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      03-07-2013, 01:57 PM   #1
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Drives: G30 M550
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530D Msport - review 1 year on. +pics

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1 year on – review of my 530D MSport automatic
Mileage 5500
Average fuel consumption 40.9 mpg (UK)
Best fuel consumption for a trip 58mpg (UK)
Worst 25mpg (UK)
Official specs , 258BHP , 0-62MPH 6.0 s

Sophisto grey II (B90)

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Equipment fitted:

Sports automatic gearbox
Automatic cruise control
Head up display
Speed limit display
Adaptive Xenon headlights
19” Style 351 wheels
Full Electric Msport seats
Climate Comfort Windscreen
Rear Msport spoiler
Alcantara headlining
Rear view camera
Professional HIFI
Professional Satnav
Nokia 6303 snap in adapter
Wood trim


I’ve had my 530D smport now full just about a year so I thought I post a review of it now I’ve owned it for some time.

In general , very pleased with the car. Had a E39 530i Msport previously from new for 10 years.

The F10 I feel is an improvement from E39 in all areas bar two .

Steering, as many people report, it’s lacking feel.Compared to the E39, it’s lighter and you really don’t feel what the front tyres are doing. The E39 was SO much better.

The second item is suspension / tyres. The suspension is slightly softer than the E39 which I assume is to compensate for the RFTs. It’s generally ok until you find a pothole which makes the whole car shudder.

The interior is very high quality and its a very nice place to be.

Engine

Having tried the 530d on a test drive before buying, this converted me over from petrol to the dark side and I don’t regret it. Whilst it is obvious it is a diesel at idle, once going its very smooth and makes progress effortless. Its low revving and at 70mph, it turns over at just 1500RPM. It very economical if you want it to be, but at the same time if you press the loud pedal, it will pull you effortlessly toward the horizon. Ok it’s no M5 but for real world road use, it’s fantastic.

I've not driven a 535D so can't comment on that, but I wasn't preapred to pau the extra for getting to 60 in half a second sooner, I preferred to spend that money on extra options.

In Ecopro mode it can drive around on light throttle at 1000RPM


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Running through the options I had fitted.

Gearbox, superb. Very smooth. The exception being when slowing down to a stop when it changes down gears and can be a bit jerky especially if cold.

Flappy paddles are used just for downshifting for engine braking down hills, I rarely use them otherwise. If I want more ‘power’ I just put the car into D/S or sport mode.

Automatic cruise control

Another feature I use regularly on motorways. Very relaxing in heavy (M25) traffic where the car will keep a set distance from the car ahead. You cnan choose the distance, I usually have it on the default of 3 bars and 4 if its wet. If a car cuts you up or jumps in front of you then the car can brake quite heavily to maintain the distance. You soon get to know how it works and when to intervene. The stop and go function is a bit weird at first as you are n;’t sure if the car will actually stop or not but again you get a feel for when it will do that and when you need to cover the brake or apply some brake pressure.
You can turn off the active part of it if you want and have conventional cruise control if you want , not sure I see the point persoanlyl though.

Head up display

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If you only had the choice of one option to put on a car this would be it. Simply superb and I would not like a car without one now. Make navigation easy byut presenting the info on the end of the bonnet. (focused about 6 feet away from you). It shows current speed, Speed limit (read from the camera)., nav directions, cruise control settings and any check control warnings. If you have lane departure warning it will show you that as well.
Changes to orange at night to match the dashboard. Readable all of the time no matter what the light.
Means you can put another function on your LCD screen rather than directions.

Speed limit display

This is quite useful but not 100% accurate. It occasionally get the speed wrong , I’ve seen it display 60mph or 20mph on a 30mph road on occasions. The camera can also pick up signs on roads that are parallel to the one you are on and hence show the wring speed.
Generally good though, I’d say around 95% accurate. It can even read the variable speed limit sighs on the M25.


Adaptive Xenon headlights

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Superb, but the adaptive bit really only makes sense on dark twisty roads, other wise yo won’t notice.

This also comes with cornering lights which only really work when its picth dark outside. In towns with lit roads, you won’t notice . (I think BMW should have changed the logic and made then activate only when it’s very dark outside)

The Bi-xenons are great and I’ve not had any issues with setting these on to automatic. The camera detects any cars in front and dips the main beam if necessary.

Of course with the xenons, you get the nice DRL’s. With DRLs selected in the I-Drive, these come on in headlight position O or autolights. I’ve also with the help of a fellow forum member had the rear taillights coded on. From Feb 2011 the taillights were not on following a EU directive so earlier cards will have then on.

19" wheels.

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Good to look at but small profile tyres I guess does impact the ride to some extent .

Full Electric Msport seats

Comfortable and better than the E39 sport seats I had previously.

