Mr.PC

I took delivery of my new 530xiT Saturday. (silver gray/gray w/ anthracite trim). Driving is fantastic-no complaints so far but of course it's not broken in so I haven't pressed it. iDrive will take some work to master but I'm for it in principle because of the flexibility/clutter ratio. Had trouble figuring out how to shut the nav voice up.
My nits: A serious design problem to me is that with the valet key (which on the new ones is the fob without the metal key in it) the valet can open the tailgate. This means that when they back it against the wall, as they do, if they inadvertently hit that button on the fob (like when taking it out of the steering column, locking the car, etc.) they can open the hatch and have it bang against the wall (or the lift above). There is a feature in i-Drive where you can adjust the opening angle at 4 points - but the lowest one is enough to damage the tailgate because it will hit the wall behind the car. Given that the software can make these adjustments, it seems to me a simple update would prevent the tailgate from opening at all. I have strongly recommended this to my sales person (as feedback) and she agrees. I assume, by the way, that with the sedan, a valet cannot open the trunk (IIRC the valet key was originally described as protecting the "privacy of the trunk") (and putting aside the phantom trunk openings that have been reported in this forum). Why did they not do this on the wagon?

A really minor one: I don't find the horn that easy to use. Difficult/impossible to reach with hands at the 3 and 9 position. Granted my 320i had a 5-inch circle in the middle, but on my Subaru you can reach the horn with hands on the rim.

A third perhaps minor one: The "car care" booklet lists some BMW product for just about everything you would want to do to clean the car, including washing, waxing (carnauba only!), polishing, wheels, glass, leather, headliner, mats, etc. I know there is a lot of discussion in this forum about appropriate non-BMW products for some of these issues (e.g. waxing) and I haven't looked for everything, so this is a criticism of BMW, not this extremely helpful forum. But I wonder if anyone has the time and inclination to put together in one place an edit of that care booklet with products on it that you can get at AutoZone.

My thanks to all who post helpful information on this forum. I spent countless hours on it between the time I ordered the car and its arrival, and learned a lot.

mr_djurgarden

Congrats!!!!!!!! Can you post some pics plz??
Hope you enjoy it!!!

rhnorb

That's a good observation about the rear hatch. I'm scheduled to take delivery of my new 530xiT this Saturday and will post my first impressions. Four days after I take delivery I've got to drive from Seattle to Phoenix and back....and I'm concerned about taking a brand new car on such a long trip...especially after reading about all the initial problems posted on this board! Any advice would be appreciated.

3.0CS

My advice would be not to worry. I got mine in 7/05 and took it on a 2000 mile-holiday-ride right away: No probs whatsoever ; just kept the car below 3500 revs.

Mr.PC

The car will come with a directory of US dealers! ...... which hopefully you won't need. Also, BMW Assist/Roadside Assistance seems pretty helpful and it works with an 800 # so if you have a cell and a signal ....
Someone has recently posted the common-sense advice that the 3000+ members of this forum are probably among the pickiest buyers. I think you'll see relatively few strings of total failure to start, or stall that wasn't fixed on warmup, etc. And there are lots of things to get used to, like putting your foot on the brake to start? Why isn't being in Park good enough? And that fob must be pressed in all the way, even though it will spring back out a quarter inch or so - otherwise iDrive won't work among other things (it took 1/2 hour at dealer to figure this out).
Bottom line? Seattle to Phoenix in your iT will in all probability be a total blast. This is one whale of a car to drive (in the best sense).