[gadgetfreak2024]

We took delivery of our 2024 X5 50e in mid-June and have put about 1750 miles on it so far. I figured I’d give some initial impressions. It’s obviously still early days, so there is much more to learn about this vehicle. But maybe it’s helpful to others — and I’ll be curious to hear what others’ early ownership experiences are like.

Spoiler alert: long post ahead. I’ll break this up into (1) things we like, (2) things we dislike and (3) things we are not yet sure about.

First, for reference, we are coming from a 2011 X5 50i M-Sport, so that was our baseline. I’ll make a few comments about how the two vehicles compare here and there.

Second, here are the general specs (since some may impact my opinions):

• Brooklyn Gray
• Silverstone Sensafin
• DAP package
• Climate Control Package
• M-Sport Trim
• Fineline Black Wood Trim
• M-Sport Professional (with blue calipers)
• Executive Package
• Massaging Front Seats
• Parking Assistance Package
• Trailer Hitch
• Alcantara Headliner

Third, to date (knock on wood), we have NOT had any of the various issues that seem to have broadly plagued this model (or at least show up regularly on forums like these). Basically, this vehicle has not presented any nasty surprises so far.

(1) Here are some of my initial positives:

I really like having a plug-in hybrid. We do a lot of shuttling around within a 20 mile radius and having installed an L2 charger at our driveway, it’s quick and easy to do a large portion of our driving on electric alone. 40-ish miles has been a nice range for us. And however much I wanted a pure EV, a PHEV was the right choice for us while the charging infrastructure remains slow-to-develop in the US.

The charging is relatively quick on L2. Basically three hours from empty to fully charged.

The available power on electric only actually feels more than adequate. I was worried that it would feel really sluggish, but that’s definitely not the case. I never drove a 45e, so can’t compare with that. But this model has nice pickup for around town driving even on electric-only mode. E.g., I never have nervous moments around highway merging, as one example.

It’s a cushier ride than our 2011, of course. Generally that’s been nice. I can’t say that I have any sense of the Air Suspension’s role in that. I always drive in Electric Individual with steering and suspension set to Sport. So the Air Suspension always lowers one notch while in motion. Even with that, it’s a very different — more luxury oriented — ride than my 2011. I think, day-to-day, that’s nice over the crappy roads in the Northeast. (But sometimes I miss the road feel we have in the old car.)

I really like the Silverstone Sensafin. It feels nice and I think really brightens things up. We’ll see how it holds up, but 1700+ miles in, it still looks new.

I really like DAP’s capabilities. It’s pretty easy to invoke and ultimately works quite well when deployed in the right circumstances. Having recently rented a Tesla Model 3, I much preferred BMW’s semi-autonomous implementation over that of Tesla — hate that need to jiggle the Tesla’s wheel! I cannot speak to what FSD Beta is like on the Tesla. But having done a 700+ mile road trip in the 50e, I and my wife put DAP to good use and really enjoyed its functionality. You can’t be stupid, of course, and you absolutely need to pay attention. But overall, it does provide some higher levels of relaxing driving over those long stretches. The lane changing is also good — albeit a bit more assertive than I would be. But hey, you want that next lane? You got it ASAP!

I also like the Parking package at parking lots and for street parking. It works well in both perpendicular and parallel scenarios and for parallel in particular, I trust it more than myself to not curb the wheels. But again, you gotta pay attention. I have had it absolutely mash the brakes more than once when it thought something got in the way. That is very jarring, but I guess that’s better than rolling over something or someone I thought might be there. There is also a negative aspect to the Parking package that I’ll cover below.

The 360 degree cameras are very good when reversing or otherwise working through tight spaces. I do wish they self-cleaned though — particularly the rear camera. I know some other manufacturers have washers built in and at this price point, so too should this car.

The seats are pretty comfortable. Our 2011 was also comfortable and I don’t notice a big difference. Over our longer drives, we didn’t develop pain points or cramps. So mission accomplished.

I like the powered split tailgate. That’s a nice upgrade from our 2011 with the manual bottom half. It’s a minor upgrade, but still nice and seems right for a $90k luxury car. I find we lower the bottom portion a lot more than we did because of the auto close function available in the 50e.

