[davesf]

Santa really delivered this year in our household. In addition to a 2012 550xi in Deep Sea Blue, we also brought home our first child, our healthy 8lb daughter Kate! While you can guess which new baby is getting all the attention around here, I did have about an hour to play with my new car and snap some photos.

This car was as much a process as it was a purchase. After beginning the search to replace my beloved Red 2005 Audi S4 more than a year ago, I quickly realized I was probably going to order a car to get what I wanted, mostly because I prefer the traction and sure-footing of AWD. In northern California neither BMW or MB dealers build very many sedans with AWD, which pretty much eliminates color and option selection. I ended up deciding it was worth waiting for some new possibilities (550xi, X6 with 3-person bench) to see how they stacked up against the E550 4matic. A year later, I narrowed my decision down to the 550xi, and after a few more weeks of toiling over options, put in my order!

Ordering a car was much harder than I thought it would be. In fact, it's probably a big part of the reason I took a year to settle on a car choice. There is something about having to be sure I wanted the same car for the entire ~4 month delivery wait time that was daunting. However, for those of you considering a special order, I highly recommend it. I took my time, I got my order right, and showing up to see my car exactly as I wanted it was a thrilling and satisfying experience. (Okay, it may have been heightened by the thrill of a four day old baby girl at home and a severe lack of sleep, but still, it was great!)

Before I go into details, I want to say that I *LOVE* the luxury tri-fecta of Nappa Leather, Ceramic controls, and soft-close doors. These three options together seem to add 5x more luxury than they do individually. My car feels like it should cost 2x more than the other 550s I've test-driven, not 3% more (which is about the percentage increase from those three option packages). The idea that people would buy something like BMW Apps before they would buy these three options totally baffles me.

* Now onto the details. Here are some notes about some of the individual features I ordered and my reactions:

1) Ceramic Controls - After placing my order, I made a couple visits to triple-check my option selections. I had decided on non-ventilated seats (because I don't care for the perforation), and I wanted to be sure I was happy with my choice. The dealer showed me the luxury seating package and active-massage in a 7-series with ceramic controls. I think I spent more time oogling at the ceramic controls than the seats, and had him add them to my order right then, and WOW am I glad I did. One of the things I loved about my Audi is that it had no interior silver plastic. Everything shiny is real metal chrome. The ceramic controls package creates that same high-class feel inside the bimmer and for me was more than worth the cost.

2) Black Nappa Leather, heated / cold weather (no ventilation/active/perforation) - I'm a fan of the smooth sharp look of non-perforated seats. The Nappa upgrade was well worth the price, as I love the classy yet sporty smooth look and feel. I feel the non-perforated seats will take spills better, and while I havn't spilled anything in my Audi in 5+ years, with a new daughter I'm entering a whole new world. I live in San Francisco, where it's seldom very warm, and I also felt the seat ventilation was pretty darn mild compared to something like, say a Cadallac Escelade which pretty much blasts your butt with A/C. For all these reasons I decided not to get the ventilated seats, and I'm glad for my choice. The smooth dark ceramic controls combined with the smooth black nappa and the interior lighting feels so much higher-class than any of those excellent elements do individually.

3) HUD - Since the invention of car HUDs I never expected I'd be the type to want one. They seemed like completely needless glitz -- that is until I drove for an hour under navigation guidance in my friend's HUD equipped X6. My wife calls me mr one-track-mind, and when I'm having a conversation in the car I find it easy to miss voice navigation directions. My friend personally hates voice directions, so in his X6 he had the nav voice turned off completely. I found it MUCH more intuitive to follow the nav directions on the visual HUD, and found it MUCH easier to do so while there was constant conversation in the car. I've now done the same, and I'm very glad I opted for the HUD. Depending on the light, there is sometimes a faint reflection border from the HUD projection box, but I don't notice it while driving at all. My only critique is that I wish they would put turn-signal indicators on the HUD! I'm tall, and my ideal seat/wheel position makes them hard to see on the dash. If they were on the HUD, things would be perfect.

4) Soft-close doors and trunk - Aside from the cost of the option, folks seem pretty split about whether they even prefer the car with or without soft-close. I included it on a whim as my wife really likes the soft-close trunk in her Lexus 450h. I also liked a comment that it helps make sure kids can easily close the doors. My first reaction is very much pro-soft-close. It gives the car an added touch of class that's hard to explain. My mother-in-law (the only passenger so far) did comment she should re-close the door after she heard the soft-close activate. I just told her about the feature and she didn't give it a second thought. I can see how folks with lots of different passengers might get tired of that first-time reaction and prefer to just have "normal" doors so they don't have to explain it, even if they personally like the soft-close.

