Simple1

How do you test V8s? vs. a V6 and an Inline 6 and call it a fair comparison? it makes no sense, you get rid of that stuff 55K cap, cuz anybody buying a car for tha much can't really care about a couple of extra thousands! I mean obviously they care but it's not what is keeping them from buying the car! Somebody @ BMW really rubbed these guys the wrong way and they are seriously trying to take sales away from the E60!

e60beast

I have always thought, Car and Driver has got to be the WORST magazine out there! whenever I look at it on the shelf, I just move right past. The articles and reviews are totally based on corporate relationships! for example, when Acura wins a 'battle'... there are like two pull out Folding Acura ads!!!?, or 3 GM ads!... its SO biased its almost funny to read!.

As for iDrive, I admit it takes GETTING USED TO!!! taking it around a track a few times, slamming on the brakes twice, and peeling out against a clock, is not how someone gets used to iDrive. iDrive doesnt even have hardly any daily functions the driver needs to operate the car... for example, how many times do you set your 'pathway lighting time', or 'stereo equalizer', or 'climate distribution setting', or 'flat tire monitor', with the exception of FM/AM stations (which can all easily be addressed from the dash) iDrive is ALL driver-specific settings! when I first used it, yeah sure it was a little frustrating, but ONLY because i was trying to learn it and find all the menus, now I cant imagine having to look for numbers 1, 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... to change radio stations... hence, 'EYES are off the road!!!!!'
Guys at C&D; times are changing!!! the days of 150 buttons all over the dash is over! move with the program.

Another beef I have against Car and Driver is, they always contradict there basis of the competetion... get it straight!!! are you guys reviewing cars for Luxury, bang for buck, performance, everything, price, color, number of ads perchased, or what!??? stick with one thing! they review on Luxury most of the times, then judge based on price or performance - they review based on performance sometimes, then judge the outcome based on bang for buck...!!!
they are just all over the place!
I have to admit, the best car mag IMHO is 'Automobile'...

we know our cars are the greatest, hold the values, and out perform ALL competitors!

cheers!

Rudy

On the brighter side, now that the 530 ranked so low, Lomag won't need to upgrade the servers or bandwidth for this site just yet!

JDN

Hmmm, maybe, but don't forget that most of the Entertainment portion of iDrive can be operated with the steering wheel buttons once the presets are set up.

igor

Katmai,

It seems that a main peave that everyone has is the entertainment source button. I must admit that at first I found it really annoying to have to slide down and hold then slide up twice then scroll right or left and then push down. (FM to AM)
But now that I know my car I find the voice command "AM" or "FM" followed by my station choice far easier than my wifes Honda Odyssey where I must push a button to change the entertaiment source and then another one to scroll through presets. BMW also offers the option to program a steering wheel button for next Entertainment source.

I have thought very objectively about the button scenario. Having lived in an E60 with NAV for 7 months I find the ACURA RLs button implementation quite pointless.

Hormazd
[/quote]

Hormazd

I agree with you that many of us who lived with our car for weeks, months or year can operate with ease via i-drive rotary mouse or voice command. Personally, I'm very good at using technology gadgets.

I do feel the designer left out some frequently access features via buttons. Those controls are for occassional drivers and sometimes for primary drivers. There are times that I can not use voice control effectively due to passenger conversations. It takes more than a few minutes for a new driver to figure out some of the frequently access features. It's unnessary frustration, if certain things are different from a normal car.

Katmai
[/quote]

I side with every word of you, Katmai

Simple1

I was @ he NYC international Auto show yesterday, and as a minimalist I can truly come to appreciate the interior of BMW much more. I'll describe some of the interiors of the cars I was in yesterday.

BMW 525i-loved the Dash setup just incredibly simple and to the point no buttons all over the place. I was disappointed with the back seats though, I felt thrown in there, like a little child. I guess that might also be a good thing since there was ample head room but I don't really have any tall friends! loll but it's not like I'm going to be seating there often when I do own my 1st BMW.

X3- more spacious than I thought, still don't like the design on the outside unless it's the 3.0 engine with the better wheels in place.

Acura TL-loved exterior design but interior design IMHO a disaster, it looks like a roller coaster ride with all the bright different colors! I was quite shocker NO uniformity @ all. I guess it's for adults who still have those toddler instincts of loving bright lights, loll.

Acura RL-this is one car I absolutely despised off until I saw it yesterday, very pleasing to look @! Interior is the same thing as the TL although not as childish. I didn't like the fact that you had to reach forward to change the "I-Drive" sort of controller. Now I don't exactly how I'll feel when I actually drive both a BMW with an iDrive compared to the contraption in this car. I liked the rear seats I could actually see out the windows!! lol

Infiniti M35/45-OMG i hate this car, it just doesn't do it for me, quite ugly. Nothing goes 2gether, expect for the leather seats and interior wood trims, quite exquisite! I hated the dash, with it's spilt level view. it was soo high and so weird. The multimedia controller thing is terrible, you always have to lean forward to change anything with the big button sitting stark in the middle of the dashboard. The exterior is quite ugly too! The rear bench was much to my liking though.

G35- I actually enjoyed this car, it is a more finished car than it's bigger sibling. Everything "goes" together, more harmonious, a car I would seriously take a look @ if I were looking for the compact sports sedan!

GS300-one of the few surprises of the day, quite a beautiful car men, I was shocked! the only thing that bothered me about the exterior was the back where it looked liked a cleaner design of the nissan maxima. Rear bench seats was awesome, just as my sister's old GS. I was quite confused with all the buttons in the dashboard and men that touch screen isn't any-good. I mean granted thousands of folks had already blessed it with their filth ridden finger but never the less it was a soar taste for me.

LS430-Now this is a luxiorious Interior men, leather never felt so good on my butt, plush plush leather. did i say plush leather yet? cuz the dashboard looked liked like S-class interior hit by a tornado, buttons jus all over the place! Unbelieveable!! Why so many buttons????? why? my Lord? why! I couldn't even have been bothred by it, I got out just as soon as I got in! well maybe just a little bit longer, goes know when BMW will get leather that good in their cars! it was GWEAT!!

I didn't waste my time with tri-star bandits, I already know I love their interior appointments with the button-laden dashboards!

All in all it was a fun day, I suggest that you have to see the M5 in real life before you can truly apperciate it, even the pictures I took yesterday were quite disappointing to look @ after i saw it in real life, awh men I wanted to bring out my AK-47, and drive home with that car! lmao

UUronL

I just got a chance to read the article. It doesn't appear that the 530i tested had the Sport Package and hence, most likely not AS. Can anyone with the dead-tree edition confirm if there's a list of options printed?


Thanks.

swajames

From my read, the low placing was all about the engine which was praised for refinement etc but clearly lost out on horses compared to the others. They did mention the steering and the fact that AS "seemed like the bionic steering of old", with the rider that maybe they were getting used to AS or (as I think is the case) the software changes have transformed AS for the better since its initial implementation. So the car did likely have AS and on that basis probably had sport. The tested car did not have the updated 06 engine, they also strongly hinted that the new engine (or a switch to the V8) would have changed the finishing order.

Guest

BMW should have put the new inline 6 with 258 bhp in the 2004 to 2005 530i from the onset!

Rudy

This month's Automobile (May 2005) did a similar comparison with the Acura RL, Audi A6 4.2 Quattro, BMW 545i (no sport pkg), Cadillac STS, Infiniti M45, Jaguar S-type 4.2, Lexus GS430, and Mercedes-Benz E500.

Here's what they said about the 545i:
In the summary paragraphs, they loosely (subjectively) rank them as follows:

They go on to praise the A6 some more, etc.