ED Experience - 7 September - 12 September

[mtdavid]

Ok, short and brief...

Welt delivery experience was pretty cool.. I was surprised at how many vehicles were being delivered... probably 10 - 15 on the floor. Only one other M5 being delivered in about the hour or so we were waiting there.

Timing - did the "M5 European Delivery Launch Event" today... a few arrived on Tuesday of this week and were picking up their car on Saturday - they were reluctant in waiting this long (although one was getting the first M6 - so he had no choice)... I landed Friday at 1:30 PM and picked up my car at 5:20 PM - jet lag no factor... (because of the adrenaline rush)...

Trip:
Prague: my wife and I stayed one night in Munich (drove about an hour away to dinner just to get some miles on car), then woke up and went to Prague - great trip and city - been to Europe a lot and have never been to Prague. Very safe, no problem with car or driving there - you just need to get a window sticker from a petrol (gas) station once you get into Czech Republic - i think it was 13.50 Euro. But i'm not sure i really needed it. Did Crossfit (#humblebrag) in Munich and a guy told me there to just carry a small amount of cash in wallet (hide the rest) in case you get pulled over in a city - the police apparently will harass you and make you pay cash (even though that is illegal) - so you either pay them what little you have in your wallet or demand they give you a bill... we never had this problem and only saw police in Prague. apparently they don't have many on interstates due to cost. The speed limit info (??) on the M5 was awesome in this regard - it tells you what the current speed limit is based on a camera and GPS - very cool. Even shows construction zone speed limits. This was very helpful in CP as they don't really post their speed limits - 130 (?) kph on highways and 50 (?) kph in cities (i think those are right - BMW gives you a cheat sheet on these...).

Then we drove to Nurburgring (my wife initially opposed, but after 6 hours and 4 laps she was glad we did it). My car only had 1200 km on it, but i drove it within limits and still had a blast! Wait until brakes are broken in before you do this (i think that is 300 miles). I passed quite a few cars, but also got shredded by some motorbikes and track cars. Check times - as they only did tourist laps from 6 - 7:30 PM - four laps is what we did and it was perfect. Probably 11 minute laps due to break in crap...

Romantisch Strasse - from Nurburgring we went straight to Wurzburg - got there about 10: 15 PM..then did the next 5 or so cities... before breaking over to Munich to see the city center (HofbrauHaus, etc.).

Pros/Cons:
High Beam Assistant - not installed, yet is in owners manual!

TPM - showing tire pressure and tire temp. Read about this in a review, and it is not installed!! Two BMW employees (from M division) were surprised it wasn't there, they even got in my car and showed the screen it should be on, i'm going to try to get this installed - i am pretty upset about this one. It is supposed to be on the TPM screen where it shows your tires in green color.

ACC - Adaptive Cruise Control - vs. DCC - (Dynamic CC) - i was hoping for Adaptive (with radars that slows you down when approaching a car), but hearing from the M engineers the reason it is not there is because the radar is pretty big (6"??) and it blocked too much air flow to the car, so hence no ACC. However i fell in love with the DCC as it brakes when you lower the speed - i probably used this 90% of the time when i was on Autobahn and even towns... just use your thumb up and down on steering wheel (at first i thought it was stupid to have on the wheel vs. where it is for the past M6/M5, but i was wrong)... easier to move your thumb than your foot from gas to brake!

Lane Departure - i liked this... steering wheel vibrates when you cross a lane marking (feels like rumble strips)

Parking Brake - goofy (in my opinion) when you turn car off... a valet on first day couldn't lock car because it was still on because he didn't hit "stop/start" button a second time. Unlike my 2007 M6 (the V10 one, sorry i always forget what E it is..) that you either press twice in row OR hold down for two seconds, the new one with the electronic parking brake i still need to figure out how to actually turn off the car when PB is activated (i'm certain there is more efficient way than i'm doing now).

Speed Limit Info - mentioned this earlier - but pretty cool! Very handy in Germany and Czech Republic - and the fact it reads temp limits is awesome!

iPhone/Bluetooth - pretty good... the adapter (i brought one over from US with me) works great for your iTunes library, but i use Spotify.... so you could charge your iphone, but when you dock it it loses the bluetooth connection and you have to reconnect only when you are parked with parking brake on and perhaps have to open a door (annoying - it took me a few times to figure out that is what needed to happen). The bluetooth did get spotty a couple of minutes out of every hour, but sounded decent. The USB port was occupied with the Euro Maps for Nav, so i couldn't plug in there. bring an aux cord to plug into headset if you use music from another source (than itunes).

DC outlets - there are four! (yet only two cupholders) - one of them is under glovebox.

butt massager - me likey!

Thigh Support - unlike my current M6, it doesn't have a "gap" in it, so it won't gather "stuff" in the crease... the new one actually extends out, but the leather kind of rolls over/under it... so no gap, the leather is seamless.

Auto Start/Stop - interesting... i think if you push the brake real hard after stopping, you can disengage for that stop only. Otherwise it is very easy to turn off with push of button.

Sky Light - while not as big as my M6 Convertible, it is bigger than my previous 2002 M5

Nav System - way quicker and much better than 2007 M6 - very quick and easy to use!!

That's it for now (Sorry not the exquisite writer as some, i'm not even proof reading... at the Kempinski waiting for flight tomorrow morning with my baby all handed off... won't see it for 10 - 12 weeks!

Pictures attached:

Delivery at Welt
Where she was made (Dingolfing (SP?) - happened to drive by it on way to Prague and just swung by for photo shoot... Workers walking by in blue Mario outfits informed me the lid to my gas tank wasn't shut all the way..
First night parking - WTF??? Every day was tight parking!
Autobahn - notice speed limit indicator on left (i.e. 'none') - maxed at 100 mph (161 kmh) due to break-in...

[cnicholson]

Nice write up.

Didn't you love seeing the speed limit indicator switch over to "no limit" (circle with lines)? That was one of the highlights of our trip! It saddens me to think the beast won't see that again. I am thinking of printing out on a big piece of paper and running in front of car and see if it picks it up.....

[Rob///M5]

Originally Posted by cnicholson

Nice write up.

Didn't you love seeing the speed limit indicator switch over to "no limit" (circle with lines)? That was one of the highlights of our trip! It saddens me to think the beast won't see that again. I am thinking of printing out on a big piece of paper and running in front of car and see if it picks it up.....

[datbimmerdoe]

sweet combo, congrats!