My new 550 was scheduled for production beginning of July and I was looking forward to having a digital key as a standard feature. Clearly, a keyfob isn't more sophisticated piece of electronics than a smartphone: It's a great idea to use a smartphone and not carry that extra thing in your pocket.
Well, my excitement went away the day I took delivery of my car.
Set-up was a no issue. Time to check it out in action, and when I started running into drawbacks.
First off, both the keycard and smartphone refused to lock/unlock the door: only to start engine. With some research, I found that both need to be held in a very specific way: directly against the center of door handle and at a certain angle. Inch off- it won't work.
Comfort access is no longer an option: don't expect to approach your car and just pull on the handle like you would do with the keyfob in your pocket. Yes, you need to get your hone out the pocket and place the top on the door handle. That is especially joyful if you have hands full and/or when it's raining. You will no longer use your foot to open the trunk to put your groceries in. Now you need to put the groceries on the ground, walk to the driver's door pull out your phone, open the door and push the trunk release button, puck up dirty groceries and walk back to the trunk.
Once in the car, the phone or keycard need to be place in the charging tray to be able to start the engine- it's ok just another exercise and item to forget when you leave the vehicle.
The feature when you can lock/unlock the car by approaching or walking away will obviously not work.
All in all- after playing with it for 3 days, I'm back to carrying my fob. The digital key is a nice backup feature at best in case you misplaced your key and have no time looking for it. Otherwise there is nothing convenient about it.
At least that's my experience.
I'm curious what other folks on here think about it.
Otherwise- loving my car!
