pharding

I did Euro Delivery today and picked up a new 550 Sport in Munich. This is my fourth BMW Euro Delivery and fifth leased BMW. In the past the build quality of my BMW's was excellent. BMW European Delivery has been a great experience. Unfortunately the build quality of this fully loaded 550 was very sloppy at best. First of all the radio didn't work because a cable wasn't plugged in. They fixed that and the car car was still an idiot savant. Back it in went for more service to figure out what was wrong. They forget to flash the information to the car's computer so that the car knew what to. These two items plus the usual explanation of the car took four hours after we were first in line this morning. The dark poplar wood trim in the cabin is a very bad match. The trim on the dash is light in value and warm in color. The center console trim is very dark in value and cold in color. The trim on the doors is dark in value and warm in color. It looks awful. I am an architect so I understand that trees are natural and as such they will vary. However it is incumbant upon BMW for quality control purposes to somehow see to it that the wood trim is moderately close in the same cabin. It should not just be the luck of the draw on an extremely expensive automobile. On the outside of the car the joints of the body panel on the rear side of the car are tighter than normal but the joints on the front are larger than normal. The build quality of those joints on the front of the car is lousy. I go to plug in my I-Pod. I ordered the I-Pod option but that does not include the I-Pod cable for whatever idiotic reason. Therefore one must go to local BMW dealer and buy a $60 cable for an option that cost approximately $400 if you want to use the I-Pod. Why isn't the cable part of the option? The I-Pod option requires this unique cable to work. I am a reasonble person without delusions that manufactured products will be perfect in every respect. However what I experienced today was indicative of pure sloppiness that is inconsistent with normally high German and BMW manufacturing quality. For whatever reason the quality control people were asleep when this one got built.

Commentary on the balance of the 550 Sport.

The sport transmission is superb and is great piece of engineering. The car shifts in brisk manner without the typical lethargy of an automatic transmision. Sport mode is awesome and much better than my 04 545. It is very sporty in character. I highly recommend the sport tranny with the paddles shifters.

The ride of the 550 sport is amazing. The car has this wonderful sporty feel without being too harsh. The ride and cornering of the car is absolutely superb.

I-Pod integration with the car is wonderful and the audio quality with the I-Pod is rather amazing.

The L7 radio itself on the LCI is somewhat "tinny" compared to the wonderful L7 radio in my 04 545. The LCI radio just does not have the rich audio quality of the original L7 radio in the 545.

I do not care for the LCI interior doors compared to the original doors. I especially do not like the handle on the driver's door which has a bottom on it for some bizarre reason. I keep jamming my fingers on the bottom when I close the door.

The black filler patch beneath the tranny plate is not up to historic BMW design quality. Why not just put a wood filler panel like the left handed British BMW 5 ers have?

Active steering is perfected on the LCI. It works really, really well. Unless one races your 5 er on a track I would put active steering on a must have list, if one can afford it.

The comfort seats or whatever they call them now are wonderful and exceedingly well designed.

Comfort access is awesome and highly recommended.

I am not sure about the new electronic shifter. I need to give that some time to get used to it. I do not like pulling toward the rear of the car to put the car in drive so that it can go forward. This is counter-intuitive.

The 172 wheels will be high maintenance because of the risk of curb rash, but they look wonderful. However I still think that they are too shiny.

The 5 liter engine is awesome. Powerful, smooth, and torquey.

All things considered the 550 sport LCI is more refined than the 545. It is a great car. Unfortunately my 550 suffered from build problems that are not typical of BMW.

rodneyremington

Too bad about the little annoyances. Don't let it spoil your trip. Don't you hate having to buy a $60 cable in a rush when you know you could get it online for $5?

1994_RX-7_Tour

Great initial report! A couple of thoughts / questions (I'm picking my 550i up on Sep 4th):

- L7 audio system. Other in the forums have indicated a possible improvement by adjusting the equalizer / other settings found thru iDrive. Please update if this seems to make a difference in the sound?

- iPod cable. I need to ask a dealer about this for my ED trip also - is it not something that BMW should supply without us having to buy it? $60 does seem ridiculous after we've spent $400 on the option.

- Finish / fit quality complaints. Curious to see if they had any answer to you on this - or if they can do anything for you (from Europe or BMW dealer in US). It certainly does sound sub-standard for BMW - I hope it's not something that will be common.

Lord Monkey

Sorry to read about your build problems. Are they going to sort out the panel gaps etc, a number of people on here have reported badly matched wood trim, and tihs has I understand been replaced for them...

Hope you enjoy the car anyway!

BMWSTL

Congratulations on your new car. Too bad about your build issues. Hopefully they can be addressed. I'll certainly pay close attention to my car when it comes in.

The iPod cable is standard with the 6FL option in the US. See the attachment in post #3 in this link: http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=...=ipod+cable+usb

If you had to buy the cable, you should seek reimbursement when you get back to the States.

Lou

sol

Sorry about your troubles. My 550 came with the iPod cable....talk to your dealer.

kscarrol

Wow, sorry to hear this.

"I go to plug in my I-Pod. I ordered the I-Pod option but that does not include the I-Pod cable for whatever idiotic reason. Therefore one must go to local BMW dealer and buy a $60 cable for an option that cost approximately $400 if you want to use the I-Pod. Why isn't the cable part of the option? The I-Pod option requires this unique cable to work."

As for the cable for iPod use, had a similar issue when we picked up my wife's new X5. I found the iPod bulliten from BMW on the forum where buried in the instructions it says something to the effect: "using the supplied cable, connect your iPod..." I printed this, brought it to my dealer and asked for my cable. The salesman looked rather stunned and took the printout to his manager. After a couple of minutes in his office the salesman came out mumbled something about the cables disappearing from cars on test drives so they remove them. He went to parts and got my cable, no charge. I would do the same thing though that's going to do you much good in Germany...

iversonm

Without making comments on the logic of the present policy, for those doing ED, you need to get the cable from your dealer before you depart.

Heloha

Congrats on the less than perfect delivery. I agree that the wood match as discussed in detail on other LCI threads should have been inspected better. I suspect the body pannel fits are something usually corrected at the dealer but must be terribly imbarrassing at the Euro Delivery Center.

Just currious, do you pick up any Sirius over there?

rodneyremington

I find it very hard to believe that the caliber of people buying 550s would take time out of their day to test-drive a car to steal an ipod cable. I find it very easy to believe that the local guy doing the dealer prep misplaced/threw away/otherwise lost the cable.