Order Placed! (Struggling to finalise an order, need help on options!)

[325_bucks]

I will probably get the black rear strip, not sure about grills. I did that on my 6 and while it looked good, I’m not against having the odd bit of Chrome in the right places.

[Pelo Cat]

Originally Posted by FastLaneJB

Get it home quick and code the limiter out for when your in Germany

Heh I can see his wife shaking her head at that...Her: "why do you need to service it already if you just bought it dear?"

325_bucks: "Oh, nothing serious dear, just checking everything is okay!"

Later in D...her: "wow, we seem to be making good time!"

325_bucks: "Really? Hadn't noticed... " meanwhile foot pegged!

Originally Posted by FastLaneJB

Yeah it's generally always taken a few days to get the Connected Drive stuff sorted and app connected. I think generally can do that all yourself as long as the dealer has activated the Nav and SIM in the car of course. Which hopefully by now they have.

True, I could get mine sorted without having to go back to the dealer as well. Just took a day to do whatever route it needed to in the Ether...

Originally Posted by FastLaneJB

How did you not order that? I'd have thought you'd tick all the comfort options being GP

Shhh...you'll ruin my Gansta reputation! Don't tell anyone! Yeah, messed up on that. Next time. Hurts each time I see the button on a steering wheel...

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

I’m just browsing the shops while they sort the code out for the nav. Actually that’s a lie I’m sitting in the car park of the shops going through every menu!

I’m not usually a black car person either but in the light that blue really shines.

Ceramic controls are fantastic, heated armrests are surprisingly amazing, yet to choose which ambient air scent to go for as I want to enjoy the new car smell for a bit!

Another feature I'll get next time for sure (ceramic)...starting to feel like the poor relation here!

Great to hear yours is also getting sorted now FastLaneJB...they probably feared another 'crazy Englander' change of heart in spec...so pushed it through!

Have you sat in the back and played with the seat controls and felt that soft pillow head rest yet 325_bucks?...heaven.

[Pelo Cat]

325_bucks...you need to update your settings...

no longer on order...

welcome to the 7 brotherhood my good man.

[325_bucks]

Originally Posted by Pelo Cat

325_bucks...you need to update your settings...

no longer on order...

welcome to the 7 brotherhood my good man.

I will do when I’m back at home!

I haven’t sat in the back yet, barely seen everything in the front so far!

I have a confession, as soon as I left the dealer and stopped at the first place, I dropped the display key face down, unbelievable. Luckily the screen had plastic on so no damage and there is only a small mark on the outer plastic but it’s still frustrating as hell. Won’t be as bad as the first time I mark the actual car though!

[Pelo Cat]

As they say 's_ _ _ happens', shame but hopefully that is the only 'nick' you'll ever experience, glad the display is still good. Besides charging it, I never take it out to use it so usually in my pocket.

You'll need to use it at least twice a year though; to unlock / lock the car after time changes as the display key won't update on its own unless you go through a process. A thread on this in the forum. I probably use it once a month to lock/unlock just to be pedantic and ensure the pairing remains but likely not needed.

The best time for the car is at night though, make sure you do a drive tonight if possible to check out the adaptive lights and that stunning interior in the dark...My favourite time in the car.

Be aware that there are a few menus and options that are not as easy to find, especially with the sat nav...there was a good you tube video about these that was linked to in one of the posts here on the forum, will have to try and find it again and point you to it...may be of use later.

Thanks for keeping the live updating going today, been great to 'ride along' as TheBry said earlier in the thread. ^ Really pleased for you.

And because I can only say this for a short while longer: Can you imagine the agony of having a car on order and still waiting for it?

[FastLaneJB]

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

I’m just browsing the shops while they sort the code out for the nav. Actually that’s a lie I’m sitting in the car park of the shops going through every menu!

I’m not usually a black car person either but in the light that blue really shines.

Ceramic controls are fantastic, heated armrests are surprisingly amazing, yet to choose which ambient air scent to go for as I want to enjoy the new car smell for a bit!

Yeah there's a lot of options on this car in the iDrive. It almost feels like there's double the amount compared to what my M5 has, highly customisable.

