[U235]

Originally Posted by WatchTimes

At any point have you wished you had true snow tires versus the all seasons?

Of course, if we lived up here, that’s a no brainer, but I couldn’t drive all the way from Texas in winters without ruining them.

[U235]

... and this is the current situation

[U235]

We drove from Breckenridge to Vail. It was storming, but the roads were in good condition. We slotted in between a couple hour break in the weather.

Leaving our AirBnb in Breckenridge, we were driving in 3-4" of snow out of the driveway and the back roads, the car did admirably. I never felt a single slip or any remote fuss for traction. I even gave it quite a bit of gas in snow while turning to see if it would slip, and it didn't.

Downtown Breck had a half-inch or so while Frisco was mostly clear. The highway was also mostly clear, higher elevations near the pass were that sort of sand/snow/mix from the plow trucks and the sand they drop. The car was surefooted the entire time, even making lane changes through the slush at speed. It felt much more planted than previous rental cars and even our Volvo. I think the weight of the car helps in this case. Regardless, X-Drive provided ample traction, I never felt anything adjusting/slipping/etc. In West Vail, there was an exit with a sharp uphill turn with 1-2" of snow, the car charged up that without any issue. I wish I had more to report, but it was such a non-affair.

Only issue was that the windshield fluid was frozen. I'm guessing BMW put 32F solution in from the factory since it's a warm-climate car (Texas). I had hoped it was 0F, but clearly it wasn't. The temperature got to 11F overnight and was 12-16F for the drive. The windshield was really dirty and while vision wasn't impaired, it was annoying.

Here are some pics of the drive, spotted a white LCI M60i on I70 in West Vail, pic attached, maybe it's someone on here:



















Attachment 3350002

[EVRollerTech]

Originally Posted by U235

Sorry for the delay, I had some Wi-Fi connectivity issues.

We made it up into the mountains. Wow, it was purely effortless to drive this car. I feel like I got good gas mileage despite the mountains. The car is reporting 20.5mpg since last refuel. Unfortunately, this is the point of our trip where it deviates significantly from our last trip, so I will no longer have comparisons against the XC90, but suffice to say, I basically feel like I'm getting the same economy despite more power, more size and more weight (both in terms of car and payload).

The day did start off with two very negative X7 experiences, I thought it is worth highlighting:

1. At 6am, I pulled the X7 up to the front door of the Marriott we were staying at to load it. Given it was cold, I was letting it warm up as we packed the car. As my wife and I were loading the car, like a possessed devil, the car was honking like crazy. Clearly, it was upset that keys were left in the car (keys meaning phones). Also, my Apple Watch was leaving the car. It just wouldn't stop, it was so annoying. At 6am, I'm sure the hotel guests appreciated it. My wife was yelling at me to get it to stop, but honestly I couldn't get it to stop. I threw my phone inside the car, but that didn't help as I think my watch was causing other issues with the car. Similarly, the night before we valet'd the car at a swank restaurant in downtown Denver, and it did the same thing while working with the valet guy (we gave him the hard key). The whole thing is stressful and embarrassing. This is well covered in this thread, but it's still [...]

I appreciate your post, nice to see other real world reports. Doing a similar distance road trip from Houston to Phoenix to see our grown kids/family in our 40i and we usually get around 22-24mpg overall on these trips so I think we might really consider getting a M60i next time as I too would be more than happy being anywhere above 20 with the 8 cylinder. On the door locking/ horn honking I wish more than anything we simply had a way to disable this warning/remider. I personally have the lock when walking away turned off as I prefer to have to touch the door handle to lock. My main reason for this is when we’re at home don’t need the car to lock. I did see in a new 7 with I drive 8.5 they had a selection to disable these comfort lock/unlock features when at Home. Don’t know if that’s something the current X7 have as well. Since our car can’t be upgraded to 8.5 maybe others know. On the slowing/braking on the bends I’m curious if you had a navigation route active at the time and if so what settings did you have under the driving settings for route and intersection assistant. There is a setting there for selecting the cornering speed.

