Newsday Pans M5 and 550 Sport; iDrive a Safety Hazard
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My Ride: '04 545iS 6 spd, bought new via eBay, 11/05; Blk/Gry, Cold, L7, PDC, BMW Rear seatcover for pets.
First "Bumwa" was a new 1971 2002. High performance 5s since 1987. Beamer motorcycles too, currently on an 07 BMW K1200 GT; also a Moto Guzzi 1000 SP III.
Tom Incantalupo, a long-time political reporter for Newsday, who now does hardhitting things like home energy conservation and auto test drives was flummoxed by the iDrive (news??) and especially hated the 7 spd SMG on the M5.
Normally, I wouldn't pay much heed to him, but this is big BMW market, and he links the complexity of the iDrive to road safety hazard (no mention of the Lawyer's Screen). And he backs up his contentions with low marks on a J.D. Powers study of new owners satisfaction with car's operation.
Read all about it: http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-sstom18...ness-columnists
Cheers,
Ray Hull
Normally, I wouldn't pay much heed to him, but this is big BMW market, and he links the complexity of the iDrive to road safety hazard (no mention of the Lawyer's Screen). And he backs up his contentions with low marks on a J.D. Powers study of new owners satisfaction with car's operation.
Read all about it: http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-sstom18...ness-columnists
Cheers,
Ray Hull
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Originally Posted by Ray Hull' post='323534' date='Aug 17 2006, 09:11 AM
Tom Incantalupo, a long-time political reporter for Newsday, who now does hardhitting things like home energy conservation and auto test drives was flummoxed by the iDrive (news??) and especially hated the 7 spd SMG on the M5.
Normally, I wouldn't pay much heed to him, but this is big BMW market, and he links the complexity of the iDrive to road safety hazard (no mention of the Lawyer's Screen). And he backs up his contentions with low marks on a J.D. Powers study of new owners satisfaction with car's operation.
Read all about it: http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-sstom18...ness-columnists
Cheers,
Ray Hull
Normally, I wouldn't pay much heed to him, but this is big BMW market, and he links the complexity of the iDrive to road safety hazard (no mention of the Lawyer's Screen). And he backs up his contentions with low marks on a J.D. Powers study of new owners satisfaction with car's operation.
Read all about it: http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-sstom18...ness-columnists
Cheers,
Ray Hull
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Originally Posted by Ray Hull' post='323534' date='Aug 17 2006, 02:11 PM
Tom Incantalupo, a long-time political reporter for Newsday, who now does hardhitting things like home energy conservation and auto test drives was flummoxed by the iDrive (news??) and especially hated the 7 spd SMG on the M5.
Normally, I wouldn't pay much heed to him, but this is big BMW market, and he links the complexity of the iDrive to road safety hazard (no mention of the Lawyer's Screen). And he backs up his contentions with low marks on a J.D. Powers study of new owners satisfaction with car's operation.
[snip]
Cheers,
Ray Hull
Normally, I wouldn't pay much heed to him, but this is big BMW market, and he links the complexity of the iDrive to road safety hazard (no mention of the Lawyer's Screen). And he backs up his contentions with low marks on a J.D. Powers study of new owners satisfaction with car's operation.
[snip]
Cheers,
Ray Hull
Incantalupo (lovely name; "wolf charmer") finds "[The i-Drive] is slow to react, often nonintuitive and dangerously distracting."
So do 90% of other journalists in many countries (well: UK, France, Italy and Spain at least), and it seems to be a fairly recurrent topic of dissatisfaction on this forum too - at least the slowness and software complexity resulting in glitches.
If anything, I think that the iDrive is too ergonomically effective - with the exception of main climate controls. With how many other navigation systems would you even be tempted to input a destination while driving??? Or how many other RDS tuners are designed so smartly as to sort all the radio stations available alphabetically so you know "where" they are even if you don't know their broadcast frequency? But all this means more attention on the iDrive - because now you can... - and less on the road.
My guess is that as cars become more "intelligent", or at least more customisable by the end-user - and there's probably no stopping this trend: we all love gizmos, or we'd all be buying Lotus Elises - we need to re-learn to drive and interact with the car. And this takes time - which many of us do not have, or choose not to use for something we feel we already (should) know.
The worrying thing is that all it will take is one high profile incident to have talks of banning iDrive-like systems or other similar draconian reactions.
BTW: As far as his SMG issues go, it seems he was trying to drive what is basically a sporty manual shift as if it were an automatic with torque converter. He should be thankful that the car did not stall, or cause him some whiplash... Bah!
Having said that, the DSG system in Audi/VW is smoother and faster in normal use than BMW's SMG, and it interferes less than Steptronic.
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And not one word from this dope on how these cars drive. How does one write a car review and not report on acceleration, handling, braking ... ?
I guess that's what you learn by reporting politics: policies and issues matter most, not actual results.
I guess that's what you learn by reporting politics: policies and issues matter most, not actual results.
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I didn't read the piece, but I would say that the fancy tech on autos these days can lead to many driving distractions--although we all know that we shouldn't be trying to do things we are not very familiar with while driving. I know that I have been distracted by trying to get something to work while driving.
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Originally Posted by tachyon' post='323561' date='Aug 17 2006, 03:43 PM
And not one word from this dope on how these cars drive. How does one write a car review and not report on acceleration, handling, braking ... ?
I guess that's what you learn by reporting politics: policies and issues matter most, not actual results.
I guess that's what you learn by reporting politics: policies and issues matter most, not actual results.
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I received a JD Powers survey. It was wierd because I just picked up the car a little over a month ago. The survey was 6 pages long, about the car, the dealer experience and if I cross shopped with a Jag S-Type (WTF?) and something else (I forgot what the other cars were, I only remember the S-Type because it was soo not a car I would ever look at or buy).
I was honest in my evaluation. Perfect Score!
I was honest in my evaluation. Perfect Score!
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Originally Posted by Refujeet' post='323568' date='Aug 17 2006, 08:07 AM
I received a JD Powers survey. It was wierd because I just picked up the car a little over a month ago. The survey was 6 pages long, about the car, the dealer experience and if I cross shopped with a Jag S-Type (WTF?) and something else (I forgot what the other cars were, I only remember the S-Type because it was soo not a car I would ever look at or buy).
I was honest in my evaluation. Perfect Score!
I was honest in my evaluation. Perfect Score!