You know strangely I wouldn't have ever probably considered ordering the ceramic controls if it wasn't for them being standard on the M760Li. Not because I don't think it's worth it, just it wouldn't have crossed my mind I guess.

I remember when I used to order cars I'd skim on anything that was more cosmetic. My first 330d wasn't an M Sport one for instance as I didn't see the point in paying extra for mostly cosmetic changes. Strangely here I am now a bit further down the line paying £2.8k for the paint job on the car. How things change as you get older and mature. My friend across the road with a BMW M2 is already ribbing me about my Ash Grain Chestnut Wood inlay. He's a carbon fibre or paino black man

Yeah the heated armrests are awesome. I didn't even know cars had features like that before I first drove a 7 but it's one of those utter spoiling yourself in luxury kind of features I suspect the lesser cars are likely to never get.

Originally Posted by Pelo Cat

Have you sat in the back and played with the seat controls and felt that soft pillow head rest yet 325_bucks?...heaven.

Have to agree they are so comfortable. Not sure what they make them out of inside, maybe feathers plucked from angels for the 7 series

I can just imagine on some longer trips pulling over for a quick nap, climbing in the back and popping up the blinds. Probably 13 hours later waking up from a deep slumber on a nap that was only supposed to be 15 minutes

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

I have a confession, as soon as I left the dealer and stopped at the first place, I dropped the display key face down, unbelievable. Luckily the screen had plastic on so no damage and there is only a small mark on the outer plastic but it’s still frustrating as hell. Won’t be as bad as the first time I mark the actual car though!

Ah damn I hate that feeling. Ultimately you'll probably drop it more and get other marks, the car will get stone chips sooner or later even with a ceramic coating. After a while you have peace with the fact it's unavoidable but it never changes the feeling the first time it happens.

[325_bucks]

Spent a fair bit of time with the car today in between dealing with man flu but there is so much to explore. This evening I’ll write some of my thoughts and my ever growing list of questions!

[Pelo Cat]

cool, look forward to it. Ask away...look forward to the impressions and your first day thoughts if you have time as well!

[325_bucks]

Ok so, haven't spent as much time as I'd hoped today with the car because I'm just wiped out with this man flu and haven't felt like driving around all day no matter how nice the car is!

However my first impressions are that the car is so refined, it's great. It's not however on the level of the S Class but we know that anyway, but while in some ways that's a negative, in others, it's definitely a positive. The driving dynamics are engaging and it's surprisingly fun to throw around.

Personally, I'm very surprised to find that it feels much smaller to me than my 6. I find it easier to drive in every way, and I think this is due to the seating position, the visibility all round and general style of the car. This is great, although it makes me think that maybe the LWB would have been fine for me. Right now, if I could go back and choose again, I'd probably go LWB. Im happy with the G11 for sure but think I could have had no issues with the G12.

Adaptive Headlights: Witchcraft, there's nothing else to say about them. Amazing technology.

ACC is great, but certainly in my short experience it needs a lot of manual massaging to keep it working well.

Heated armrests are a luxury that I will now never want to be without, they are fantastic. The same goes for ceramic controls. If I didn't have them, I wouldn't miss them, but now I do, they feel amazing!

CarPlay has it's quirks but for the most part it works well enough for me.

Surround view is just stupidly good, being able to see the car as if you're standing metres away is just weird but amazing.

New indicator and wiper stalks are actually great, the positive click of the indicator and the ability to leave the wipers permanently in auto mode is worth it alone. It's a shame you can't automatically have Auto High Beam on without coding.

Ambient lighting looks amazing in the dark but the only problem is that with a dark interior, the lower light is not as defined as if it was in a light coloured car. I expected this but shame it's not as bright. Still looks good though. Currently using Blue, it looks good.

Raising and lowering the car is cool, not sure I'll ever use it but it's cool none the less.
Questions:

1) I don't fully understand lane keeping assist and how it relates to ACC. So I can activate either one or both at the same time right? I haven't had a chance to be in traffic yet but how do I activate it so that it crawls along in slow moving traffic that stops and starts

Actually that's the only question I have right now, need to spend more time playing to remember the rest!

[Pelo Cat]

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Ok so, haven't spent as much time as I'd hoped today with the car because I'm just wiped out with this man flu and haven't felt like driving around all day no matter how nice the car is!

