Quote:
Originally Posted by Rotherd31
About time Tom! Sweet looking ride. I'd like to hear your thoughts after you've put some miles on it.
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After 7 weeks and 1,800 miles here are my feeble thoughts on the ‘18 M550.
My previous car was a ‘14 335GT and my wife has been driving a ‘16 M235 for a couple of years. While both of these cars have the same drivetrain, her car is funner to drive as it is stable, confident, powerful and quick. I was hoping the M550 would have similar traits and it does, except it is of course larger, heavier and not as nimble. The M550 is full of confidence, stability and has more than enough power for daily driving. Exactly what I was looking for! It has smooth, confidant power that is a pleasure to drive. The car doesn’t “sweat” as it climbs a hill and it quickly responds to a little push on the accelerator. I am not an aggressive driver, but I can’t stand an underpowered car that seems to always be working hard just to keep up with varying terrain and my requests. The brakes also inspire confidence and stop the car confidently. The ride is amazingly smooth and comfortable while at the same time feeling stable and confident.
I was concerned about the low profile 20” tires, but so far, I am highly impressed with the go flat Michelin Pilot tires. The ride and handling is surprisingly comfortable, quiet and secure. It corners beautifully! I also purchased a set of 19” winter wheels and tires, so we will see how those work out in the coming season.
Seats can be adjusted to fit me, which is rare, as I have an unusually long upper body and relatively short legs and arms. Headroom is frequently a problem, but not in this car. My eyes sit high in the car and the top of the windshield, like other BMW’s, is adequately high so as not to block visibility of street lights when I am first in line at the light. This is frequently a problem for me, even in pickup trucks where I have to lower my head to see the traffic light.
The driving assistance features of traffic jam assistant, lane keeping and adaptive cruise control are not perfect, but they do work well. They are correctly described as assistants and not replacements. They can’t see beyond their sensors and they don’t drive like I do, but they are helpful, especially while participating in heavy traffic. The car frequently wants to go where I don’t want to go and it tends to bounce around in the lane if you let it. But when used as an aid, or assistant, it is helpful. The adaptive cruise control waits too long to brake and brakes harder than I prefer and it will brake too long when the vehicle you are following moves to a decel lane to turn off the road while I plan to stay on the road. It does however, understand when a car merges in front of me that it doesn’t necessarily need to slow down just because that car merged in front of me closer than it likes. However, if that car doesn’t continue to accelerate it will slow to proper distance. In heavier traffic you have to reduce the gap to the car in front of you or others will merge in front of you.
I frequently drive with just a couple of fingers lightly on the steering wheel and I often get the warning to put my hands on the steering wheel as it doesn’t detect my light two finger touch.
I like the ability to set the wipers to be on auto as a default, but you do have to remember to turn that off when entering a car wash.
The engine comes up to operating temperature amazingly fast, typically within about a mile of driving, much faster than my previous car.
I typically enter the destination in the route planning system and use adaptive drive. I am not yet sure how this differs from comfort, but I do think it is better than comfort as the car does seem more responsive. I do have to say the route suggestions are still pretty dumb. It will make some of the dumbest decisions on the route, often directing you on a less than ideal route. Google Maps is smarter.
This is my first car with a heads up display. At first it was distracting, but after a few days you get used to it and now I really like it. I did have to turn off the feature that turned the current speed red when it is greater than the speed limit. I am color blind and when it turned red it almost disappeared for me. I am frequently travelling just a little above the posted speed limit.
Night vision is “cool”, but I haven't yet experienced it warning me of impending issues. I suspect I will as fall arrives as we live in a semi-rural area with abundant deer and critters on the road.
Auto hold is a blessing while sitting at a stop light. This is the first car I have had with this feature and I really like this as I don’t have keep the brake pedal depressed while waiting for the light to change and I don’t find it a distraction when maneuvering in and out of parking spots.
So far this has been a daily driver and I have not yet spent more than hour in the car on a single trip, but that will change when we plan to drive it to Georgia next month. After a 1,400+ mile round trip I will be able to better comment on longer times in the car and how it feels after driving 500+ miles at a time.
One minor annoyance is the display when playing back audio from my phone. I typically listen to the WSJ on Audible during my morning commute from my Android phone. In the last car the progress bar showed the elapsed and remaining time. In this car I just see the progress bar and it doesn’t show elapsed or remaining time in the current “chapter”.