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      03-30-2021, 01:00 PM   #1
ajob
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From F85 to F95 - my experience

About two months ago I got a new F95 Comp. and sold my 2015 F85 to a friend with some 70,000 miles and still 6 months of extended warranty.

The F85 came after a 2011 E70 (50i). Both prior cars towed all over Europe a 3,000 lbs 35 ft long trailer, never broke down or had even minor repairs - the most reliable, low maintenance cars I ever owned, on par with my former, indestructible Corvette C5.

Here some choices and thoughts on the F95, just out of the 1200 mi service:

- color: after two DG cars I chose Manhattan Green with Taruma Brown interior.
When I first saw the car I felt unenthusiastic, but it slowly improved and today I really like it a lot - the color looks misteriously different depending on light and surroundings, from mid brown to a rare grey-green and the brown interior is restful to the eyes, important for me as I sometimes drive very long continuos stretches;

- equipment: I got about all except massaging seats and rear entertainment, which I had before and never used.

First impressions:

- the ride is a bit firmer but the car is far more stable on long fast turns, maybe due to no rear airbag suspension.
I was worried that the heavy (~180 lbs) trailer attachment on the hitch would cause the car to "sit" without auto-leveling, but it didn't happen and the tow stability is exceptional.

- lights are really good, the auto headlights do a very god job of tunneling around opposite traffic, it is much improved - and the laser headbeams add two brighter thin long range beams to the LEDs, good for fast night driving.

- now for the red ink: the touch iDrive must have been designed by a new "Age of Aquarius" software team. I still cannot enter multicountry addresses with a decent effort - it constantly wants to check the address online and more often than not protests or wants to send me to some obscure corner of Europe. A sort of a truce has been reached, but I'm not happy;

- and the self drive looks really experimental; maybe I'm spoiled by aviation autopilots, but I feel really edgy being self driven ("wobbled" is a better description) on anything that is not a perfectly well marked German or French autobahn - but yes, it works very well on slow "hiccup" traffic and it has a lot of value there;

- the seats can be very confortable, but if you find the magic setting be sure to save it ! I did not, stepped out if the car and when I returned it went back to the previously recorded one and I'm still searching for that elusive magic spot...

- the B&W audio is a real joy to hear and its DSP (digital signal processing) scenarios work really well, not like that half-witted "expanded" on the B&O of the F85 - but I have not found a way to cancel DAB reception while on FM radio, a real PITA due to the different logic of stations display.

All in all I'm happy - maybe I'll write some more here when I get more experience with this new car - but I wholeheartedly recommend it !

Pics follow...
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      03-30-2021, 01:03 PM   #2
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The old & the new
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      03-30-2021, 01:04 PM   #3
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      03-30-2021, 01:07 PM   #4
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      03-30-2021, 01:08 PM   #5
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      03-30-2021, 03:52 PM   #6
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Nice combination.
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      03-30-2021, 06:33 PM   #7
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Thanks for sharing! Beautiful ride. You're pics make me want to travel to the EU.
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      03-30-2021, 07:15 PM   #8
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Looks good. Of course, the location shots are great.
It's funny how the new F95 alongside the F85 looks like a G01 X3 size vehicle. Didn't realize how much larger the F95 was over the F85.
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      03-30-2021, 09:05 PM   #9
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Thanks for the review. Which hitch did you choose with the F95? I’m on the fence on this one since I’m afraid of missing the auto-leveling suspension with a tongue weight around 600 lbs.

My F85 tows really great and I feel that the F95 would be a step backward on the towing part.
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      03-31-2021, 02:25 AM   #10
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Great write up - I understand totally what you mean on the self-drive but its fantastic on the motorway and awesome in stop-start traffic on the school run. At other times it weaves around because it can't find the white lines (a lot of the main roads in the UK here have old faded lines) and has to use the car in front as a proxy.

Would be great to understand your view on F85 performance / handling / ride quality etc vs the F95. I had an F15 M50d before the F95 and the ride wasn't actually better whilst "softer" and whilst it was a capable handler over 7/10ths with the weight it fell apart handling wise so you never really wanted to push it. The F95 on the other hand is firmer but rides very well once you get used to it (quality dampers and good seats I think) and pushing on its nothing short of remarkable how it hides the weight and makes you feel like you are driving a hot hatch with endless power.

Anyway - any reference points on the F85 would be great - thinking of perhaps buying one as a second truck and putting some serious off-road capability into it!

Last edited by schaeffs888; 03-31-2021 at 02:25 AM.. Reason: spelling!
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      03-31-2021, 05:33 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gan23 View Post
Thanks for the review. Which hitch did you choose with the F95? I’m on the fence on this one since I’m afraid of missing the auto-leveling suspension with a tongue weight around 600 lbs.

My F85 tows really great and I feel that the F95 would be a step backward on the towing part.
I have the factory supplied, electrically deployed hitch - it's identical to the previous F85 hitch.

With the new F95 I did tow my heavy trailer on a windy expressway and I did not notice any adverse effect due to the lack of the self-leveling suspension I had on the F85; the towing experience was very good.
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      04-07-2021, 09:06 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ajob View Post
The old & the new
I had an F85 and loved it. Wife has an F97.

Even though the F95 is bigger dimensionally than both, do you think it "drives" bigger ? I had an F90 M5 and it didn't dive like a big barge, even though it was much bigger than my 911.

How does driving size feel to you in the F95 vs the F85 ?
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      04-07-2021, 02:03 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by onfireX5 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajob View Post
The old & the new
I had an F85 and loved it. Wife has an F97.

Even though the F95 is bigger dimensionally than both, do you think it "drives" bigger ? I had an F90 M5 and it didn't dive like a big barge, even though it was much bigger than my 911.

How does driving size feel to you in the F95 vs the F85 ?
Until now I do not feel any size difference, but I have some trips in the next weeks and will report here.
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      04-10-2021, 06:35 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ajob View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by onfireX5 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajob View Post
The old & the new
I had an F85 and loved it. Wife has an F97.

Even though the F95 is bigger dimensionally than both, do you think it "drives" bigger ? I had an F90 M5 and it didn't dive like a big barge, even though it was much bigger than my 911.

How does driving size feel to you in the F95 vs the F85 ?
Until now I do not feel any size difference, but I have some trips in the next weeks and will report here.
Beautiful color inside and out. I have noticed that the extra width is what makes the X5 look much bigger than the previous gen. The inside dimensions are almost identical.

I use CarPlay exclusively for my maps only because the routing is better than the inbuilt navigation for where I live. Not sure why.

I have the B&O system on mine and recently replaced the speakers with Focal. I have had B&O products in my home for many years and the speakers from the X5 were quite low quality to be B&O (the only difference between them and the HK speakers was Bang and Olufsen printed in the back ). The B&W system must be better since the driver materials are completely different than the HK speakers now.

Great pictures. I can't afford the X5M, so enjoy it vicariously through this forum. LOL.
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      04-10-2021, 04:40 PM   #15
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Nice congrats. Now please lower it with the MSS kit. 😃
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