Hope you feel better soon!

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Personally, I'm very surprised to find that it feels much smaller to me than my 6. I find it easier to drive in every way, and I think this is due to the seating position, the visibility all round and general style of the car. This is great, although it makes me think that maybe the LWB would have been fine for me. Right now, if I could go back and choose again, I'd probably go LWB. Im happy with the G11 for sure but think I could have had no issues with the G12.

I think this is actually a change from the way an F series car handled for steering feel and view compared to a G...my F01 was exactly the same, the G 7 feels like a 5 comparatively. I'd caution against being too bullish about the G12 though, try parking in an NCP or busy Tescos....then you may be glad you have the G11, but maybe you will think the G12 would have been fine. There's only 14 cm in difference but they can be felt (in parking or manoeuvring in busy side streets in cities...that the G11 can handle easier due to the shorter length (and that steering is deceptive...it is great and easy to park with all the toys but she's still a very big girl...let's see if you still feel the same after a bit more time.

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

ACC is great, but certainly in my short experience it needs a lot of manual massaging to keep it working well.

It is hard to get used to at first and at 2, 3 or 4 bars distance it is very hard to not manually want to adjust it, but with some time and getting used to it, then you'll be fine at 1 or 2 bars for most semi-urban or urban driving. Motorway or rural, 3 bars personally now. I know the feeling, it takes a bit of getting used to.

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Heated armrests are a luxury that I will now never want to be without, they are fantastic. The same goes for ceramic controls. If I didn't have them, I wouldn't miss them, but now I do, they feel amazing!

CarPlay has it's quirks but for the most part it works well enough for me.

La, La, La, I can't hear you! Not jealous at all, honest!

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Surround view is just stupidly good, being able to see the car as if you're standing metres away is just weird but amazing.

Yeah, they have done that stunningly well haven't they. Makes the car so easy to handle and park really but she's still a BIG girl, she just looks skinny and dances nice in black...be careful at first!

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

New indicator and wiper stalks are actually great, the positive click of the indicator and the ability to leave the wipers permanently in auto mode is worth it alone. It's a shame you can't automatically have Auto High Beam on without coding.

Cool, good to see they are as good as you hoped, something for me to try on a new one!

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Ambient lighting looks amazing in the dark but the only problem is that with a dark interior, the lower light is not as defined as if it was in a light coloured car. I expected this but shame it's not as bright. Still looks good though. Currently using Blue, it looks good.

Have you checked and adjusted the settings? don't forget they dim automatically at night (dark) and you can untick that if you wish to try it (or whack up the level to maximum all the time) that may help with the dark interior?

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Raising and lowering the car is cool, not sure I'll ever use it but it's cool none the less.

Only really for very rough ground or very poor roads (so really dodgy potholed areas or the odd off road parking on a field / grass. If you go above a certain speed (25 mph IIRC) it lowers automatically, same speed as the wing mirrors fold out automatically.

Thanks for the impressions, good to hear from others what they note and like/dislike/need to get used to...

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Questions:

1) I don't fully understand lane keeping assist and how it relates to ACC. So I can activate either one or both at the same time right? I haven't had a chance to be in traffic yet but how do I activate it so that it crawls along in slow moving traffic that stops and starts

Actually that's the only question I have right now, need to spend more time playing to remember the rest!

A few points here: yes, they are independent. lane monitoring/keeping assist only really works (in my experience) when you are on a more developed B or A road or motorway, for urban forget it, I turn it off then (or more appropriately, don't turn it on yet) For A, B or Motorway use, it will light up with the green symbol (upper left hand side of cockpit display) with what looks like a car going off the road, when that shows, the cameras have detected the lane markings and can keep you within (but you still need to press lane keeping assist steering wheel button (left side top left button, beside the ACC). If that green cockpit car going out of a lane symbol is not lit, the cameras can't see the lines and won't actively steer for you (regardless of whether the lane keeping assist is on or not), it will only monitor any intrusions from others (if you have pressed the button to turn it on, the lines will be grey). You'll also note this (when it is on) if you look in the two displays (HUD and cockpit) where you'll see either grey vertical lines or green vertical lines on either side of where the ACC (1-4 horizontal bars) would show...if the vertical lines are gray, the system can't detect the lanes, so it is on but won't actively steer, but it will monitor for intrusions from other vehicles into your space. If the vertical green lines are lit, then the system detects at least one lane marking and can actively steer as well as watch for others.