The HK sound system is good. I used to think of myself as more of an audiophile, and spent accordingly. I realized I actually don’t have the discerning ear I thought I did. So take it with a grain of salt, but I’m not sure I’d go for the B&W given the cost, even if it was available (which it was not). I’d probably have a little FOMO though.

I like the overall look of the LCI — it’s a bit brawnier than the prior iterations. But I actually still prefer the looks of my E70 M-Sport (other than the grill, which looks small in today’s massive-grill world). It just looks more muscular and aggressive — less soft, family SUV like. But overall, I find the looks of the 2024 appealing and I think the tweaks over 2023’s version are positive.

I enjoy having greater connectivity to the car via the MyBMW app, which I think is pretty good. When I remember to do so, I will precondition the car, which is dead simple to do. The charge status reporting is also good. It’s a good tool.

I love the Digital Key Plus function. My wife and I have iPhones and Apple Watches and it works great, eliminating the necessity of carrying those oversized (and overpriced, if you lose them) key fobs.

CarPlay works well and is easy to use in this vehicle. I retrofitted it to my 2011 — and that was pretty hit or miss on connectivity — so it’s nice to have something more reliable. And it’s nice also that there’s some connection with the gauge cluster (for Apple Maps).

The HUD display is very functional and (not surprisingly more data rich than our 2011). I wouldn’t want to drive a car without a HUD. Just makes a lot of sense for safety.

The “Hey BMW” functionality is pretty solid, when I remember to use it. I find its ability to comprehend to be quite good. It does have its limits though — for instance if you are connected to CarPlay, it won’t be able to make calls, as you’ll need to go directly to Siri in my experience. But overall, it’s more than a gimmick — if I can just remember it’s there!

I actually like AR view in the gauge cluster. My kid was like “why are you having it show you the exact road you see looking out the window.” Fair question, kiddo! But I wasn’t using DAP then. When you are using the assisted driving tools, it actually does a nice job of showing you how it is interpreting the road ahead with an overlay of a green path on top of the actual roads. It helps inspire confidence.


(2) My dislikes so far are the following:

I wish the car felt sportier. But hey, I preferenced the PHEV over going up to the M60i (really wanted a plug), so I knew there would be a trade off. To be clear, I have NOT yet really pushed the vehicle in Sport mode since I don’t have a lot of ICE-miles on the thing, and suspect the engine may not be fully broken in. I will try some Sport mode shenanigans down the road and see how the full 450+ HP feels. Something to look forward to!

The brakes are not as good as those on my E70. I suspect that may be due to the battery-affected weight. But the car just feels slow to slow down. I wish an upgrade would have been available to spec.

The steering is pretty light and devoid of road feel. It’s not like my inlaws’ Lexus, in terms of squishiness. But it’s light years behind the weighty feel of our 2011 X5. Even in Sport setting, it’s just lighter than I’d prefer. My wife and I both have commented on this. The 2011 was just much more engaging in terms of steering feel.

I wish 4-wheel steering (IAS in BMW parlance) was available. I absolutely would have chosen that. I have to do a lot of backing up and maneuvering around and it’s a shame it wasn’t available at the time we ordered.

They should have kept hard climate control buttons. I know this is a hot-button (pun intended) issue. I’m a pretty techy person and was looking forward to the massive-screened iDrive 8 with all its toys. But there’s just a lot of logic to having basic climate control hard buttons. I suspect over time, we’ll see manufacturers settle into some middle-ground of a few core buttons and the rest via the screen. This feels like they went a step too far (to us). We don’t hate it, but it’s tech for tech’s sake. Will see if 8.5 improves usability.

Speaking of which, the user interface with all of the VERY similar looking apps is just not a good design. There is no way to easily pick out which app you want from the sea of mostly blue squares in the Vehicle Apps screen. Again, maybe 8.5 will improve this.

The placement of the wireless charging pad is not ideal. For one, if you are using the left cup holder, you can’t place or retrieve your phone. For two, I think there is very little ventilation in that area, so the phone really heats up. That reduces charging efficiency and probably isn’t particularly good for the phone’s battery life. I often just use the charge cord we have installed instead.