[U235]

Originally Posted by EVRollerTech

I appreciate your post, nice to see other real world reports. Doing a similar distance road trip from Houston to Phoenix to see our grown kids/family in our 40i and we usually get around 22-24mpg overall on these trips so I think we might really consider getting a M60i next time as I too would be more than happy being anywhere above 20 with the 8 cylinder. On the door locking/ horn honking I wish more than anything we simply had a way to disable this warning/remider. I personally have the lock when walking away turned off as I prefer to have to touch the door handle to lock. My main reason for this is when we’re at home don’t need the car to lock. I did see in a new 7 with I drive 8.5 they had a selection to disable these comfort lock/unlock features when at Home. Don’t know if that’s something the current X7 have as well. Since our car can’t be upgraded to 8.5 maybe others know. On the slowing/braking on the bends I’m curious if you had a navigation route active at the time and if so what settings did you have under the driving settings for route and intersection assistant. There is a setting there for selecting the cornering speed.

On the nav, I was using Waze via CarPlay which doesn’t integrate into the car’s nav or HUD.

[turnem05]

Thanks for sharing! Awesome photos! I love that color blue that BMW has. Almost got that one but went for Dravit Gray instead.

[U235]

Originally Posted by turnem05

Thanks for sharing! Awesome photos! I love that color blue that BMW has. Almost got that one but went for Dravit Gray instead.

I should have a trip update tomorrow as we head from Vail to Telluride. Forecast looks pretty good, possible light flurries leaving Vail tomorrow morning.

[U235]

Easy drive to Telluride today. There was almost no traffic on the road. Much of this drive was new roads to me, the trip through Glenwood Canyon and Springs was gorgeous. The approach in Telluride was also gorgeous.

The car did admirably. I got great gas mileage again for this trip. If you recall, I filled up on 12/16 in Denver, drove across multiple passes, drove in town, warmed up the car several times in freezing weather, and I still got 22.41 mpg and 423 miles on that tank (still reported having 95 miles of range left).

Driving up into Telluride, I made a couple effortless passes and really got on it. The X7 was like a rocket passing effortlessly in 8000'+ altitude!

Here are pictures of the drive and the fuel log:

[U235]

Originally Posted by U235

The day did start off with two very negative X7 experiences, I thought it is worth highlighting:

1 ....

2. While on cruise control, charging up the mountains at 70 mph (in a 65), the car just decides to automatically brake check people behind us when there's a moderate bend. The speed limit didn't go down, but it reads a bend in the road and just slows down abruptly without warning. This happened three times charging up I70. It resulted in two bright flashers, one middle finger and a couple of honks. Really stupid, I ended up not using cruise control during and winding roads.

In regards to this cruise control slow down thing, I was able to capture it on video today driving in Eagle County near EGE Airport. The instrument cluster actually indicates this with a curve icon and checkbox and countdown, but you can see in the video that the car automatically slows down a little, then continues to slow down well below the speed limit (yellow signs aren't legal speed limits). After the curve, it speeds up back to your set speed. . If you have a convoy of cars behind you, TRUST ME, this will piss them off.

Speed limit was 75mph, I was set at 78mph. At 0.3 miles before the curve, the car slowed to 76 mph, and right at the curve it went down to 71 mph (under the speed limit) and once the road straightened, it returned to 78 mph. I was not touching any of the pedals. I can't say I'm a fan of this, especially considering the actual speed limit never changed and this was a very subtle corner. As stated, this behavior resulted in middle fingers and flashing lights on a busier I70 two weeks prior...

[cfm56d7b]

Fantastic trip report. Yet another data point which supports X7 sales in the most convincing manner.

What tires does your car have?

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by U235

I thought I’d dedicate a post to a long-haul, multi-climate trip.

[Needsdecaf]

Thanks for all the photos. We've done Houston - Vail trip by car multiple times. Both through Denver but usually through Canyon City - Rt. 9 - over the pass into the back door of Breck and then onward. During the summer, we do this trip in about a day and a half, stopping in Raton, NM for our overnight. Seeing many familiar roads in your pictures.

Enjoy the trip!

[ghost34]

This is perfectly timed for me. I currently have a 17 xc90 t6 polestar tune with 117k miles and I might keep it as a 3rd car but it's been problematic over the last 2 years. I've been considering a used x7 m50, but i did reserve a rivian r1s and my slot is ready to build. Just not convinced it makes sense for the family hauler to be an EV. I live in colorado and drive your vacation routes often, I also want my family hauler to do day trips and I'm concerned with charging. Rivian does have its partnership with tesla kicking in soon, so that opens up the tesla charging network. Thinking the x7 makes the most sense today.

[mayorblurps]

Awesome posts and thanks for sharing. This east coaster is envious of such a road trip. Our visits to Breck, Vail, etc are only by plane. X7 would be much preferred 🙌. Great to see how it performed.