When you are in stop and go, you have to have it on and acc on, then it will watch the car in front and adjust lane and speed accordingly and stop and go accordingly. You shouldn't and can't likely use it in urban areas as it won't notice the lanes (so check that the symbol is showing in the cockpit before using it in the city streets during rush hour...this may be a small issue if you have stop and go in your urban area rather than an A, B or Motorway area.

Finally, you may have noticed, in stop and go, you may still need to touch the 'resume' button to get it to move forward again...touching the accelerator or pressing resume will indicate you want to move forward (after being stopped for 2 seconds or more)...up to 2 seconds it does the stop and go automatically, it can't work for periods longer than that.

I believe it uses the radar signals from the 3 front radar units (each side and middle ACC sensor) to detect where cars are in front of you and uses that as well when really slow (whether urban or otherwise) but you'd have to be at a crawl already for the car to use these front bumper radar units (in addition to the ACC radar) for stop and go at very low speeds, when you are still 1 car length away it will use the cameras to detect the lane not the car ahead for position as I understand it and have so far experienced it.

Hope that makes sense and helps, let me know if you still have questions or need further explanation and I can try and reword it. (tomorrow as about to head off to bed myself now).

Great to ride with you virtually today, thanks 325_bucks, hope your enjoyment just increases with time.

Safe travels,

[tyzer]

good to hear you are enjoying the car, I think we have a similar spec, just 18 month difference!

stop and go in traffic is the same as setting cruise control on and adjusting speed (i think you need to be going 5mph or something like that) and when the car stops and turns off, the image of the car will move forward in the dash, at this point move the switch (for adjustment of cruise speed) forward and the car will start and begin to move. Of course if the traffic is moving slowly there is no need to do this

Funny enough I was too sick to do the collection for my 7 (which I was really excited for) and the salesman drove it to my house, with a genius to do the handover, wasn't the same experience i feel.

hope you enjoy the coming days and weeks, I still love my car!

[Pelo Cat]

Hey tyzer, sounds like you have a stunning car as well, thanks for adding some very good points.

I agree, I love my 7 as well, that sounds like the handover from hell to be honest! (can't imagine wanting to do anything if one is bedridden!)

Wasn't aware that one could use the cruise speed toggle switch to tell ACC that you want to move again, good to know! ^ You can also use the resume button or lightly press the accelerator as well so appears there are a few options to tell the car GO! Every day is a school day!

Great point about mentioning how the car 'tells' one that the traffic is moving after a 2 second or longer 'stop'...the car in the displays (HUD or cockpit) will start to move forward in the displays, indicating that traffic is moving and effectively saying 'would sir like to continue the journey?' press any of the above means to say yes. (speed adjustment toggle for ACC, resume button or accelerator). Or should you wish to not do this, press the ACC button to turn the ACC off...and drive like the remaining 99.6% of the population to sample life with the common man.

Any other points / comments you can think of tyzer for our new fellow 7 enthusiast? Always good to hear what people like, found hard to get used to or otherwise with moving to a new car!

Safe travels everyone. We really should do a meet up if people are interested, once everyone gets theirs...I wish FastLaneJB would stop dragging his heels...honestly!

[tyzer]

thanks Pelo Cat, been reading your comments together with 325 bucks and fastlane for quite a while now, re-living the experience I had and the anticpation

Another tip from me is to use the shortcut buttons on the radio, they can be assigned to quite a few idrive actions, like I have press button 6 for quick access to change the interior lighting. Why? because every time my three daughters get in the car at night they asked for a different colour

Would be very interested in a meet, G11/G12 owners club GB! we would need space though and we could do the world's first reverse, remote control, multi car park off, with a drone filming from above (yep I got too excited again!)

[Pelo Cat]

Good points about the shortcuts on the radio buttons, I keep meaning to do that myself (even back with the F01) but never did...Both those shortcut keys and voice commands are very good in the 7, one should maximise them!