5) Active Roll Stabilization - It's a bit early to tell, but at first drives I think I'm going to like this feature. I bought my 550xi to be a luxury family cruiser and replace my old ultra-sporty manual transmission S4. Therefore, I expect to keep it in the comfort suspension setting most of the time. The comfort settings really turn the car into a luxury cruiser, with only the smallest bit of limo-ride wallow. That smooth ride makes me expect the car to roll out when going fast into a corner, but the combination of dynamic suspension reactions and ARS shockingly avoids that entirely. I'm fortunate to live in San Francisco, the USA mecca of fun driving roads. On my inaugural little jaunt down the coast to take a beach picture, I was so surprised at how, even in comfort mode, the car firms up and stays planted ultra-flat in those sharp Hwy 1 sweepers, I didn't even realize I was clipping along at 85mph. It's hard to know how much to credit ARS vs the fancy computer controlled dampners, but I think they're playing a good part.

6) iDrive multi-function programmable buttons - I've only had a few minutes to use it, and I already LOVE this system. While I still think the iDrive gets in the way of basic radio functions more than on the Lexus or Acura systems (which have more dedicated buttons), the ability to have a bunch of buttons programmed to do ANYTHING is so great. I setup 1-5 for music and audio, and 7/8 for nav-home and calling my wife, and feel that the system is now so easy and tailored to me that for 99% of stuff all I need is on those buttons.

* Nothing is without room for improvement, so here are the few things any BMW Engineers who read these forums could put their thinking caps on about...

1) Door Handle Feel - The luxury trifecta I mentioned above makes the car feel so well designed, that the relatively light plasticky feel of the exterior door-handles now stands out to remind me that I didn't buy a Maybach. There is no quality issue here. They seem on-par with the handles on my wife's Lexus, my outgoing Audi, and the E550 competition. It's just that the optional luxury touches upscaled the car so much that I notice the door-handles could use an equivilant upscaling. (Ceramic Controls and Luxury Handles?!?)

2) Comfort Access Unlock - A more practical note about the handles is the comfort access unlock delay. On my wife's Lexus, the keyless door access will always unlock the door now matter how fast you pull the handle. The feeling is magically seamless. In comparison, it's quite easy to pull at the bimmer handle before comfort access has unlocked the door, leaving it unwilling to open. I've adjusted my behavior already, allowing my hand to rest on the inside of the handle for a second so the system has a chance to unlock before I pull at the handle. However, BMW Engineers have a little room for improvement here.

3) HUD should have turn-signal indicators - I really wish the HUD could display the flashing turn-single indicators. This would put this essential piece of information into plain view on the HUD. I like the wheel sport-car low in my lap, and because I'm a tall driver, this makes the dash turn-signals hard or impossible to see. Having them on the HUD would be ideal. As is, I'm trying to adjust to a higher wheel position than I would normally use so I can see the dash turn signals.

4) radio operation - The iDrive interface is light-years ahead of where it was in 2005, when I opted to buy a nav-less Audi S4 because everyone's nav systems made the common operation of using the radio clunky. While it's going to take more time to have an informed opinion about the iDrive overall, at first glance the (non soft-button) radio operation is still much harder than on other vehicles, like my Wife's Lexus. It's little things, like the fact that when you're on the station-list, turning the wheel doesn't actually switch stations, it just moves the cursor, which means flipping stations with the wheel is not as easy as with a normal radio dial. I think the current system is servicable, and much better than in the past, but there is still room for improvement. I also havn't yet figured out how to program a softkey to bring me to a screen of favorite stations that mix both FM and satellite -- though I think this might be possible.

[gatoman39]

Congrats on both the kid and the car. Add some beer and really, what else does a man need?

[EdM5]

Congrats, nice write up!
I'm with you on the turn signal integration in the HUD.

[davesf]

i forgot to mention...

- i have very straight steering tracking / no drift (though I believe x-drive uses hydraulic steering, not electric)
- i don't have any unreasonable take-off lag (this is a turbo, so i don't expect it to behave like NA. it seems within the bounds of my expectations, but i'll watch it)

[datbimmerdoe]

great write up! congrats on the baby n the car.

[delvek]

Agree, very nice write up and congrats on both additions to the family!

One thing you will like about the soft close doors, when the kid is sleeping you don't have to give it the soft push/pull to get the door to latch, it does it automatically.