It’s a bummer to lose the under trunk storage. Obviously, it’s the cost of going with a PHEV. But just saying…. We made good use out of that in our prior vehicle. It is nice, though, that there is a dedicated spot for the privacy screen. But I don’t think we could squeeze the flexible fast charger and all its thick cabling in there (but haven’t really tried to be sure).

I don’t really like the surface of the steering wheel. It feels kind of cheap, even though the wheel is nice and chunky. I wish they had some sort of grippier material to give it a more premium feel — particularly since that is the primary surface with which you interact. This is where Alcantara would have been really nice — but maybe it doesn’t wear well?

The Parking package memory tool is too complex and fickle. This is where you have it record a path that you drive frequently and it is supposed to just mirror your moves in future parking at the same spot. We have a driveway for which I have tried to record the path in reverse multiple times. It complains about too sharp a steering angle when recording the moves — but that’s how you need to park given the space available! And even when I can get it to agree with my steering, the driveway rarely shows up as a known space to back into. So the function just goes unused — at least in our circumstances. Too bad. I had dreams of just having this function get us into our narrow garage at the push of the button, but I don’t think the capabilities are really there yet — at least to give me the confidence to do so without possibly doing damage to the car and/or garage.

If you get out of sync with which driver is logged in to the car itself or into CarPlay, it’s a pain to get it switched over. There are times my wife and I both get in and I didn’t realize it picked up on her profile and suddenly the seat memory seems to not work, etc. I’m not sure how to work around that. It’s a minor thing, but annoying when it occurs.

Soft close doors are worthless in our family. No one remembers they are there and everyone just closes the doors the same way we’ve been closing car doors for years. To be clear, you basically need to remember to almost close the door all the way, and then it will pull it closed gently for the last quarter or half inch. Now if it was like the i7’s automatic doors, that would be another matter. But these feel like paying for a feature that we will get near-zero benefit from and requires all of us to overcome muscle memory.

Speaking of the doors, they should have kept the Comfort Access controls on the rear doors. It’s an annoying omission, particularly for a family car, and just feels cheap to remove the sensors (which we had in the 2011 on all four doors). I have reset the car to open all doors when unlocking, but if we still lived in a city, I’m not sure I’d want to use that setting.

Thankfully there is an actual volume knob, but it’s not at all linear in use. You have to turn it a bunch to get the volume to where you want, and somehow it’s just difficult to tweak with any granularity. It’s like a bad drive-by-wire implementation of a very simple function. I hope they can do some software improvements to this.


(3) The Jury is still out on these matters:

I’m not sure I love Brooklyn Gray. If Dravit was available when I ordered, I might have done that. I am impressed, though, with how much easier it is to keep clean looking vs. my BSM 2011 which looks like it’s gone off-road just from driving around town for a day. I’m not a religious car washer, so this is a good side benefit for us of the BG. But I’ll be curious to see how we like the BG over time. I’m a little worried it will look a little like these grays were a fad in a few years time.

I’m not sure the Air Suspension does much. Maybe it is making it a smoother ride and I don’t really have the reference point to know otherwise. But I’m not sure it’s a valuable inclusion — in case it becomes something you can individually spec down the road.

I think the full verdict on the iDrive interface is yet to come. I’m getting more used to it. I have my favorites set up. I like the look of the large screens in general. But it needs some refinement around some of the things I noted above. I’m definitely not a hater of iDrive 8 — probably more of an apologist to my wife who find it’s complex. But it could be better. Let’s wait to see what 8.5 brings.

Ventilated and massaged seats are kind of underwhelming. Sometimes I think I hear the ventilation more than I feel it. I know these are not chilled, but wish they were. I’m glad I have it, but it’s not a massive benefit. Same goes for the massaging seats. They are pretty mild in their effect. You have some controls via iDrive to mess with the intensity and range — but it’s convoluted to get there, so I kind of set it at what I thought was max impact, and have forgotten about making any further tweaks. When I remember we have the feature, I’ll hit the button and basically think, “that’s nice,” but not “that’s awesome.”

There are still some DAP functions I’m not sure I have a perfect handle on — namely how it reacts to sharp curves and intersections. It’s a bit confusing to determine what the optimal settings are. Every now and then, it’ll seemingly take a curve at a gentler speed like a human would, and sometimes it seems not to (even though there is a visual indicator that it understands that curve is coming). This may be driver error and I have more to learn on this.