I have one button programmed for the regular drive to the office but should use a few for the ambient lighting. I personally am going with blue (top and bottom) for urban driving and white/red for rural or longer drives on motorway as the white/red is the right mix of light but not distracting (to me).

Definitely up for a meet, let's let FastLaneJB get his first and then look to see where we can meet up at least a first time! Would be great to meet (in person) a few fellow 7 owners. ^

It does raise the point about whether the 760Li can remote park quicker than a 730d...

A second or later meet could potentially involve something more like a tour of a dealership behind the scenes or visiting an aftermarket company that does work for the G series...(ideas, I have no contacts for such things)...but that is best left to later...

In any case, hoping 325_bucks feels well enough to update his car on his profile at least today and also to take the car out for another date, now that he's committed!

[FastLaneJB]

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Ok so, haven't spent as much time as I'd hoped today with the car because I'm just wiped out with this man flu and haven't felt like driving around all day no matter how nice the car is!

Oh man that's bad timing, hope your better soon.

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Personally, I'm very surprised to find that it feels much smaller to me than my 6. I find it easier to drive in every way, and I think this is due to the seating position, the visibility all round and general style of the car. This is great, although it makes me think that maybe the LWB would have been fine for me. Right now, if I could go back and choose again, I'd probably go LWB. Im happy with the G11 for sure but think I could have had no issues with the G12.

Well that is music to my ears Along with the 4 wheels steering I also think it feels no bigger than my 5 series when driving. The only concern I have is finding parking spaces but still I imagine even with the SWB that might require a bit of thought or avoiding some spots.

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Adaptive Headlights: Witchcraft, there's nothing else to say about them. Amazing technology.

Agree and amazing to think how far we've come along. I think my first clapped out car I ever had I had to lean out of the window with a long stick to feel my way home the headlights were so rubbish.

I think to be honest cars with regular lights are why some people refuse to drive at night where possible. They simply cannot see the road all that well, however at the other end it's zero issues at all because you can see perfectly well.

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

ACC is great, but certainly in my short experience it needs a lot of manual massaging to keep it working well.

It's about learning how it works, what it'll do in some situations and so on plus you getting more comfortable with it. The reality is you need to get to the point you trust it and can move the car a bit closer to the one up front. Otherwise it keeps such a gap which while is nice and safe, people will just cut infront of you forcing the car to slow down to increase the gap then accelerate again.

It's a shame because the longer distances is what we should all really be doing but you know what people can be like in this country. Those kind of gaps they'll just tuck into them.

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Heated armrests are a luxury that I will now never want to be without, they are fantastic. The same goes for ceramic controls. If I didn't have them, I wouldn't miss them, but now I do, they feel amazing!

Indeed, I thought when I had my first 730d test drive which was in winter time how great they were. Temps picking up now so maybe won't be much use for the heated seats / armrests when I get mine but regardless it's one of those luxury features that sets the 7 out from lower models.

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

CarPlay has it's quirks but for the most part it works well enough for me.

I'm somewhat in two minds about CarPlay. I'll give it a good whirl but I think BMW's native iDrive is also so good that in their cars it's not hugely required. I mean I like picking my music on the HUD which I believe when using CarPlay it's not possible.

It makes more sense in lesser cars where you can maybe skimp on the nav option and use your phone plus they don't have a HUD so nothing lost there.

I think next steps for Apple is I'd like to see them open it up to other navigation apps. Be useful to be able to use some of the other apps on occasions when lots of traffic to get a second opinion on a detour say. That or could get some of the apps that alert you to speed cameras

Also they need a HUD API. More and more cars are going to get HUD's because it's just a great technology. They need a way they can feed into those.

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Surround view is just stupidly good, being able to see the car as if you're standing metres away is just weird but amazing.

Indeed its another witchcraft feature. My only tiny gripe is the car in the display is always silver. They should have coded it to match your paint work but that's nit picking

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Raising and lowering the car is cool, not sure I'll ever use it but it's cool none the less.

I think mainly for off road parking or maybe when your going onto / off a ferry say. Some of those can have a bit of an angle plus longer car so more chance the middle grounds. I suspect probably worrying there for nothing but I'd likely raise it 20mm just to be on the safe side.

