NbyNW Great photography. Planning a road-trip to that part of the country after Labor Day.
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NbyNW Great photography. Planning a road-trip to that part of the country after Labor Day.
LDT wroteThanks for the compliment.
So much to see... You'll have a great time. Let me know of any questions.
After about three months I got it and had to relearn everything... how to turn it on, all the different options in the interface. Car Play. Way too complex. Cars don't need all this complexity. After a while it all came back. It still smells new. 2,7xx miles on it.
Apple photo magic removed the front plate. Wish it was really gone but I've gotten a couple warnings without it so it's on.
I think the AC is a little weak, it does ok, fan speed of 3 at set temp of 61F. Fan at 4 helps yet adds noise. My wife thinks it's fine, but our dog is constantly panting. She (the dog) is not into curvy or rough roads so either that or she's hot. Really glad all windows are tinted.
Good to get out.
The Sturgis Harley dealer has a nice set up, but the one in Rapid is huge - just more space. Lines of 18 wheeler bike haulers from all over.
The Indian motorcycle dealer is nice also, love their bikes. I need to sneak back to do some more close-up shopping.
Headed home the long way through the Hills, beautiful drive.
Filled it to 45 psi and drove it to the shop. They did a patch and plug combo thing. $26 and done in 15-20 minutes. Torqued to 100 lbs-ft.
Amazing how big those brakes are. Very impressive.
Couple thoughts on the X5. 1) the auto lock feature is great when out and about, just walk away and it locks. Nice and easy. When in the garage it's a pain. 2) Wireless CarPlay is pretty annoying when in the garage. My phone is constantly connecting to the X5 vs the radio I have set up. I could keep the X5 locked but if I'm doing something with it, it's annoying. Same when washing the car, radio stops as it grabs the X5 wifi and I have to do something.
This is Sturgis week so bikes everywhere.
Some pics. The outdoors where John Muir encourages everyone to go. Bikes and more bikes. And who doesn't need a candy apple red 6.2L LS3 v8 trike.
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The Hills are much quieter with Sturgis over. We passed one bike accident where an older gentleman ran off a curvy road with his Harley. Emergency crews were helping him. He was sitting and they were looking at his wrist.
Nothing but good things to say about the X5.
Assist Plus is really nice but doesn't like the camera blocking its view as it watches me. And lane changes it makes are rather abrupt, those could be softened a little.
Been waiting for mine forever but following along this thread has definitely been fun.
Thanks man! Drive safe and keep sharing !
BMW1020 wroteHope yours comes in soon. It’s such a nice vehicle for daily use or going about anywhere plus off road (lightly). Yet it’ll probably handle some decent off road duty too.What a terrific thread and pictures. Beautiful sights and of course the X5 insights were super useful too.
Been waiting for mine forever but following along this thread has definitely been fun.
Thanks man! Drive safe and keep sharing !
Out today in Hill City and spotted another X5 in Carbon Black. Looked nice but we like our Sapphire Black. Either black is crazy to keep clean, just don’t worry about it and enjoy it. Clean it when you can.
And getting the factory filter out of the housing was much more difficult than past cars. When it finally popped out oil went everywhere.
When loosening the drain plug I was shocked how "not tight" or loose it was. It took almost no effort to loosen it. Shockingly little effort. And I couldn't find the factory crush washer after I removed the drain plug. I've done a lot of oil changes and never lost a crush washer. That ate up way too much time looking for it and making sure it wasn't stuck on the drain before finally moving on to reinstalling with a new crush washer and torquing to 25 Nm/18 ft-lbs.
As with anything, it'll be easier next time. Overall it was easy, but not an elegant process. I filled it to about 80% to the max line. And resetting the oil change reminder was easy enough, just took a couple tries to get timing right when holding the BC button.
It has 4393 miles and I'm not smart enough to figure out how many electric miles are in there. Guessing 2/3 gas and 1/3 electric.
Some random pics from after most of the fun.
It finally got a bath yesterday so it's looking good all cleaned up. Time to get it dirty again...
Some pictures.
Time to visit the carwash.
NbyNW I’m hungry. What’s usually in the blue cooler?