I’m unsure about the crystal shifter. I like it for the iDrive controller though.

Alcantara is nice, but probably was a waste, since you can only get in the dark gray. Every now and then I notice it, but from the driver’s seat, you don’t see many covered surfaces other than the A-pillars, and at that, you kind of really have to look to notice the different fabric. I don’t have Alcantara on the 2011 and I’m totally fine with the fabric in that vehicle. Still looked premium to me.

Remote mobility tools are cool, but I have yet to really find a use for them. This is where you stand outside the car and have it maneuver forward or back. Some day I’ll need this function and then I’ll be glad I have it. But so far, it’s been more of a showpiece than a valued function.

Gesture controls are fun, but kind of gimmicky. We usually forget they are there and they are a bit hit or miss in terms of being picked up. And sometimes my wife, as a passenger, will gesture something and suddenly the volume is accidentally cranked up. I’ll have to give some more thought to what the best use of the customizable gestures are, and maybe it’ll get more use over time.

I know there’s been some debate about the power of the AC. I’d have to say it’s ok, not great. And it can be very noisy if they kids have the AC running at reasonable strength in the back, since there is a vent on the B-pillar right behind the driver’s ear.

I want to do more messing around with the built-in navigation to see if it is superior in any way to what I get via CarPlay. I know from some other threads it may provide some benefits for driving dynamics and efficiency. But it definitely doesn’t look as nice as some of the third-party apps (Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps).


So if you have gotten this far, well, congrats? Sorry for the long post! I hope that was helpful for someone.

Overall, we are pretty happy with the car, but it’s far from perfect. We’ll look forward to future software upgrades and more miles behind the wheel.

—- Minor Update on Wheels/Tires (since I forgot to mention) —

I forgot to mention that we stuck with the standard (for M-Sport) 20” wheels with the standard all-season tires (the 740M setup). Having lived the tire-swap life with our E70 for a number of years, and having had to deal with the difficulties of finding tires for staggered set ups, we wanted simpler and more versatile. We are in the Northeast, so we cannot only have performance tires for year-round driving.

I’m not a big anti-run flat person, perhaps because I’m ignorant to life without run-flats since our 2011 X5 has had them all this time too. We find the ride and tire noise fine, though.

I have to say we also ended up actually liking the look of the standard 20” wheel option on the M-Sport. I think it matches well with the BG exterior and M-Sport trim and doesn’t look too small in the wheel well. If a 21” with all-season tires from the factory was available, I might have pulled the trigger on that. But it wasn’t and maybe we are, unwittingly, benefitting from the better ride for it.

[Lionel Hutz]

This is great, thanks. I'm looking at a similar build (with premium + sun shades rather than exec) so this was super helpful.

[gadgetfreak2024]

Originally Posted by Lionel Hutz

This is great, thanks. I'm looking at a similar build (with premium + sun shades rather than exec) so this was super helpful.

Glad it helped. I think the premium + sun shades would have gotten us 99%+ of the benefit we got from the Exec package, and saved a bit of money. I think the only part I might have missed would be the crystal iDrive controller. But day-to-day, would I really have noticed if I never had it in the first place? Probably not…

[Mixitt]

Very nice and comprehensive. Thanks for your time.

[Jongp3]

Great write up, I've been meaning to do something similar as I have about 2200 miles on my 50e (half of those are from a long trip when I first took delivery). I have the same spec as you minus the Exec Pkg and Headliner. Same Brooklyn Grey but with Mocha Sensafin, tho I did want Silverstone.

I'll provide some feedback on my perspective, knowing these are all subjective, it maybe helpful for people interested in the model to have different views.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

I really like having a plug-in hybrid. We do a lot of shuttling around within a 20 mile radius and having installed an L2 charger at our driveway, it’s quick and easy to do a large portion of our driving on electric alone. 40-ish miles has been a nice range for us. And however much I wanted a pure EV, a PHEV was the right choice for us while the charging infrastructure remains slow-to-develop in the US.

The charging is relatively quick on L2. Basically three hours from empty to fully charged.

