[mitch57]

Originally Posted by toddwalton

I swear, sometimes it's like BMW doesn't actually have people on the X7 project that are over the age of 35, have kids, or use the thing.

X7 is the next-best thing to a BMW minivan for people with large families. So they don't allow the 2nd row captain's chairs to have a pass thru for 3rd row kids.

X7 has an abundance of features, most buried in touch screen menus. So they discontinue the 1-8 shortcut buttons.

X7 is designed to transport 6-7 passengers, so they make the seats electronic and slow and inconvenience everyone as the 1st and 2nd rows are in motion when the 7th needs to enter the 3rd row.

X7 is a tall car and hard for little ones to enter. So they don't allow the air suspension to default and stick to the lowest setting.

X7 has wireless charging for smartphones and still ship ones that overheat and disconnect smartphones when you need them most.

X7 is a soccer mom cruiser with a confusing array of features, so they get rid of the gearshift lever to make things, you know, more confusing.

Freaking IDIOTS!!!! There's no other way to say it. These BMW walking zombies have absolutely no common sense, cognitive abilities, troubleshooting skills, and probably can't walk and chew gum at the same time. On top of that, they probably all make 250K or more per year.

All I can say is scream loudly to your dealers and especially to BMW NA.

Maybe their intent is to drive current customers to their competitor's automobiles. If so, they are succeeding as I'm about ready to jump ship if they keep doing stupid shit like this.

[unfoundnemo]

Originally Posted by toddwalton

I swear, sometimes it's like BMW doesn't actually have people on the X7 project that are over the age of 35, have kids, or use the thing.

X7 is the next-best thing to a BMW minivan for people with large families. So they don't allow the 2nd row captain's chairs to have a pass thru for 3rd row kids.

X7 has an abundance of features, most buried in touch screen menus. So they discontinue the 1-8 shortcut buttons.

X7 is designed to transport 6-7 passengers, so they make the seats electronic and slow and inconvenience everyone as the 1st and 2nd rows are in motion when the 7th needs to enter the 3rd row.

X7 is a tall car and hard for little ones to enter. So they don't allow the air suspension to default and stick to the lowest setting.

X7 has wireless charging for smartphones and still ship ones that overheat and disconnect smartphones when you need them most.

X7 is a soccer mom cruiser with a confusing array of features, so they get rid of the gearshift lever to make things, you know, more confusing.

At least your list only grew from 4 to 6 with the LCI.

How do you really feel, though?

[bradythedog12]

The really disappointing thing is that even with all those faults, it’s still, by far, the best SUV/SAV out there!! ;-) So glad we have ours!!

[thenew3]

Originally Posted by mitch57

Maybe their intent is to drive current customers to their competitor's automobiles. If so, they are succeeding as I'm about ready to jump ship if they keep doing stupid shit like this.

Which competitor offers a similar product that meets all the same needs without having their own list of stupid issues? Please share with us so we can all consider jumping ship.

[toddwalton]

Originally Posted by unfoundnemo

At least your list only grew from 4 to 6 with the LCI.

How do you really feel, though?

It's just frustrating, that's all. BMW used to be about the experience, everything made easy for the driver, from the location of the controls, to the tilt of the center stack. Simple things like the red/blue temperature wheel. Just easy solutions that made things better for the driver. You could tell that the people making the decisions lived and breathed with the car.

X7, completely different. Tons of bad decisions at launch, and now taking steps backwards. Everyone is so distracted by the damned headlights they're not noticing that iDrive has morphed into Windows XP and BMW is adding inconvenience. This could be the perfect 7 passenger minivan replacement if they thought like parents and not like engineers.

[mitch57]

Originally Posted by thenew3

Which competitor offers a similar product that meets all the same needs without having their own list of stupid issues? Please share with us so we can all consider jumping ship.

Ha Ha...We all know that none exist in reality. Especially now with the industry moving to smart (not really smart but really stupid) cars which is part of the problem. I will probably just move way down the chain to a more disposable vehicle for half the price.

I recently retired from the IT industry and have watched the steady decline in technology reliability as well as the increasing privacy concerns and over reliance on AI. The auto industry's agenda is to shove this down our throats as quickly as possible while they struggle to support any of the same crap they shove down our throats.

I just bought a 2022 Mazda CX5 Signature for my wife. No comparison in luxury and features compared to my X7. However, it hauls ass for a little turbo charged 4 banger. Plus, it handles like a little sports care and is very quiet as well. Almost as quiet as my X7. I suspect it will drive and last like the multitude of Toyota vehicles I've owned and still own. They run forever with minimal maintenance and are almost totally trouble free.

All the bells, whistles, power, luxury, and amenities are pretty much worthless if all they do is frustrate you and keep you constantly going to the dealer to try to fix the issues. It's just not worth it to me.

