New 335i. Some impressions (sorry, a bit long)

faston · 05-28-2008, 04:58 PM

I picked up my new E90 355i MT on Sunday. Sparkling Graphite / Terra / NAV / CA / PDC / 6FL / Sport /Premium. Traded in a 2005 325i. Sorry if this is a bit long. Got started writing last night and couldn't stop, I guess! Feel free to ignore it and move on.

Haven’t had much time to run yet; only about 100km so far. But I have a few impressions and small questions:

-The side mirrors are SMALL! I actually use the side view mirrors to cover my blind spots and they are significantly smaller than the E46. I know a lot of people on here were groaning about the bigger mirrors in the spy pics for the E90 refresh, but I would sure like bigger ones. Also, the right side mirror doesn’t tilt down enough to see the curb like the one in my E46 did. Kinda defeats the purpose of tilting the mirror if you can’t see the ground when it does it!

-As soon as I got it home, I left it idling and got out and put my hand behind each exhaust pipe. There was exhaust coming out of both of them. Thought we needed the ‘golf tee mod’ or to unplug the solenoid to achieve that?

-voice recognition is quite spotty, especially for Sat radio. I tried to get it to tune channel 115 (Disney - I have a tweener daughter) and absolutely could not get it to tune to that channel. I mean that I tried it at least 40 times and it didn’t tune the right channel even once. Closest it got was 118. Strangely, the voice response for that channel was not the deep, confident one for other functions, but sort of a squished together, almost sped-up voice. Often it went to something completely unrelated like vehicle settings or something like that. Haven’t tried voice commands enough to know if this is just a Sirius problem (or even certain Sirius channels since it had not problem tuning in channel 16). Weird.

-When I am using nav to guide to a destination, the distance to destination in the lower right of the screen is in meters. Like 6900 meters instead of 6.9 kilometers. I’ve never seen that with a nav system before and it isn’t how one normally thinks of distances. Does that mean that if I want to go to California it is going to give me a distance of 2,000,000 meters? That’s just dumb. I imagine it would change to kilometers at some point (who knows, maybe after only 10,000 meters) but it’s still counter-intuitive. I’ll have to try changing the units of measurement to feet/miles and see if it does something similar.

-Automatic Climate Control seems a bit off. I have used automatic climate control systems since I bought a 1990 300ZX new in 1989. What I found out years ago is that I could just set the temp to 21.5〫C (72〫 F) and never touch it again virtually for as long as I own the car. That setting seems quite warm in this car. It was fine in the E46 that this car replaced.

-Convenient Access is very cool. I wear jeans pretty much all the time and have taken to leaving the key in the little key pocket in my jeans, but I am worried that I am going to forget about the key in my pocket and run it through the wash. Is the accepted method of leaving the car to just let the radio etc run and get out of the car and lock it? Feels strange to do that.

-Glad I got the MT. It is awesome. So glad I didn’t listen to the sirens luring me to the rocky shoals of autobox.

-there is no option to change the sensitivity of the auto headlamps in my idrive menus. This seems very strange to me. Of course in the lighting menu I don’t have the DRL option since it is mandatory up here, but I can’t see any reason for them to not include the auto headlamp sensitivity option. Do I have to go in to the dealership to have them program the sensitivity? I’d like the sensitivity turned down so they don’t come on so soon.

- I don’t have Assist set up yet, but I looked in the menu for that and there is a function for ‘My Info’. I pressed it and it said something to the effect of ‘transferring new destinations’ and then ‘no new destinations’. Could this mean that they are actually putting that function (sending destinations from Google Maps to the car) in 08’s and not just ’09 as stated in the press release? If so, that would be great. This car is a March build. Maybe somebody else who just received their car can check this? I don’t have my hopes too high for that. There is also a field for ‘concierge’, but I know that we don’t have that service here in Canada.

-the address book of my Treo 650 (Telus) did not transfer. Fortunately, I had read on here the workaround of putting numbers into the speed dial so that helps, but obviously that’s only 30 or so numbers so it’s a bit disappointing. I had hopes that the Treo was going to work perfectly. It is on the BMW-approved list.

-I got the BMW flashlight but not the first aid kit.

-my centre console has a spring-loaded lid. In the DIY for installing the split lid, there is a lot of talk about the lids not being spring loaded 

-There is a section in the manual about setting the clock. Do we really need to set the clock when the nav is connected to an atomic accurate clock?  

-Sucks that the side mirrors don’t automatically fold out when you unlock the car. Would be bad enough if it was just something that they forgot, but much worse that it’s something the cars used to have but they took away. Makes no sense. And speaking of making no sense, why is the song info for Sirius and iPod grey on a grey background?? Huh?? And why is the information on the bottom line of the idrive when you aren’t in entertainment the station instead of the song? I would think the song information is more important than the station name.

-Hard to get a feeling for the power on a Sunday afternoon and a couple of short commutes but I could sure feel the potential. On Monday morning I stopped at a red light next to an Audi A4 2.0. I was in the curb lane and there was a postal truck about half a block away. When the light turned, I started out briskly but not booting it. The lady also started out that way and I soon realized it was her intention to fuck me regarding the vehicle in my path. I was now in second gear and a very modest rpm. I decided to get in front of her and put my foot into it. Wow! I was gone! I was in front of her and over in her lane and looking waaay back at her in about 2 seconds! Very impressive. Sounds great when doing it too!  

