[AP]

A quick review , will get round to adding a load of pictures and more details sortly.

So picked up a 530d msport with a load of toys on it.

Sophisto grey, black dakota leather, style 351 wheels.
Anthracite alcantara headlining. (really think this looks so much better)
Sport automatic, electric seats, head up display (ful black panel as well of course), professional hifi, Dab radio, active cruise control, adaptive headlights, speed limit display.climate comfort windscreen

So only covered 115 miles in it do far but initial impressions are :-

Steering lighter, nowhere as good as the E39 I traded in, but i'll get used to it.
In idrive I was expecting to tailor the sport program. I know the suspension is passive (msport) but thought on other cars you could tailor to chassis and or gearbox. so on a msport that would be gearbox and or steering.
I'm sure I was able to do that on a test drive 520d msport about a year ago.
no choice on my car. Is that a change or have I got that wrong?

Active cruise control absolutely brilliant. Drove along the M25, set it on and it locked on to a lorry ahead and kept pace with it. Also when not on , leave it on so it will alert you (via the HUD) if it thinks you might hit the car in front. so worth leaving on anyway.

HUD display very good as well, would miss not having that already.

Reflections on the windscreen, these have ben documented elsewhere, not too bad but certianly noticable. The speaker in the middle of the dashboard can be seen along with the HUD outline.
HUD background can be seen as a pale black colour at night, assume this is a LCD panel with the the issue of light leaking out (as no lcd can stop light leaking out 100%).
Might be because i have the HUD at its highest brightness.

HIFI , well its ok but bass is boomy. It was never going to be for an audiophile, but certianly ok to listen to. Copied losess less WMAs to a USB stick and they have played fine oterh than there being a slight gap between tracks.

Engine, very nice, won't push it until run in but very smooth, and makes a nice noise. Ok its not a 550i but very effortless all the same. 70mph menas a smidge under 1500rpm. hardly breaking a sweat!
Also seems economical, drive a mixture of motorways and getting stuck in traffix jams and got just over 30mpg. I'd have expected around 20mpg for the same in my old e39 530i msport.

Climate comfort windscreen, thought I'd get a dark (green?) band at the top but its not there, is that for other regions? (I'm in the UK)

Suspension, pleased with this, not as hard as my E39 msport on mparallels, so reasonably comfortable except when going over potholes around town in the UK (we do see ave very bad roads) at slowish speed.

Got excellent tradein price for my E39 (according to glasses guide) and manage to negotiate 11% off the 530d, pretty good deal I think.

Will do a more detailed review shortly with a load of pictures when i get a spare moment.


So main pros are Engine,HUD, Active cruise control,
Cons, Steering, Reflections on windscreen

[ATOMBOY]

Congratulations. Looking forward to seeing your photos.

[rhinosaur]

Is it an F10 or F11?
Anyway, congrats on the car and particularly the colours... If it is an F11 then it is almost a twin to my yet to be delivered F11!

[A900ss]

Congrats, nice spec and look forward to the pictures.

If you don't mind me asking, how long was it from order to delivery? I've got an F11 on order and am waiting......

[Bimmernerd]

Congrats! I have a F11 530d xDr M sport myself. The hydraulic steering in the xDrive models is superior to the electric steering. I don't agree about the reflections in the wind screen, IMO it is not a problem (5 000 miles so far). 33 MPG avg, best result 37 MPG.

Enjoy a fantastic car!

[AP]

Its an F10.
Time from ordering was about 8-9 weeks.
I think the time is to some extent based upon whether the dealer already has a slot on the productiion line already purchased.
So delivery was about 2 weeks after initial estimate at time of order.

Been reading through the manual and amazed about the amount of configurations you can make to the car.

Steering , well just have to get used to.Looked again at seeing if i could configure the sport setting but it seems not. Was hoping I could configureit for chassis only - which as it has msport passiv suspension would mena steering only , but this seems to be not the case.

Need to get in the habit of switch autosopt start off as soon as I switch on, forgot a couple of times and thought I stalled the car. it all works though. Many discussions about this elsewhere so will leave it there - seems a bit of a marmite job to me (you eitehr like it or you don't!)

Refelctions in eh windscreen,aain personal thing. They are there, it will eitehr bother you or not. you make your choice, if it bothers you too much, then don't buy the car!

Started programming he sat nav last night with common destinations, seemed odd that you need to pick up a contact from you mobile phone as he basis intially. Either I'm missing something or you have to have a name in your phone as he basis first? you can also set up a contact by memorising he vehicle position.
Need to sussout whether its using RTTI yet or TMC. thoght I saw TMC on eh screen. may my accont needs to be set up before RTTI takes effect?
As i say need to investigate more .....

[fat dog]

Originally Posted by AP

Its an F10.
Time from ordering was about 8-9 weeks.
I think the time is to some extent based upon whether the dealer already has a slot on the productiion line already purchased.
So delivery was about 2 weeks after initial estimate at time of order.

Been reading through the manual and amazed about the amount of configurations you can make to the car.

Steering , well just have to get used to.Looked again at seeing if i could configure the sport setting but it seems not. Was hoping I could configureit for chassis only - which as it has msport passiv suspension would mena steering only , but this seems to be not the case.

Need to get in the habit of switch autosopt start off as soon as I switch on, forgot a couple of times and thought I stalled the car. it all works though. Many discussions about this elsewhere so will leave it there - seems a bit of a marmite job to me (you eitehr like it or you don't!)

Refelctions in eh windscreen,aain personal thing. They are there, it will eitehr bother you or not. you make your choice, if it bothers you too much, then don't buy the car!

Started programming he sat nav last night with common destinations, seemed odd that you need to pick up a contact from you mobile phone as he basis intially. Either I'm missing something or you have to have a name in your phone as he basis first? you can also set up a contact by memorising he vehicle position.
Need to sussout whether its using RTTI yet or TMC. thoght I saw TMC on eh screen. may my accont needs to be set up before RTTI takes effect?
As i say need to investigate more .....

Congrats on the new car.

My F11 was delivered in just 3 weeks. It has a very specific spec so can't believe there was one sitting around ready. Mind, it's a company car and was ordered through one of the largest BMW dealerships in the UK, so maybe preferential slots are made available.

I believe that without VDC or Adaptive Drive, switching to Sport will sharpen the throttle response and the steering and alter the gearbox programme. Out of interest, does your car have a Sport+ programme?

You can find little techniques that prevent the auto stop-start from kicking in. My car is an auto and if I know I am only going to be stopped for a few seconds, I just allow the car to creep ever so slightly i.e. pretty much imperceptibly to passengers, and this prevents it from doing it's thing. You can also flick the gear lever across to Sport as you approcah a junction or roundabout where a quick getaway is needed.

You're right, you need to register for BMW online/BMW Assist to get RTTI, otherwise you'll just get TMC in the interim.

[AP]

yes sport does make a change to the steering, its seems quite subtle to me though. Gear box hangs on to the gears longer and te throttle response is more 'agressive'
yes car does have sport +. (it has ecopro,comfort,sport and sport+)
not used it really though as I want to run in everything before I really put my foot down.
accidently got 4000rpm by mistake when playing with the paddles , hope hats not an issue as manual states not ore tan 3500rpm for the first 1200 miles......

My dealer has registered me for RTTI, so understand I'll get a password sent to my mobile in a few days . Also means I can send destinations via google maps to my car - dealer showed me briefly in the showroom but need to investigat that in more detail.
There is just so much to this car, its unbelievable. learning something all he time about it. Its going take a while to get to know everything about it.

3 weeks for yours was pretty quick.