[U235]

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The day has arrived, I took delivery of our 23 X7 M60i. Marina Bay Blue, Black Extended Marino, Msport Pro, 21" 754M (will be blacked out), Drivers Assistance, Climate Package.

A fault code exists in the Drivers Assistance package and BMW Corp said to replace the radar module which has a month lead time. No visible errors in the car, but it shows up on the dealer diagnostics. Despite warnings, radar cruise control and lane keep worked on the drive home. It will go back once the module arrives; I'm not sure anything is wrong.

The car is great, but wow, the iDrive 8 learning curve is steep. So many settings, but it is feeling intuitive after ~30 minutes of playing around. The hard buttons around the controller are awesome and give easy access to anything you want. The custom-ability is huge, I've been able to do things I always expect in my cars like mixing sources for Audio Favorites (e.g. local FM + Sirius in the same favorites menu). You'd be surprised how few vehicles do this. Finally, the CarPlay integration is the best I've ever seen, it just mates so perfectly with hard buttons adapting to CarPlay.

Marina Bay Blue is a head turner, just WOW. The sparkles in the sun light are intense, this car has multiple moods, the dealer CA told me how many people stopped to check it out. Our friends came over for dinner tonight and they were blown away by the color, and once we let them inside, the interior screens blew them away. This color is an absolute stunner!

Despite concerns the ventilated seats would be a gimmick, I swear I felt cold air coming through. With the A/C on, they exceeded my expectations. That said, coming from a recent Cadillac rental I returned last Sunday that pipes "real cold air", you can tell the difference, but with it being 102F today, when the A/C is running it actually feels like "cool not cold" air hitting you.

Driving home, I noticed my RPM was limited to 4500rpm which isn't an issue, but when you put it into Sport Plus, it seems the car wants to go that high. I thought it was a setting, but deep in the bowels of menus I discovered the car has a 250 mile break-in period where it told me full RPM/power would be available in ~230'ish miles.

I've come across a few menus that leave some to be desired which I'll catalog in subsequent posts, but here's the pic dump.

Consider this an AMA! Subsequent posts will cover some early snags I've run into...

Also, more pics later in thread:
https://g07.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=33

Video of Cold Start and Rev:
https://g07.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...0&postcount=35

Blacked out Rims on Page 5:
https://g07.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...&postcount=188

[U235]

First major issue, after pairing my iPhone and Watch and turning on the "Comfort Access" setting to lock/unlock my car when I'm nearby, the car went NUTS anytime I'd walk away from it. When I came home, I kept the car running while I ran and got glovebox things, my rubber floor mats, etc. Every time I stepped 5 feet away from the car, the horn would honk 2-3 times (very loud). I left the key and phone in the car thinking it was that, but it still happened. It was enough that my neighbors texted and asked me to stop honking the horn. Only later, I figured out my paired Apple Watch was detecting me walking away. This is WAY too sensitive. I've now turned Comfort Access off as it was ridiculous. Similarly, if I walked near the closet by my garage, I'd hear the car unlock. I'll stick to contact on the door handle. BMW can learn a lot from Tesla on how to control proximity based locking/unlocking.

[xjrmh]

Huge congrats! Do you mind record a short video demonstrating how the exhaust sounds when doing cold start / (normal) accelerate? Thanks! I'm expecting my M60i at the end of the month, really cannot wait!

[U235]

Second thing, the car has a very dull white/yellow ambient lighting feature. When you throw the car into sport mode, it turns an aggressive red. I felt this would be adjustable. On top of this lighting which includes the strip LEDs in the doors and the new "X7" or "///M" LED bar across the front passenger area, there's a subtly purple hue coming out of the door grab areas.

I expected based on what I read that this all would be customizable, but it appears it is not, at least for now. When I attempt to adjust settings in the car, I get the following error "Function currently not available" indicating it only adjusts based on drive mode (which it does). I can't adjust the boring beige color, nor can I adjust the purple areas. Contrast to my Volvo which gives me great controls to control every lighting color.

[U235]

There was one other error I found, but I couldn't subsequently find it, but it stated I couldn't do the function when in a "Drive Mode". I was in "Park" in the driveway, so that threw me off.

All that said, I was able to achieve massive levels of customization, and within 30 or so minutes I was able to actually really easily navigate the systems, and the hard buttons and steering wheel controls proved that once configured, you could do/use everything you'd ever want in the car without ever going into menus. The widgets are custmoizable and worthwhile. I'm really pleased, but this is definitely a vehicle you need to spend some time tweaking given the plethora of customability!

[U235]

My only exterior gripes are:

1) The load rails on the roof are seemingly clunky. I wish they did flush load rails. Audi, Range Rover, Volvo, etc. have super flush rails, but BMW has these rails with notable gaps between the body and rail that look less sleek. Granted the Mbenz GLS63 has the same clunky rails, but it makes the side profile look "trucky". I'm really nit-picking, but aesthetically they diminish the athleticism of the vehicle.

2) Despite MPro blackout treament, there's a large chrome strip across the back of the vehicle which doesn't fit the large blacked out diffuser/lower bumper. They should've gone black chrome. I am going to black out the X7 and 60i logos (which humbly should be a factory inclusion if not option), but given the chrome strip is embedded in clear plastic, I can't really black that out. I think that was a style miss on an otherwise murdered out/blacked out vehicle. BMW could take some cues from other vendors (including Kia) on dark/night/black out packages.

[U235]

Originally Posted by xjrmh

Huge congrats! Do you mind record a short video demonstrating how the exhaust sounds when doing cold start / (normal) accelerate? Thanks! I'm expecting my M60i at the end of the month, really cannot wait!