Curious if you were in comfort, eco, etc? I did a 90 mile trip recently (also m60i) and got a respectable 23 average using eco pro. Only dropping it into S mode or sport to gun it as needed.

[snowbimmer]

Hey U235

Awesome post. Nothing like a Bimmer road trip - especially if Colorado is involved. There doesn't seem to be much snow on the ground for skiing. Is there?

Speaking of skiing - you're on a ski trip for crissakes! Where's the ski pictures?? A couple of ski pictures wouldn't kill anybody.

[U235]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

Fantastic trip report. Yet another data point which supports X7 sales in the most convincing manner.

What tires does your car have?

The factory 21" Bridgestone Alenza Sport A/S 285/45ZR21, 99% sure that's what's on there.

[U235]

Originally Posted by Needsdecaf

Thanks for all the photos. We've done Houston - Vail trip by car multiple times. Both through Denver but usually through Canyon City - Rt. 9 - over the pass into the back door of Breck and then onward. During the summer, we do this trip in about a day and a half, stopping in Raton, NM for our overnight. Seeing many familiar roads in your pictures.

Enjoy the trip!

Our normal route is to make an overnight in Amarillo, then drive to the cut over from Pueblo to Canyon City to Fairplay, Alma, Hoosier Pass then down into Breck. However, we had an extra day and wanted to visit friends in Denver. It's a pretty nice drive all things considered!

[U235]

Originally Posted by ghost34

This is perfectly timed for me. I currently have a 17 xc90 t6 polestar tune with 117k miles and I might keep it as a 3rd car but it's been problematic over the last 2 years. I've been considering a used x7 m50, but i did reserve a rivian r1s and my slot is ready to build. Just not convinced it makes sense for the family hauler to be an EV. I live in colorado and drive your vacation routes often, I also want my family hauler to do day trips and I'm concerned with charging. Rivian does have its partnership with tesla kicking in soon, so that opens up the tesla charging network. Thinking the x7 makes the most sense today.

I saw a handful of Teslas and Rivians around Vail and Breck, unsure where the chargers are, but did see a bank of Tesla superchargers here in Telluride, by the market that terminates the gondola (visible from Sunshine Express Lift). If you're staying in Colorado, I think EV could make sense, but the convenience of quick fuel and 500+ miles range is zero anxiety!

[cfm56d7b]

Originally Posted by U235

The factory 21" Bridgestone Alenza Sport A/S 285/45ZR21, 99% sure that's what's on there.

Thanks for the details.

How would you rate these tires while driving in winter weather?

[U235]

Originally Posted by mayorblurps

Awesome posts and thanks for sharing. This east coaster is envious of such a road trip. Our visits to Breck, Vail, etc are only by plane. X7 would be much preferred 🙌. Great to see how it performed.

Curious if you were in comfort, eco, etc? I did a 90 mile trip recently (also m60i) and got a respectable 23 average using eco pro. Only dropping it into S mode or sport to gun it as needed.

Eco Pro for most of it, also I lower to the lowest mode. When it was snowing I left it in Comfort and Comfort height.

[U235]

Originally Posted by snowbimmer

Hey U235

Awesome post. Nothing like a Bimmer road trip - especially if Colorado is involved. There doesn't seem to be much snow on the ground for skiing. Is there?

Speaking of skiing - you're on a ski trip for crissakes! Where's the ski pictures?? A couple of ski pictures wouldn't kill anybody.

They could use more snow, but most of the mountains are open. Pretty much all of Vail is/was open. Things are thin on the advanced runs. I brought three pairs of skis, two are shredded from rock hits, but now that I know base repair is imminent, I'm like, "YOLO" and don't care. We're having a blast!

I promise you will find a 15 minute YouTube video of mostly my son skiing at the end of this trip report. My 8 year old shreds double blacks. A couple teaser photos to appease you...

[U235]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

Thanks for the details.

How would you rate these tires while driving in winter weather?

So far so good. I was a concerned as I've never owned Runflats before, but they seemed to do well. We only had a little snow on Christmas Eve. I posted about it in Post #25: https://g07.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=25

Couldn't get it to slip even with some decent throttle action. It looks like it'll snow in the San Juan's on Thursday and maybe through Friday. We're leaving on Friday, so there could be an opportunity to see some more snow driving, stay tuned...