I don't use an L2 charger yet, I've only been using the 120v Flex Charger. My charge times to 0-80% is about 20-22 hours. But generally I only put 10-20 miles on trips and it's usually back to 80% overnight. So I haven't had a need to upgrade yet, glad to know it will charge up in 3-4 hours though! The range usually says between 38-41 miles. In practice I usually get about 36-40.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

The “Hey BMW” functionality is pretty solid, when I remember to use it. I find its ability to comprehend to be quite good. It does have its limits though — for instance if you are connected to CarPlay, it won’t be able to make calls, as you’ll need to go directly to Siri in my experience. But overall, it’s more than a gimmick — if I can just remember it’s there!

Can't say I have the same experience with voice control, it never seems to understand me, especially when trying to use Addresses for Navigation. I tend to just use the MyBMW App to send the trip to the car before taking off.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

The brakes are not as good as those on my E70. I suspect that may be due to the battery-affected weight. But the car just feels slow to slow down. I wish an upgrade would have been available to spec.

I also own a M440i, while the brakes on the X5 aren't as good as the M440i or my previous F80 M3, they feel much better than the "stock" non-M-Sport package brakes. I personally don't have any complaints here.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

I don’t really like the surface of the steering wheel. It feels kind of cheap, even though the wheel is nice and chunky. I wish they had some sort of grippier material to give it a more premium feel — particularly since that is the primary surface with which you interact. This is where Alcantara would have been really nice — but maybe it doesn’t wear well?

Have to completely disagree on this one. To me Alcantara feels cheap, reminds me of my Civic Si I suppose. But I love the feel of the smooth leather and to me, definitely feels more upscale than what comes on my F-150 Platinum. But this is all subjective.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

If you get out of sync with which driver is logged in to the car itself or into CarPlay, it’s a pain to get it switched over. There are times my wife and I both get in and I didn’t realize it picked up on her profile and suddenly the seat memory seems to not work, etc. I’m not sure how to work around that. It’s a minor thing, but annoying when it occurs.

Its pretty easy to switch profiles, once you find the menu option.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

Ventilated and massaged seats are kind of underwhelming. Sometimes I think I hear the ventilation more than I feel it. I know these are not chilled, but wish they were. I’m glad I have it, but it’s not a massive benefit. Same goes for the massaging seats. They are pretty mild in their effect. You have some controls via iDrive to mess with the intensity and range — but it’s convoluted to get there, so I kind of set it at what I thought was max impact, and have forgotten about making any further tweaks. When I remember we have the feature, I’ll hit the button and basically think, “that’s nice,” but not “that’s awesome.”

I feel Ford has the best implementation of "cooled" seats, so that's pretty much by baseline. I snowbird between TX and CO so I know heat and cold. The X5 seat ventilation does help in hot climates, its noticeable improvement especially if you easily sweat. If you live in a more mild climate it probably won't make much difference.
This being my first massaging seats outside of Ford, I would say these seats have a noticeable improvement over Ford's implementation. For trips longer than 1 hour I use it and feel less fatigue than without. They aren't "spa" like massages, but it is enough to feel a difference, to me. I would definitely option them again!

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

I know there’s been some debate about the power of the AC. I’d have to say it’s ok, not great. And it can be very noisy if they kids have the AC running at reasonable strength in the back, since there is a vent on the B-pillar right behind the driver’s ear.

Agreed, the AC is definitely much louder in relation to the air output.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

I want to do more messing around with the built-in navigation to see if it is superior in any way to what I get via CarPlay. I know from some other threads it may provide some benefits for driving dynamics and efficiency. But it definitely doesn’t look as nice as some of the third-party apps (Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps).

The BMW builtin Navigation is very good. I stopped using CarPlay completely. I use the built in Spotify app, which starts playing music pretty much as soon as you open the door (CarPlay takes forever to start up and sometimes won't even auto play my music). I just join my phone using "the OG" bluetooth method, mainly only for the rare call I get. IMO the experience is so much better than CarPlay and offers way more information. The search is very fast (but this my be different depending on the cell signal your car gets) and the alt routes is super easy to use. I do miss the crowd sourced information Waze has, but I don't miss the app instability (frozen screen for miles and missing exits as a result).

Overall great write up of the 50e!

[moseph]

Appreciate the detail! Thanks for posting!