[Jason]

Congrats!! Can't think of a better Christmas gift than a new BMW

[TunedIn]

Dave - Your car looks great, congrats, and thanks for the nice write up ! A have a few questions:
1) What color interior did you choose ? I ordered my 535i with the Beige leather, but unfortunately that's not available with the Nappa option.
2) Did you test drive a car with Integral Active Steering (IAS) and decide not to get it ?
3) Is the DSB paint really as dark as it looks in the pictures, or did they perhaps build you a car in Imperial Blue by mistake ? Lol. Thx.

[davesf]

1) interior is black nappa, anthracite, ceramic controls, sport shifter (no ventilated seats as i don't like the perforation.) true that beige only comes in dakota. the oyster/black combo comes in nappa, if you want lighter nappa and are not set on beige. the dakota is equally nice, it just has a different character.

you can see a picture i posted here

http://f10.5post.com/forums/showthre...40813&posted=1

2) IAS (4 wheel steering) is not available on the 550xi. In 2011 the 550 x-drive came with hydraulic, not electric, steering, so it was supposed that this was why IAS (and auto-park) were not available. i did drive a car with IAS, though i wasn't paying close attention. It made the car noticably more nimble in parking lots, not sure about high speed cornering. The 2012 x-drive does get variable-ratio steering, but still no option for IAS 4-wheel-steering. (Someone rumored the 2012 x-drive got electric steering, but it's yet to be confirmed.) i love the steering feel on my 2012 550xi - regardless of which technology they are using.

3) DSB is really hard to capture in pictures, because it's darkness depends heavily on lighting. i accidentally had my camera on a really high iso from taking non flash interior pics. also remember there are color gamma (computer monitor darkness) differences, so pictures can look really different on different computers. compare my two pics (one sunny, one shaded). these are both exactly the same car on the same day. it is absolutly dsb and unmistably so in person.

carbon black is black with a blue highlight where light strikes it
imperial is a blue so dark it looks black in shade or nighttime
deep sea blue appears dark blue in shade and highlights bright blue where light strikes it

[martin mustang]

Congratulations what a feeling, I got my E60 delivered just before our second child, best of luck with both. One advice with the F10 the isofix car seats and the car seatbelts are a night mare i.e, due to the small space between the isofix hooks and the seat belt switch. I know using the car seatbelts is not on for couple of years for you, but with my kids 6 and 3, it is simply a pain in the back side so when getting the baby car seat check how match space is left between the baby seat and the seat belt switch once on.

[davesf]

Originally Posted by martin mustang

Congratulations what a feeling, I got my E60 delivered just before our second child, best of luck with both. One advice with the F10 the isofix car seats and the car seatbelts are a night mare i.e, due to the small space between the isofix hooks and the seat belt switch. I know using the car seatbelts is not on for couple of years for you, but with my kids 6 and 3, it is simply a pain in the back side so when getting the baby car seat check how match space is left between the baby seat and the seat belt switch once on.

Thanks! I'll be careful about car seat selection when we get there.

Currently we're using the graco infant snap-in system, and it fits well. I'm going to have to pay attention to seat esthetics in the future too. We didn't think about it and ordered two snap-in-bases in grey, but the one for my car clearly should have been black!

[elias]

Love the deep sea blue color it's one of my favorites, enjoy!

[iplumr]

Are those Michelin Super Sport tires? If so, how do you like them? Worth the extra $?

[davesf]

Originally Posted by iplumr

Are those Michelin Super Sport tires? If so, how do you like them? Worth the extra $?

I wish! I loved the Michelin Pilot Sports on my 2005 Audi S4.

No. US x-drive models come with all-season RFT Goodyear LS2s. For everyday cruising they seem fine. At highway speeds I get a bit more of the road-wallow vibration transmitted into the car than I'm used to. I think that's the stiffer RFT tires, not sure if the summer RFTs are the same.

When my LS2s run down, or if they give me any trouble, I might slap some non-RFT PS2s on there. That is if I don't mount staggered 20" wheels before then.

[rexus300]

davesf,

Yes you will feel the annoying road vibrations from the highways into your seats on those goodyear LS2 runflats. They are so pathetic that i cannot believe BMW put them on a 60k plus car. I got rid of them and put Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires that transformed the car tremendously and eliminated 95% of the highway vibrations. I couldn't live with the RFTS one more day. The Pilot Sport A/S are great tires however I feel that my car is not damping some residual highway road vibes very well as compared to my 3 series coupe or Audis or Lexus and it leaves me feeling that I should of gotten the Dynamic handling system to put it into comfort mode on less than ideal highway roads. Otherwise the car is so comfortable with the regular tires.