LDT wroteIt's not too fancy... either leftovers, a pasta salad, or a subway with chips. Our favorites are classic type potato chips or the original Fritos corn chips (love Fritos!). We've also done fried chicken and that's tasty. Plus doggie treats for the pup. All with proper cloth napkins and plates and silverware if needed. So maybe kinda fancy! We try to eat well (and healthy).
After update .38 it's been a little glitchy. I posted in another thread that it dropped from my account and I had to reload to the app and reset everything. What a pain.
Today when running around the right side/center display took a minute or two to start. Odd. When it finally loaded the drivers display changed and it forgot my settings. I haven't looked if anything else was reset. The app is still working.
Just finished an 800+ mile trip into Wyoming, Montana, and back to South Dakota. It's up to 6,3xx miles.
DAP/Assist Plus (AP):
Important safety tip… When using AP, it has very firm grip on driving, and to make minor adjustments to avoid road debris, roadkill, etc., you need to really force it. Then it quietly cancels the driving part while keeping the speed part active, but doesn’t alert you, or does it poorly. So the first time I did this I let go of the wheel expecting AP was still active and it started driving off the road. Not good at 80 mph. It needs a better alert.
The icon and audio alert when it needs your hands back on the wheel is terrible. When AP is active and cruising along, and for whatever reason it wants your hands on the wheel, the small steering wheel icon on the bottom left turns yellow with a dong. This really needs a move visible alert, same with the above alert. The lack of prominent alerts is dangerous.
It ping pongs in the lane like crazy on uneven curvy interstates at 80+ mph. Like a boat bouncing around. It stays in the lane but it’s not a good feeling. Better to drive it yourself.
A note… AP only works to 86 mph. At 87 mph you have to drive it. Guess this is in the manual.
Overall, AP works well and I like it, just have to watch it.
Other thoughts:
Seat time max for the wife and me is about 3 hours. It’s not our S Class for hours of driving. AC was ok, when warmer bumped to fan speed 4 with more noise. Mom and the pup were ok in the back seat and those seats are rather hard, yet one of the best back seats we found when looking.
It threw a CEL so stopped at an Auto Zone and cleared it. No idea what it was, just cleared it. Sure it needs a full reprogram and I’ll do that next year when we make the long trek to a dealer.
Yes, it’s an M Sport, but it’s too “on” all the time. Even around town. It needs a softer setting. Using the Sport Individual setting I have everything set to Comfort except the drivetrain in Sport. Using this keeps the ICE on when I hop out of the car to take pictures or go into a store and the AC stays on for those in the car. My wife has commented about braking and steering abruptness and it’s not as comfortable as it should be for her as the passenger or even me driving.
The engine spins at over 2000 rpm most the time and this has to be inefficient spinning that fast - yet it’s always ready to GO! I use the paddles and upshift to calm it down but it always drops back down to keep the engine spinning. Wasted effort on my part. Electric mode is better but it’s still sharp, biggest issue is the AC stops if I get out (dumb, it needs a pet mode). I’ll admit the engine spinning faster is better than some cars where the transmission goes to the highest gear immediately then is constantly downshifting, we had a Lincoln that did this and it was incredibly annoying and a big reason we sold it.
I didn’t plug it in and the range never got below mid 30 miles, lots of regen kept the HV battery charged.
Overall, I’d like more luxury vs sport. Maybe the X7 is better suited for this role. But I much prefer the X5 looks vs the X7 (front is terrible, black helps hide it). The X5 did well on the trip, plenty of space, good gas mileage (no idea what it was), comfortable, and good for dirt and gravel roads.
Big thing is it didn’t strand us. A positive there, but I was constantly thinking of the drivetrain malfunction, coolant valve (?), and battery module issues others have had requiring a tow. Not a good feeling and not a lot of confidence when traveling near or far away.
I’m not looking forward to calling BMW Assist saying I need a tow to a dealer 3-400+ miles away.
Maybe next up will be a Denali with the 3.0 Duramax, if not the X7, GLS, Escalade, or Navigator (with it’s dumb steering wheel). For now the X5 is ok.
Pictures of the trip coming soon…