 Anyway, I know some of the above points might seem a bit nit-picky, but overall I am mightily impressed with the car!

exo-ak-dk · 05-28-2008, 05:02 PM

congrats with the new car....

AdamJ · 05-28-2008, 05:08 PM

Your thread should be named "Some disappointments" as you mostly pointed out faults.

bimmerlex · 05-28-2008, 05:09 PM

wow, another 355i (not 335i). I think it's the second one on this board already j/k.
Seriously, congrats on your new ride.

dhan · 05-28-2008, 05:52 PM

welcome to the land of bmw's shortcomings.

StarrDlux · 05-28-2008, 06:14 PM

i was thinking (hay i've got a corrado) that you could rig the mirrors to fold in at 100mph then fold back out when you drop below 80mph.

should be pretty simple to do with a pic or atmel

ArmyBimmerDude · 05-28-2008, 06:19 PM

I have no complaints with this car other than the leather. Amazing how people nit pick at everything.

Zeeman · 05-28-2008, 06:53 PM

i had the same reaction the the smallish side mirrors (I also came from an E46), but soon got used to it. I actually laughed when I read your post, cause it's been so long since I have even thought about this.

i have the same issue with the climate control. total step back from what was in the E46 IMO.

the engine is killer though. i swapped cars with a friend that has an E46 M3 for a short drive. i totally prefer the TT in the 335

BMdblU · 05-28-2008, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArmyBimmerDude

I have no complaints with this car other than the leather. Amazing how people nit pick at everything.

Too stiff and unforgiving for you?

ArmyBimmerDude · 05-28-2008, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMdblU

Too stiff and unforgiving for you?

Yeah, the quality just isn't there. I picked up a 550 last friday and I swear it's 3 or 4 times more comfortable and the leather is fantastic. I guess we should all remember that even with the big engine, its still a 3 series in BMW's eyes.

Taittinger · 05-28-2008, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArmyBimmerDude

I have no complaints with this car other than the leather. Amazing how people nit pick at everything.

My nit is with the climate control; having to cycle down through each fan level just to turn off is ridiculous.

SantaMonica335i · 05-28-2008, 08:33 PM

Couple of responses:

Climate Control- Adjust the knob above the center vents. That controls air flow to the center vents and could be the reason its a bit hot.

Tail Pipe- After the car is warm both pipes are open. I trust BMW to know how to operate the engine and exhaust system over people who want the thing to sound cool for the 15 minutes it takes to warm the engine up.

Access- The radio should shut off when you turn off the ignition. Thats what it does in mine, but it doesnt hurt anything to lock the doors and walk away if the radio is on.

purplewidow · 05-28-2008, 08:55 PM

yeah basically you got the new car and nit picked it to death and didn't even talk about one Positive besides leaving the key in your pocket for CA...and i never leave the car on with the radio going constantly..everywhere i go ..i would think long term wouldn't be good for the battery. double press the button that's it.i really don't understand the constant nitpicking...maybe the progman version sucks i would check to see which version you have and change it!!! but besides that i came from an e34 with much larger mirrors and never had a problem...who the hell wants large mirrors on a performance car? i mean you can see if a car is next to you or coming up just fine..if they were any bigger i would be pissed..they wouldn't flow with the car..they are proportioned just right maybe 1/8th inch too big..the m3's are sick because they provide a less drag.i agree with the folding mirrors sadly but not to your degree. i don't get it..why so much nitpicking..don't you love the power and the chassis..and the suspension..it's much better than the e46..i don't know..i hope you loook at your post in a few weeks and say man was i an ass..that would mean your issues are fixed with your pogman..if that's the case...and you will be in LOVE with your baby not nit picking her to death. if you look at everything like that in life it must not be too positive..aren't you optimistic at all? you sound super super disappointed!!

anyways sorry for the nitpicking.. not trying to tell you how to feel..it just that for someone getting a new car with this fabulous engine i would have thought you would have said all the positive things like everyone else.

tizzyd · 05-28-2008, 08:57 PM

if you leave the key through the wash, its absolutely fine, I've done it 4 or 5 times and nothing happened. The only tricky thing is remembering to give the key to the valet, if you ever use valet!

Moderato · 05-28-2008, 09:47 PM

Regarding the climate control, my E46 would go down to 59 which was just straight outside air and you could tell it was bypassing the filter. My E92 only seems to go down to 60 which is definitely not straight outside air. Anyway to get the E92 to just let in cool air through the vents without heating it 60?

R12ax7 · 05-28-2008, 10:07 PM

What Trim did you get Faston?

(I have a SG/Terra/Light Poplar less than 2 weeks away, although its certainly too late for me to change now!)

Bimmeration · 05-28-2008, 10:48 PM

why dont you do some more test driving before you purchase?

ChaneRZ · 05-28-2008, 11:10 PM

congrats on your new car.

BK · 05-28-2008, 11:11 PM

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