The longer I have my 06 5 series BMW the more I regret the purchase. I have owned Lexi, Infiniti, Corvettes, Cadillacs, Volvos, Saabs and I have never regretted a purchase as much as I do this one. It is fun to drive and admittedly handles better than any other sedan I can think of but the ergonomics, to put it simply, leave too much to be desired for a car in this price class. BMW has some of the best drive train/suspension engineers in the world, maybe the absolute best. Unfortunately BMW has absolute idiots, basically morons, designing the interiors and controls of the vehicle. One really need not go further than the cup holders, but it gets worse. At my height, 5' 11", it is impossible not to constantly bang my left leg against the rock hard faux wood hand rail on the door. This aggravates me more than anything. I feel like I get bitten every time I drive the car. Many necessary functions, including cruise control, are difficult to operate in their left of steering wheel location (it is a right handed world after all). The steering wheel heater button is utterly incaccesible unless you lean over the steering wheel and look for it hidden in the recesses of the left side of the steering wheel. Or is that the steering wheel up and down button? In and out? Setting the air conditioning requires navigating through the BMW version of the worst of Windows as well as using a traditional switch on the dashboard. There is no way to rapidly adjust fan flow without having to go through a complex ordeal that requires you to divert your attention from the road to use the computer screen. Unless you simply want maximum blasting of the air, which is available by a button on the dash. Switching radio stations is a major ordeal and an act of faith: it works blindly or you have to navigate through multiple computer screens using the Teutonic Wheel of Death. If not set on preprogrammed stations, which has an unrealistically limited number of settings, then if you are temporarily in an area where the signal is weak that particular station will not be recognized on the "all stations" settings. Did I mention that the "all stations" settings arranges all receivable signals in a non sequential order? Therefore pushing the up or down button on the steering wheel does not necessarily take you to the next station in order of frequency. The voice command system works about as well as any computer voice transcription system, which is to say not at all. Not even slightly. Not even a hiccup. Its sad when even the service technician shrugs his shoulder and says it is just another non-perfected gimmick. I do like the blue tooth. However if you have a Verizon but not a Cingular treo, the same frigging phone, only some but not all of your preprogrammed numbers will be available. Back to the computer screen and the Teutonic Wheel of Death. Once a destination programmed into navigation has been reached major reprogramming is required to stop getting directions. Also the directions are inaccurate: when the freeway veers left the voice tells you to exit the freeway to the left although there is really no frigging exit involved. It will tell you to exit the freeway to the right, if the freeway veers right, and if there happens to be an exit there you can guess the rest. My wife likes the car, at least.
- posted
18 years ago