Don't forget in sports mode your car drops 10mm as well (20mm on the M760Li). Cannot remember for sure what the normal ride height is, something like 135mm I believe. So should be no risk of grounding out in sport on speed bumps.

Questions:

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

1) I don't fully understand lane keeping assist and how it relates to ACC. So I can activate either one or both at the same time right? I haven't had a chance to be in traffic yet but how do I activate it so that it crawls along in slow moving traffic that stops and starts

Actually that's the only question I have right now, need to spend more time playing to remember the rest!

Think others have answered this already but they are separate so you'd want to put both on. ACC will do the stop and go once you've got it set. Say your on a jam on a 40mph road you can have it set to 40mph but might only be crawling and stopping at a few miles per hour. It'll not zip up to 40 because the radar sees the car in front. So no need to lower that down to the speed your really going, have it set to the speed you want to be going for that road.

Splitting them out makes sense, you might want ACC but to steer by yourself fully. Or you might want some assistance on the steering but to do the pedals still. You can use it just how you feel at the time.

Originally Posted by Pelo Cat

Safe travels everyone. We really should do a meet up if people are interested, once everyone gets theirs...I wish FastLaneJB would stop dragging his heels...honestly!

You'd think at the price I'm paying they could at least get it loaded onto a Chinook and drop it off at my door. Your going to fix the environment for us so don't have to worry about the carbon footprint of doing that

Originally Posted by tyzer

thanks Pelo Cat, been reading your comments together with 325 bucks and fastlane for quite a while now, re-living the experience I had and the anticpation

Would be very interested in a meet, G11/G12 owners club GB! we would need space though and we could do the world's first reverse, remote control, multi car park off, with a drone filming from above (yep I got too excited again!)

You know the only downside to ordering a 7 series is almost no one has one, the forums are quite dead compared to the other car models. Reading lots of posts on your soon to be new car always has helped pass the time but there's just not enough content. So it's been really good with the time Pelo Cat and 325_bucks have put in. We are the three amigo's but always room for another to join

Originally Posted by Pelo Cat

Good points about the shortcuts on the radio buttons, I keep meaning to do that myself (even back with the F01) but never did...Both those shortcut keys and voice commands are very good in the 7, one should maximise them!

I have one button programmed for the regular drive to the office but should use a few for the ambient lighting. I personally am going with blue (top and bottom) for urban driving and white/red for rural or longer drives on motorway as the white/red is the right mix of light but not distracting (to me).

I make a lot of use of these. In fairness the voice control in the older models isn't as good but I still suspect I'll use them a lot. Trying to think what I've got set but it's roughly as follows (Don't forget you can hover your finger on the button without pressing it to see what it's set to, great feature)

1. Navigation Home
2. Radio Station
3. Another Radio Station
4. Bluetooth Music
5. Tyre Pressure / Temp Monitor
6. Sports Displays
7. Trip Computer
8. Call the boss (Wife)

Originally Posted by Pelo Cat

Definitely up for a meet, let's let FastLaneJB get his first and then look to see where we can meet up at least a first time! Would be great to meet (in person) a few fellow 7 owners. ^

It does raise the point about whether the 760Li can remote park quicker than a 730d...

A second or later meet could potentially involve something more like a tour of a dealership behind the scenes or visiting an aftermarket company that does work for the G series...(ideas, I have no contacts for such things)...but that is best left to later...

In any case, hoping 325_bucks feels well enough to update his car on his profile at least today and also to take the car out for another date, now that he's committed!

Yeah I'd be up for a meeting. That's quite a funny idea for a video actually on the reverse remote parking race.

Get it up on YouTube, get some ads in place and fingers crossed we can make enough to cover our car costs. Hehe

[tyzer]

great comments fastlane, cracked me up.

As far as carplay goes, it's best not to over imagine what it can do (which I did of course) because it does disappoint a little. However, now I have had it for over a year, there are lots of little things I can do with it that I really like:

1. Read my texts out
2. Speak text replies
3. The whole link up with the bmw connected app for addresses, location of the car, whether the doors are locked etc etc (ok this is less car play but hey)
4. Continuation of Music from house, train or bike ride
5. One place in my life for playlists
6. Audible app
7. Siri, when it works
8. Notifications markers

[325_bucks]

Happy Sunday all!

