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1,177 Posts
Got the car on Dec 19. I have put about 130 miles on it, am driving according to Random Internet Yahoo Guidelines.
First impression? Absolutely freaking awesome. What a great car. Even though I am taking it easy during run-in, I can tell there are oodles of get-up-and-go in there. The Sport Suspension and Sport Mode combine to make the car a point-and-squirt joy to drive. I had it out in some twisties yesterday and this is by far the best handling car I have ever driven.
Volcanic Orange: I had some slight reservations, I'll admit. Liked the color on the internet, and the brief views of the color out in the wild were interesting. But now that I've actually been staring at it for 3 days, I am glad I got VO. It's a great color. The only problem is I will have to get used to being the brightest car in the parking lot, which may pose challenges regarding Parking Strategy. Count me in as another loud & proud member of Team Volcanic Orange.
LED Lights: Bright and bold. Love the daytime running lights (I generally hate DRL's and disabled them on my R56).
Base Radio: Nowhere near as sucky as I was afraid it would be. It plays podcasts off my iPod, and plays Spotify through my iPhone. Have not figured out if I can stream over Bluetooth on any of those, I'm guessing that would require that I had $elected $ome of tho$e option package$. But the sound quality is good enough for me, and getting at the various settings is intuitive and simple.
LED Ring: Pre-car, a gimmick. Now I am fascinated by it and putzing with every setting to see what effect it has. I love how when the auto-stop engages, the ring goes green for a second then fades out. Greatly relieved that I have full control over the brightness settings, independent of the instrument lighting.
Tachometer: Should be swapped out with the speedo. During the day, with sunglasses on, it is kind of dark and hard to see. I don't usually watch the tach, preferring to shift by sound and feel, but during break-in I know I need to keep it below 4500, so it's kind of annoying.
Rev Matching: My car, born 10/31/2014, does not rev match from third to second, which is just weird. But the other gears do, and it's seamless. The transmission is a pleasure to row. I am slowly getting used to the clutch.
Arm Rest: Useful, but kinda bulky. You can adjust it down atop the parking brake, which gives you more elbow room (something the IDrive folk have complained about in various posts), but when you pull up the brake lever, the armrest comes with it.
Auto Stop: Love it. Works flawlessly so far (no auto-stoppng on the motorway, knock on wood). Still discovering the behavioral quirks of the system, but so far I'm impressed.
Climate Control: Automatic CC seems to work great, maintaining a temp with little effort. AC does not seem to run when it's colder outside than in, which is awesome-- It just pumps the cooler air inside without running the compressor and sucking power away. Brilliant. We'll see how impressed I am come summertime when it's 2,389 C in the shade.
General quality: Orders of magnitude better than my R56. This is a very nice car. Great job by BMW.
I am very happy with the car. It is brilliant, and it is sooooooo good to be free of the various sucky vehicles I have been stuck with for the last 2 months and finally back in a MINI. Count me as one satisfied customer.
First impression? Absolutely freaking awesome. What a great car. Even though I am taking it easy during run-in, I can tell there are oodles of get-up-and-go in there. The Sport Suspension and Sport Mode combine to make the car a point-and-squirt joy to drive. I had it out in some twisties yesterday and this is by far the best handling car I have ever driven.
Volcanic Orange: I had some slight reservations, I'll admit. Liked the color on the internet, and the brief views of the color out in the wild were interesting. But now that I've actually been staring at it for 3 days, I am glad I got VO. It's a great color. The only problem is I will have to get used to being the brightest car in the parking lot, which may pose challenges regarding Parking Strategy. Count me in as another loud & proud member of Team Volcanic Orange.
LED Lights: Bright and bold. Love the daytime running lights (I generally hate DRL's and disabled them on my R56).
Base Radio: Nowhere near as sucky as I was afraid it would be. It plays podcasts off my iPod, and plays Spotify through my iPhone. Have not figured out if I can stream over Bluetooth on any of those, I'm guessing that would require that I had $elected $ome of tho$e option package$. But the sound quality is good enough for me, and getting at the various settings is intuitive and simple.
LED Ring: Pre-car, a gimmick. Now I am fascinated by it and putzing with every setting to see what effect it has. I love how when the auto-stop engages, the ring goes green for a second then fades out. Greatly relieved that I have full control over the brightness settings, independent of the instrument lighting.
Tachometer: Should be swapped out with the speedo. During the day, with sunglasses on, it is kind of dark and hard to see. I don't usually watch the tach, preferring to shift by sound and feel, but during break-in I know I need to keep it below 4500, so it's kind of annoying.
Rev Matching: My car, born 10/31/2014, does not rev match from third to second, which is just weird. But the other gears do, and it's seamless. The transmission is a pleasure to row. I am slowly getting used to the clutch.
Arm Rest: Useful, but kinda bulky. You can adjust it down atop the parking brake, which gives you more elbow room (something the IDrive folk have complained about in various posts), but when you pull up the brake lever, the armrest comes with it.
Auto Stop: Love it. Works flawlessly so far (no auto-stoppng on the motorway, knock on wood). Still discovering the behavioral quirks of the system, but so far I'm impressed.
Climate Control: Automatic CC seems to work great, maintaining a temp with little effort. AC does not seem to run when it's colder outside than in, which is awesome-- It just pumps the cooler air inside without running the compressor and sucking power away. Brilliant. We'll see how impressed I am come summertime when it's 2,389 C in the shade.
General quality: Orders of magnitude better than my R56. This is a very nice car. Great job by BMW.
I am very happy with the car. It is brilliant, and it is sooooooo good to be free of the various sucky vehicles I have been stuck with for the last 2 months and finally back in a MINI. Count me as one satisfied customer.
Good luck with your VO MCS. Wait till it really starts to burble>