When I tested a early car (2010) I found the seating position too low even on the highest setting. My guess is that BMW changed this on later cards as later ones I test had the seat up higher (which I prefer) and my 2012 model is the same. Full Electrci also means you get an electric adjustment of the steering wheel and memory settings.

In retrospect, for just a bit more money, I’d have probably been better off getting comfort seats. These are heated and they warm up VERY quickly.

Climate comfort Windscreen

I ordered this as I thought I would get a green strip at the top of the windscreen, ths is n’t the case. The windscreen with a grey strip is not compatible with the HUD.

This is one option I could have not had and not missed. You can feel the difference in summer compared to the side windows but not a big deal, expecially in the Uk with our 2 week summer!

Rear spoiler.

Well just looks better, should really be standard on a msport. nuff said.

Alcantara headlining.

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Much better than the standard headlining. I really would suggest ordering this if you can afford to do so. Has a real quality feel about it.

Rear view camera

An option that’s nice to have, I would say essential despite the size of the car but certainly useful.

Professional HIFI.

I rate this as good but the frequency response is far from flat. I have had to adjust it quite a bit to get something sounding reasonable. Bass frequencies can be a bit ‘boomy’ but overall, it’s not too bad.

Professional Satnav

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I find this very good and quick. It might just be me but I find adding destinations a little odd as it seems to want to attch them to contacts in your phone. I’m probably doing something wrong and I don’t find it perhaps a simple as the sat nav in the E39.

The car has RealTime Traffic Info (RTTI) so it gets up to date traffic info every few minutes and shows this by colouring the roads depending upon how fast the traffic moves. It really good and it has already save me time by avoiding bottlenecks. There have been occasions though when RTTI has not been available and it’s dropped back to TMC which in comparison seems a poor relation. Of late, RTTI has worked every time but as soon as I write this I bet the next time it won’t!


Nokia 6303 snap in adapter.

Ok it’s an old phone! But it does mean it charges up and connects to the outside aerial so you never lose reception.

Wood trim

I didn’t like the aluminium trim. Personal preference.

Standard features

Drive control


I use Eco pro when in town. It dulls the throttle and changes down gears very quickly and on light throttle you can find yourself with just 1000rpm at times.
Other wise its in comfort mode with the occasional burst with sport mode. Sport mode makes the steering a bit heavier but nowhere as good as an E39 as previously mentioned.

Speed limiter

Very useful around town where there are load of speed cameras. Set 30mph and you don’t exceed it. Feels a bit odd at first you I find ,myself gradually increasing the pressure on the pedal over time.

Automatic handbrake

This engages when the car has stopped. To disengage, just apply gas. I use this occasionally in heavy traffic.

Coding

To date, only the rear taillights are coded on with DRLs, other functions I’d look get coded are setting ASS to remember last setting (ie off!) and turn signals in the HUD.

ABS

Very good and had to use this aggressively on one occasion when the car in front stopped suddenly on the motorway. As I had given myself a decent gap between myself and the car in front, an accident was avoided. (the car behind me got hit from behind though).

With Forward collision alert enabled, I got a big red car symbol appear in the car and if I had not done anything, the car would have started braking. No doubt the car behind me saw the flashing brake lights as part of the dynamic brake light feature.(In the US I believe its extra lights instead of flashing brake lights)

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ASS

Whilst I can see the logic of this, I don’t like the way the car vibrates every time it restarts, I therefore most of the time switch it off. In very heavy traffic I might enable it if I know I’m going to be stopped for a while. In stop start traffic I disable it.

Full extended black panel

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Great feature, although at night you can see the LCD panel due to the light leaking from the backlight – a feature of all LCDs. The HUD is also prone to this to some extent and you only notice this at night.

Autoheadlights

They are quite sensitive but work fine for me.



Problems to date

To date there have been 3 problems

Car pulls to the left. Despite the car having a KDC check and one of the rear wheels toe in being changed, the car still does tend to drift left and I’ve put this down to the car being sensitive to camber. I know other in US have cars that drift to the right.

Creaking noise from where the seatbelt comes out of the B-Pillar. This has been resolved by a replacement part.

Creaking noises from doors. This was resolved by applying GummiPfledge to the rubber seals, the issues has not come back. General advice seem to be don’t polish the paintwork where the rubber on the doors meets it. Don’t put silicon on there either.


Care of the car – paintwork

Since new I’ve only washed it with Autoglym shampoo and used Autoglym extra gloss protection. I’ve used a lambs wool mitten to wipe the car clean and as far as I can teel, I’ve not got any swirlmarks so far. The paint seems to be good quality and the sophisto grey is a very colour particularly with the sun on it where it glistens more. In dull weather it can seem a bit flat.

I think the picture here shows that it still looks good a year on (which it should do).

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So there you go, my take on the 530D after a year. hope that interesting and useful to those of you who might be considering one.
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