[mitch57]

Originally Posted by toddwalton

It's just frustrating, that's all. BMW used to be about the experience, everything made easy for the driver, from the location of the controls, to the tilt of the center stack. Simple things like the red/blue temperature wheel. Just easy solutions that made things better for the driver. You could tell that the people making the decisions lived and breathed with the car.

X7, completely different. Tons of bad decisions at launch, and now taking steps backwards. Everyone is so distracted by the damned headlights they're not noticing that iDrive has morphed into Windows XP and BMW is adding inconvenience. This could be the perfect 7 passenger minivan replacement if they thought like parents and not like engineers.

Well said. I will add that if these so called engineers and designers started thinking like normal human beings instead of mechanical machines we would have vehicles that meet most everyone's desires and needs.

They should also add an incentive for the corporate bean counters as well. Perhaps a nice reduction in their pay for every decision they make that affects reliability, usability, and owner satisfaction. Maybe they could use a tiered method of perhaps a 5% salary decrease for each incident where a bean counter made a decision that degraded owner satisfaction and vehicle reliability.

[thenew3]

Originally Posted by mitch57

Ha Ha...We all know that none exist in reality. Especially now with the industry moving to smart (not really smart but really stupid) cars which is part of the problem. I will probably just move way down the chain to a more disposable vehicle for half the price.

I recently retired from the IT industry and have watched the steady decline in technology reliability as well as the increasing privacy concerns and over reliance on AI. The auto industry's agenda is to shove this down our throats as quickly as possible while they struggle to support any of the same crap they shove down our throats.

I just bought a 2022 Mazda CX5 Signature for my wife. No comparison in luxury and features compared to my X7. However, it hauls ass for a little turbo charged 4 banger. Plus, it handles like a little sports care and is very quiet as well. Almost as quiet as my X7. I suspect it will drive and last like the multitude of Toyota vehicles I've owned and still own. They run forever with minimal maintenance and are almost totally trouble free.

All the bells, whistles, power, luxury, and amenities are pretty much worthless if all they do is frustrate you and keep you constantly going to the dealer to try to fix the issues. It's just not worth it to me.

I totally agree with you. I've worked in IT for 30+ years and still do, the products we've received the last 10 or so years have become extremely complicated and delicate. Breath on it the wrong way and it stops working. Vendor support are not trained to support the product at all and half the time don't even have a solid enough grasp of the English language to understand the problem. (And this is on multi million dollar business critical systems). Reliability is steadily going down hill.

Funny you mention CX5. I was looking into that for my teen age son who will be driving soon. So far that's one of my top choices. (Considering a redesigned X1/X2, iX1/iX2 if it ever reaches our shores, or CX5).

Not sure maintenance for Mazda is any lower than our BMW's though. Have a friend that bought a Mazda 6 sedan a few years ago. She's always complaining about the high maintenance costs. Apparently it's $300 for an oil change at the mazda dealer every 3k miles. and $500 for a oil service with vehicle checkup every 12k miles.

[PinkNinja400Guy]

Originally Posted by thenew3

Not sure maintenance for Mazda is any lower than our BMW's though. Have a friend that bought a Mazda 6 sedan a few years ago. She's always complaining about the high maintenance costs. Apparently it's $300 for an oil change at the mazda dealer every 3k miles. and $500 for a oil service with vehicle checkup every 12k miles.

Maintenance for Mazdas isn't that high, your friend is just getting scammed by a scummy dealership.

[mitch57]

Originally Posted by thenew3

I totally agree with you. I've worked in IT for 30+ years and still do, the products we've received the last 10 or so years have become extremely complicated and delicate. Breath on it the wrong way and it stops working. Vendor support are not trained to support the product at all and half the time don't even have a solid enough grasp of the English language to understand the problem. (And this is on multi million dollar business critical systems). Reliability is steadily going down hill.

Funny you mention CX5. I was looking into that for my teen age son who will be driving soon. So far that's one of my top choices. (Considering a redesigned X1/X2, iX1/iX2 if it ever reaches our shores, or CX5).

Not sure maintenance for Mazda is any lower than our BMW's though. Have a friend that bought a Mazda 6 sedan a few years ago. She's always complaining about the high maintenance costs. Apparently it's $300 for an oil change at the mazda dealer every 3k miles. and $500 for a oil service with vehicle checkup every 12k miles.

Agreed. I retired due to many of the reasons you mentioned. I also witnessed time and again many good IT companies get eaten up by large conglomerates which turned the company and their products, service and support into total SHIT!

I spent over 40 years in the IT industry. I used to have a "Love/Hate" relationship with IT. Now I pretty much have just a "Hate" relationship with IT because of the total crap they release now that's so full of bugs it makes the product a frustrating and time consuming piece of crap.

Mazda had a pretty bad reputation 4 to 5 years ago. They finally got their act together and now make a pretty decent product.