I wanted to do that today, but I had a dinner thing I had to get to. It's on my list. It sounds great!

[U235]

By the way, the keys look great!

With iPhone CarKey, not sure I'll use the keys, but they're impressive nonetheless!

[JJ(BM)Dubya]

Great thread. I’ve got the MBB and cannot wait for it to get out of QC and for me to give it much needed TLC.

[U235]

Originally Posted by JJ(BM)Dubya

Great thread. I’ve got the MBB and cannot wait for it to get out of QC and for me to give it much needed TLC.

Good luck on QC, fingers crossed for you. It seems a ton of these are getting locked up there. I’d love a partner in crime on this thread!

[cheenamalai]

Can you post a picture like this of your dashboard. I wanted to compare vs anthracite poplar

[U235]

Originally Posted by cheenamalai

Can you post a picture like this of your dashboard. I wanted to compare vs anthracite poplar

I'll try to capture similar lightning. Fineline definitely has a gloss that your Poplar does not!

[sjsnyc]

This looks amazing. Congratulations on your new vehicle!

[DancyQ]

Originally Posted by U235

By the way, the keys look great!

With iPhone CarKey, not sure I'll use the keys, but they're impressive nonetheless!

Attachment 2953101

Congrats. Great choice of color.

As for the keys, you will get only 1 regular key and one key card? I thought you would still get two regular keys fobs?

[U235]

DHP/Air Suspension post:

While it's too early for a full review, having only 10 miles of driving, I can't say much about the dynamic handling yet, it still feels like a large car. I can say that the three pesky speed humps I have to drive over to get into my neighborhood were handled extremely well.

Our previous XC90 with 4C Air-Suspension handled those bumps daily in valiant effort. However, it still felt annoyingly jarring and stiff over them. I expected this car with ///M treatment to be the same if not worse. I'm happy to report it soaked those speed humps up like you'd imagine grandpa's 80s Deville to handle. It was like riding over a cloud. If it weren't for DHP, I'd be concerned the car is too soft, but I couldn't be happier with the luxury ride characteristics over these straight on speed humps which annoy me daily. It truly is world class comfort over them!

I took a few low speed 90 degree corners and felt no real lean, so I think the compromise is nailed here. I won't say it's close to a 911 or even an M3/M4 in terms of agility, but that was never the expectation. As a family hauler, I'm enamored with how it handled those speed humps in the most luxurious way!

[U235]

Originally Posted by DancyQ

Congrats. Great choice of color.

As for the keys, you will get only 1 regular key and one key card? I thought you would still get two regular keys fobs?

We got two physical keys and one key card. I had already deposited the second key in the wife's purse, but it looks identical to the other key!

[cheenamalai]

Originally Posted by U235

I'll try to capture similar lightning. Fineline definitely has a gloss that your Poplar does not!

I am thinking gloss will fit better with this LED strip they have vs the pre-LCI.

By the way, picture is not mine. I am undecided between the two trims atm.

[JJ(BM)Dubya]

Originally Posted by U235

Good luck on QC, fingers crossed for you. It seems a ton of these are getting locked up there. I’d love a partner in crime on this thread!

Thanks man. Yeah it’s officially been 11 days now. Something has gotta give soon I hope.

[DancyQ]

Originally Posted by U235

We got two physical keys and one key card. I had already deposited the second key in the wife's purse, but it looks identical to the other key!

Thank you for confirming. That blue just looks stunning.

[U235]

Originally Posted by cheenamalai

I am thinking gloss will fit better with this LED strip they have vs the pre-LCI.

By the way, picture is not mine. I am undecided between the two trims atm.

With so much glass and general black on the interior, I'd go Fineline Black or Carbon. No matter what you do with this type of car, you'll need to learn to embrace fingerprints, but honestly, between the glass controls and screens, the trim isn't going to be your issue!

This is purely my opinion, but the Poplar is just not aesthetically pleasing to me on black interiors. If you want to go with a wood, my opinion is to go Fineline Open Pore or Stripe Line if you want something glossy or Silver Ash Open Pore if you want something less glossy.

I debated Carbon, but I had so many cars I paid for carbon packages in ~10 years ago, and I felt it was overkill on this type of car and I was going for a more luxury appeal. I do wish there was a dark/black wood open pore matte option on this car as there's a subtle luxury to non-gloss wood, but for whatever reason the brown poplar just doesn't work for me with the excessively black dash and all the glass. That's just my opinion which amounts to nothing. If I saw a car with poplar trim on the lot that I otherwise liked, this would not hold me back.

All that said, I'm 100% happy with Fineline Black and wouldn't change it at all. If this was a $1,000 option trim, I think I'd still select it. That said, if I had an Ivory interior, Silver Ash all the way!

[iknowdjz]

Congrats on the ride and thanks for all the details!

Couple questions:

1. Do you see anything in the park assist about "Memory Parking" or "Maneuver Assist" (More Details: https://g07.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1937169)
2. Does the trunk open with a kick under it? My 2020 does, but heard chip shortages killed that.

[U235]

Originally Posted by iknowdjz

Congrats on the ride and thanks for all the details!

Couple questions:

1. Do you see anything in the park assist about "Memory Parking" or "Maneuver Assist" (More Details: https://g07.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1937169)
2. Does the trunk open with a kick under it? My 2020 does, but heard chip shortages killed that.

I'll have to confirm tomorrow on Memory Parking. I definitely saw things in the Parking that advertised to remember a parking situation, so I think that's there. I'll advise tomorrow.

I haven't tried kick to open. My Volvo's have that. Is there a doc or picture of where to kick?

I'll try to capture video of both of these tomorrow morning.