in the mass market!! You have created an Icon ... and a good one at that. People that buy BMWs do not buy them for just motoring around from point A to B. Otherwise I would have lesser cars in my stable. We buy them for more superior reasons. The worst you can do is to piss people like us off ... cause loosing one of us is like loosing 100 customers.

Just my contribution. And I'll be ready to put my signature on any document to make BMW understand this.