[schneeky]

F11 arrives Friday - getting excited....

200 miles later

This car is awesome!!

First impressions see update against each option. And excuse the poor photos.

535d SE Touring
Black Sapphire
Black Dakota leather
19" V-spoke style 331 alloy wheel
Visibility package - Fantastically powerful , the active lights and main beam assist have to be experienced to believed.
Media package - BMW Professional - Awesome - powerful crisp, iPhone/iPod integration a joy to use (unlike my old 335d!)
Active Cruise Control with "Stop and Go" function - Nearly my favourite feature so lazy but it really makes driving on the congested UK motorways a relaxing experience
Adaptive Drive - My favourite feature - The car is transformed at the flick of a switch - now I have a car for every mood. Was at first unsure that the Sport modes were aggressive enough and I haven't yet pushed it but I'm starting to think that the problem is the refinement and sheer competence of the car is masking the speed I'm actually going - certainly compared to my old 335d touring M Sport I can go faster with less drama BUT the car still feels big so far!
Air conditioning, automatic with extended features - Great as expected
Ambient lighting - Subtle and a delight also with illuminated door sill plate (see poor photo)
BMW Professional USB interface Telephone USB audio interface - See comments above - really competent and a joy to use.
BMW Tracking - Hope I never have to use it
Climate Comfort windscreen - Summer will tell.
Comfort Access Soft-close doors - An unnecessary luxury - wouldn't bother again, can take 2-3 goes to lock
Comfort seats - Beautiful and worth every penny - If you can't get comfortable in these then you never will
DAB digital radio - Terrible UK coverage but great when it works - Haven't found the auto switch to FM facility yet - Anybody have any experience of this?
Ext. mirrors - folding, They work!
Fineline Anthracite wood - A cock up!! - My fault, sort of - I got dark ash by mistake - I nearly shot myself when I realised but actually don't mind it now but very annoyed with myself!
Head-up Display - Really liked this on the demo but haven't used it much - I think it will be useful when running with SatNav on

Integral Active Steering - Intriguing and will need more experience to reach a final conclusion. Obviously I can't compare but initial impressions are that low speed manoeuvres are no problem - the turning circle must help - at speed on fast B roads the feeling is a little artificial - at first, during turn in, the car appears to be a little slow and then the back end just "picks up it's skirts" and pivots round. Not unpleasant and makes the car feel very agile but odd - I'm sure I'll get used to it and may eventually enjoy it! Motorway lane changes are very stable.
Lane change warning system - Another cock up - got the white line crossing feature instead which I didn't think would be very useful. On reflection the vibration is very subtle and actually useful but I would still have preferred the blind spot warning especially as I'm still getting used to the visibility and size of the car. Dealer fault but ultimately mine for not checking- I must try harder next time.
Night Vision with pedestrian recognition - Actually helped me avoid 5 deer on my first trip out at night - couldn't believe it. I wasn't going very fast so didn't save me/car (or the deer) but as I recently hit a deer on my way home from work in my old car (which cost me £700 to repair - The deer was terminal D.O.A. unfortunately) I'm hoping this will be a useful feature where I live.
Panoramic glass sunroof - First problem the switch only provides manual open and close - no one touch full open/close - I'll visist the dealer and see if this is a simple fix - anybody have a similar issue with this?
Park Assist - Haven't tried it and I think will be an expensive toy - we'll see.
Professional Loudspeaker system - Great see comments above
Reversing Assist camera - Disappointingly unnecessary so far - perhaps I need to acclimatise more?
Seat heating, front - Most welcome - should be standard as leather is standard in the UK.
Speed limit display - So far very impressed and reliable - I have read that other's experience hasn't been so good??
Sport automatic transmission - Silky smooth and responsive - Why have the manual - I never though I would every say that - perhaps age is catching me up?
Sport Steering Wheel - Feels very thin compared to my M sport 335d!
Steering wheel heating - Haven't had the need to use it yet but looking forward to my trip up to the west coast of Scotland and the expected bad/cold weather to try it out :-)
Surround-view - Again so far not been useful and I fear an option too far?
Tailgate operation, automatic - Very useful (if a little embarrassing in a gold medallion sort of way!) but why no external button to open?
TV function - Will come in when I'm early for meetings!

[krell]

That's one heck of a spec you've got there. That's what's called "fully loaded". You're going to have so much fun driving that :-)

I had to show restraint with my F11 order to stop the price from getting too high! Mine is due to arrive in about 6 weeks.

Of course, do post pictures when you get your new ride, and let us know what you think of the varuious options ....

[pmw103]

Hi Schneeky,
Great spec, it will be amazing.
Looking forward to seeing the pictures!

[keanu1]

My God!! Is there any option left?!!?

[schneeky]

335d Touring M sport black metallic 2007 85K mile full spec (everything!) 18k ONO

Great car, and mirrors my own thoughts on those options. I think the trim works well with the black leather!

Does your DAB display station text? Mine doesn't

[schneeky]

No luck with DAB text but haven't got round to trying to figure this out yet. Will post if I succeed

Think its a fault with certain cars built sometime in September i.e. those that have combox, and have full remote iphone app features plus full postcode search.

Those with combox but only limited support for postcode and remote app features seem to get DAB station text no problem.

[schneeky]

OK thanks eaglesrest. Hopefully BMW will revise s/w soon?

[Touring]

When you get to the split screen yes/no option just scroll down that page, you will find the DAB/FM autoswitch option.

And what a awesome car you have got!!!

[kaishang]

Originally Posted by schneeky

F11 arrives Friday - getting excited....

200 miles later

This car is awesome!!

First impressions see update against each option. And excuse the poor photos.

535d SE Touring
Black Sapphire
Black Dakota leather
[/COLOR]Head-up Display - Really liked this on the demo but haven't used it much - I think it will be useful when running with SatNav on

Excellent write up thanks..... but it looks like you have crumbs on the carpets inside. Have you been eating in the car already ?!?

I've got a question about the head-up display: can you make the head-up display do anything when approaching a Point of Interest (POI)? Eg since you can download speed camera locations into the nav database, can you get the HUD to alert you when you are near a speed camera?

[Touring]

Originally Posted by kaishang

Eg since you can download speed camera locations into the nav database

How do you do that?

[kaishang]

In a long and convoluted way from what I've read.

Originally Posted by Touring

How do you do that?

[schneeky]

Touring ~I don't seem to have the DAB/FM option - strange. Update - Found it!
Kaishang - food forbidden in the car (for now) :-)

Has anybody managed to transfer a route via BMW on-line connected drive? I can create a route on the internet click the transfer to the car, all appears to work but from the car it says I have no saved routes??

[SAuchterlonie]

oof, thats some spec mate! I wish this car was in my dealers when I bought mine as it would have been really useful to see all these extras in operation, hence I just went for the standard kit.

Simon