Hi everyone,
I just registered to make this post, but I've been lurking around Bimmerpost ever since I've made the decision to purchase my first BMW: a fully loaded 2019 m550i.
Just want to make a list of pros and cons and get you guys feedbacks and maybe help some other users along the way...
PROS
+ So far, I love the car and it is a substantial upgrade.
+ Premium feel and material
+ Smooth and powerful V8
+ Sheer number of tech
+ Cool tech: HUD, Night Vision, Display Key, Wireless Charging
+ Generally aesthetically pleasing iDrive UI design
+ Great sounds (Bowers and Wilkins)
+ Subtle enough look but still catch some attention
+ Awesome 360 camera
+ Bright interior and exterior lighting
+ Sexy ambient lighting
+ Heated and air cooled seats, heated steering wheels
+ Seat control is excellent, grips side of body perfectly
+ Great parking assistance (not too useful though, more on that later)
+ Remote parking (more on that later)
+ I'm sure I forgot a bunch of other cool stuff.
CONS
- I'm not really bashing the car but I want to list them out anyway in hopes that may be there is already a solution to some of these items.
- Strange user experience
- Sometimes when I shut off the car, open the car door, the audio will still be playing until I get out and lock the door.
- Unpredictable bluetooth audio via iOS: sometimes (50%) when the audio connects and plays, it forgets the previous session and plays the first alphabetical-sorted song in my entire Apple Music library. In my case, it was A-YO from Lady Gaga. So when I start the car, I hear "HERE WE GO..." 50% of the time. Hilarious when I forget, annoying when I fully expect my previous session to restore.
- Unpredictable user alerts: I've owned vehicles in the past with predictive front collision alert that would also make an audible ping every time. My m550i only does this when it is at critical level, at normal danger, it only shows an icon in the HUD (you need to identify the graphics which I think makes it more dangerous). My last car would play different audio pings at different danger levels (which makes way more sense / more helpful).
- The audio player don't show the album name nor artist on side snapped mode (mini player). It only displays these info on the thumbnail before the thumbnail loads. There is so much space on the screen for this information. Worse, the dashboard mini player has that info.
- Annoying user alerts, ambient air at low level (<20%) shows an alert every time.
- No seat belt ping sounds forever (this isn't really a valid complaint, just my opinion)
- Winter tire air pressure monitor, weird calibration, occasionally warns. You can always manually override the recommended settings, so what's the point? I've had cars previously that would not do this.
- Underwhelming massage seats
- I was hoping in the very least to resemble those cheap roller ball massage, but the effect is lesser than that
- Barely noticeable ambient air, also quick to run out (50$ apiece in Canada)
- Kinect like gesture recognition is extremely inaccurate, if I have my phone in my hands, it will trigger the two-finger gesture.
- Maybe it's just me and my run-flat tires, but the stock tires are extremely slippery in winter. I was hoping the car would react better though. All of my older cars handle slippage quite well.
- Useless remote key + parking
- I was hoping the key would add/unlock obvious useful features such as remote start or remote heating (allows for remote air cooling)
- Remote start is possible because it is required to get the remote parking to start working. So why can't I just remote start the car? Other than it being a security measure (to prevent theft), I have no idea why the function is there but I can't use it. I'm sure it's just some software flag that prevents this.
- Remote parking is very cool, but only useful to get the car out of literal tight situations; the sensors are way too sensitive so you can't park in tight spots.
- Parking assistance works, but it isn't human like yet, so the maneuver confuses other drivers in a parking lot for example.
- Sometimes, I want to ensure my car is locked, so I would naturally press the lock button again on my remote, no beep feedback from the car.
Sorry for the long post, I'll update the thread if I can think of more things to add.