Well I haven't been in the car as much as I'd like this weekend, been feeling pretty rough, as has my wife so we've just been feeling sorry for ourselves and eating junk for most of the day.

However I did go for another blast today and I am still loving it, it's just such a nice place to be. I drove down some pretty bad roads where in the 6 you would feel it a lot worse. It never felt uncomfortable as such in the 6 but it was noticeably hard. In the 7, while of course you still know it's a rough road, it's smooth enough to almost forget about it and you can still enjoy the drive. I'm still going to say that the S class would make this disappear even more, but as I said, you don't get the involvement in the drive with the merc.

With regards to shortcut buttons, I too always forget to use them, I only ever use number 1 for Home Nav, but you guys have reminded me of some great ideas for the others, like shortcut to call the wife etc. I wonder if you can shortcut something in CarPlay.

With regards to CarPlay, it certainly has it's limitations. But for me the pros just outweigh the cons. I would be great if Nav was opened up to third parties and CP nav could be sent to the HUD, but until that happens, at least you can find the destination in Apple Maps and then press the "Send to BMW Nav" button so that it stats navigation in the HUD while CarPlay is still in use. Not ideal I know, but better than nothing.

They definitely need to open up the HUD with an API or find a way to integrate it with CarPlay. I guess the CarPlay output is standardised, so I suppose it's up to BMW to implement this. Good news it that it's probably something that can be fixed with software.

But to have full playlist access on spotify, to have Overcast fully accessible (I run my own podcast server so stream certain things to me), and other apps like that, that's great for me, even if it is a bit laggy.

Thanks for all your explanations about ACC etc, I think I get it now. Is there any way to get lane departure warning/assist to be active below 40mph?

[325_bucks]

oh, and kick to open boot - is it just me or is it terribly unreliable? If it's just me I need to get it looked at but it takes me ages waving my foot around in just the right spot to get it to open

[tyzer]

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

oh, and kick to open boot - is it just me or is it terribly unreliable? If it's just me I need to get it looked at but it takes me ages waving my foot around in just the right spot to get it to open

It's more like a definitive movement that needs to be at the right pace, angle etc. Practice makes perfect and a clear head (no cold) will help

[Pelo Cat]

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Thanks for all your explanations about ACC etc, I think I get it now. Is there any way to get lane departure warning/assist to be active below 40mph?

Hope you feel better soon, not fun when one is ill. Something to look forward to when you do feel better at least.

The user manual describes the conditions for 'steering and lane control assistant including traffic-queue assistant'. Essentially, yes, below 43 mph, if the cameras / radar detects a vehicle in front then it will follow that, otherwise no. (a few other conditions as well)...above this speed it needs to see the lane markings (one or both)...) Hope that helps. If no car in 4 second range and below 43 mph, no traffic queue assist but also no queue...

Originally Posted by tyzer

It's more like a definitive movement that needs to be at the right pace, angle etc. Practice makes perfect and a clear head (no cold) will help

Agree. I find it best to do a small 'kick' (one forward motion only) straight on when facing the boot so that the right foot is roughly in line with the manual boot handle, if that makes sense. Trying to go side to side or across a wide area horizontally doesn't work well in my experience. One forward kick only works a treat, you get used to the range of motion you need (not much) to activate it. I find the key fob location makes a difference as well. It works best with the key fob in my trouser pocket (front) where a big jacket is not blocking it...

Hope tyzer's comments and this help you get the feel better.

Keep the impressions and questions coming!

Do make sure to lay it on about how great it is to have the car and the ride...we only have a few weeks to help FastLaneJB's anticipation!

[FastLaneJB]

Originally Posted by tyzer

It's more like a definitive movement that needs to be at the right pace, angle etc. Practice makes perfect and a clear head (no cold) will help

Yeah I had issues with this when I first had it on a car as well. The foot under and wiggling it doesn't work well. The foot under, stop and then back out also doesn't work well.

Just a small kick in a continuous motion works every time for me. Doesn't need to go hugely under the car or anything. As Pelo said do it from the middle and the keys got to be on you.

Not something I use hugely but it is useful when carrying something heavy / two handed to go in the boot that's for sure.

[325_bucks]

who's the idiot who reversed into a bush then