Originally Posted by 1994_RX-7_Tour' post='450004' date='Jul 19 2007, 10:57 PM

Rudy, one issue remains unanswered in my mind regarding the SAT. I have the electronic version of the LCI 5-series owners manual too, but that hasn't cleared it up for me.

Question 1) Does the SAT gear lever have a function to engage "DS" by moving the lever to the left (like the Step auto lever)?

(If the answer to above is "YES" as I think it is..... then

Question 2) How does the "DS" mode (selected by moving lever left) differ / compare to simply leaving the lever in "D" and pushing the "sport" button?

Originally Posted by Rudy' post='449777' date='Jul 19 2007, 10:02 AM

What's interesting is that there's been some downshifts which felt very SMG-like and there have been some that have felt very automatic-like. I haven't yet figured out what conditions apply to make things feel one way or the other but I think once I get the freedom to rev beyond 4000 rpms I will be in a better position to figure this out. I'm still playing around with all these issues and I'm hoping that in addition to me just needing to simply adjust to something new, I'm wondering if some of these things may be a function of me short shifting and trying to break the car in properly. All I know is that I've "tasted" some really sweet shifts so I know it's possible...

It's interesting to note a few other things about the SAT -- when using manual sport mode, the car will not downshift unless it really has to -- just like the SMG. One small difference is that if you're in a higher gear and you push the accelerator down hard enough to hit the kick-down switch, the car will downshift (unlike the SMG which would hold the current gear like a manual). I really don't know what happens when you mash the pedal in manual sport mode and take it to redline. Will it upshift like an automatic or hit the rev-limiter like a manual or SMG? I'll find out soon and report my findings when I can.

Originally Posted by Rudy' post='449777

The lane deviation warning system can be a nice feature too. If the lane you're in (or the road you're on) has decent markings, the system will "lock-on" to the lane and warn you if you approach either edge by vibrating the steering wheel -- the system only vibrates if you do not use your turn-signals. It feels exactly like a mild rumble strip that is often found at the edges of the roadway or the center line. The difference is that the passengers don't feel or hear a thing. Also, the vibration happens a little earlier than where an actual rumble strip would be so it helps alert you early enough to be able to react and correct things (or wake up!) if you need to. Road markings, however, can be unreliable and this feature is only useful if you can get a "lock-on" from the markings. Also, as with the ACC, the HUD shows if you are in the locked-on state or not.

Originally Posted by Rudy' post='449777

Ventilated Seats are simply great! I'm someone who gets pretty warm while seated so for me, it's the killer option. They move a significant amount of air -- on the highest setting (of three settings total) you can actually hear the seats working and at first I kept thinking one of the rear windows was open a crack.

Originally Posted by Rudy' post='449777' date='Jul 19 2007, 10:02 AM

iDrive has been tweaked a little bit as well. I don't know if some of these tweaks will trickle down to the older cars via Progman updates or not but it's clear that they're starting to think a bit more about how to make a good system even better. Sure, there are favorite buttons now (more on them in a minute) but to me, the cool changes have to do with what happens now when you press certain existing buttons. For example, on the old car, the seat heating switch had three LED's on it to indicate if you were on the high, medium, or low setting. If you wanted to adjust the distribution of the heat between the seat and the backrest, you had to go to the climate menu and find the seat heater distribution page before you could make an adjustment. Now, the seat heater button has only one LED to indicate whether it's on or off. As soon as you press the button, the iDrive screen immediately brings up the seat heater distribution page. On the page, in addition to being able to adjust the distribution, you can use the control knob to set the heater to high, medium, or low. Also, repeatedly pressing the seat heating button cycles you between the three settings and off so you can simply continue to press the button and look at the screen to see what you have set. After a short timeout period, the iDrive CID returns back to whatever screen you had before. The same concept applies to the seat ventilation, the air distribution (for either the driver or the passenger via new dedicated switches), etc. In my opinion, this is one of those refinements that makes great sense and probably should have been there from the start. As far as the favorites buttons, I'm disappointed that you can't program any screen in iDrive to a button. Right now, you can only program entertainment presets, telephone numbers, and navigation destinations. Why not allow us to store something like "map, direction of travel" or "parked car ventilation" to a button? What is very cool about the new favorites buttons is that they're heat sensitive so as your move your finger across them (without pressing any of them), the bottom of the CID pops up with little "tabs" that show you what is programmed on which button. I was worried that they would be like the two programmable steering wheel buttons (one if you have lane departure warning) where you'd have to remember what function you stored there. It's nice to see that they're using more screen "pop-ups" for things to make the car more friendly to people who may not be as tech savvy, etc. The removal of the haptic feedback in the controller knob is a great improvement. Gone is the lag when scrolling long lists, etc. Again, I'm not sure if this is something that can trickle down to older cars or not -- it's likely that the hardware in the controller is different on the LCI but it seems to me that even with the old controller, you could program out the code for the force feedback, right?

Well if you're still reading this monster post, then more power to you! I think for now, that's enough observations to talk about for only having the car a few days. I'm sure some of my opinions will change over time but rest assured that whatever they become, you guys will be the first to know!

Overall, I'll say one more time that the new car is great but the old was also great so enjoy your car no matter what model and options it has!

Originally Posted by Sans' post='449875' date='Jul 19 2007, 01:35 PM

Nice write-up, thanks Rudy. I'm looking forward to more detail as you eliminate the break-in miles.

Do you notice a difference in sound with the L7? Hormadz et al have been discussing the LCI changes there, curious if you had noticed yet.

Originally Posted by Richard in NC' post='449944' date='Jul 19 2007, 04:36 PM

PS: I just got 25.02 in my '06 650i. The new nav features are nice and there are noticable improvements. It seemed the same as the '08 550i I drove. However, scrolling long lists still sucks due to the force feedback.

Originally Posted by Rick24C' post='449999' date='Jul 19 2007, 07:30 PM

and you now have the option to disable Daytime running lights via IDrive.

Originally Posted by 1994_RX-7_Tour' post='450004' date='Jul 19 2007, 07:57 PM

Rudy, one issue remains unanswered in my mind regarding the SAT. I have the electronic version of the LCI 5-series owners manual too, but that hasn't cleared it up for me.

Question 1) Does the SAT gear lever have a function to engage "DS" by moving the lever to the left (like the Step auto lever)?

(If the answer to above is "YES" as I think it is..... then

Question 2) How does the "DS" mode (selected by moving lever left) differ / compare to simply leaving the lever in "D" and pushing the "sport" button?