[gadgetfreak2024]

Originally Posted by Jongp3

Great write up, I've been meaning to do something similar as I have about 2200 miles on my 50e (half of those are from a long trip when I first took delivery). I have the same spec as you minus the Exec Pkg and Headliner. Same Brooklyn Grey but with Mocha Sensafin, tho I did want Silverstone.

I'll provide some feedback on my perspective, knowing these are all subjective, it maybe helpful for people interested in the model to have different views.



I don't use an L2 charger yet, I've only been using the 120v Flex Charger. My charge times to 0-80% is about 20-22 hours. But generally I only put 10-20 miles on trips and it's usually back to 80% overnight. So I haven't had a need to upgrade yet, glad to know it will charge up in 3-4 hours though! The range usually says between 38-41 miles. In practice I usually get about 36-40.




Can't say I have the same experience with voice control, it never seems to understand me, especially when trying to use Addresses for Navigation. I tend to just use the MyBMW App to send the trip to the car before taking off.




I also own a M440i, while the brakes on the X5 aren't as good as the M440i or my previous F80 M3, they feel much better than the "stock" non-M-Sport package brakes. I personally don't have any complaints here.



Have to completely disagree on this one. To me Alcantara feels cheap, reminds me of my Civic Si I suppose. But I love the feel of the smooth leather and to me, definitely feels more upscale than what comes on my F-150 Platinum. But this is all subjective.



Its pretty easy to switch profiles, once you find the menu option.



I feel Ford has the best implementation of "cooled" seats, so that's pretty much by baseline. I snowbird between TX and CO so I know heat and cold. The X5 seat ventilation does help in hot climates, its noticeable improvement especially if you easily sweat. If you live in a more mild climate it probably won't make much difference.
This being my first massaging seats outside of Ford, I would say these seats have a noticeable improvement over Ford's implementation. For trips longer than 1 hour I use it and feel less fatigue than without. They aren't "spa" like massages, but it is enough to feel a difference, to me. I would definitely option them again!



Agreed, the AC is definitely much louder in relation to the air output.



The BMW builtin Navigation is very good. I stopped using CarPlay completely. I use the built in Spotify app, which starts playing music pretty much as soon as you open the door (CarPlay takes forever to start up and sometimes won't even auto play my music). I just join my phone using "the OG" bluetooth method, mainly only for the rare call I get. IMO the experience is so much better than CarPlay and offers way more information. The search is very fast (but this my be different depending on the cell signal your car gets) and the alt routes is super easy to use. I do miss the crowd sourced information Waze has, but I don't miss the app instability (frozen screen for miles and missing exits as a result).

Overall great write up of the 50e!

These are great additional perspectives. Appreciate the input! Always beneficial to hear additional points of views and experiences!

[David3]

Nice write-up and I generally agree. My additions to your comments (I also have the 50e, highly optioned, in Carbon Black over Cognac):

1. Really love the 50e for around town driving (we have over 2k miles on ours, but it is currently in for service as are many others). We are averaging 112mpge...wow! We (I say we because it is supposed to be my wife's car, but I drive it a lot) predominately drive in electric mode around town.

2. The air suspension was really the deciding factor in purchasing the 50e. We pull around a small Airstream trailer with our F15 (with air suspension) and really like that the vehicle sits level with a loaded hitch. I love the ride over our F15...way smoother and makes the RFT a non issue.

3. We did PCD (factory delivery) and had a 1700 mile ride home so I used DAP a lot! I have retrofitted hands free driving in our F15, so it was not much of a change (other than higher speed). What I really don't like is the 4 second window of inattention. You cannot even study the nav map in the instrument cluster without a warning to pay attention. Eventually you learn to ignore the warning until the car starts to slow down and apply the brakes in the middle of the fast lane on the highway.

4. The parking package is cool. I even used the remote phone feature to get the car out of a tight space. But, the recorded path does not work for me either because our driveway is too steep (a published limitation)...darn! I also experienced the steering angle to sharp message. The automatic parallel and back-in feature works great.

5. Driver profile confusion bugged the living c**p out of us the entire drive home and still does. The proximity lock/unlock is flat annoying if you walk by your car often (i.e. in the garage or driveway). We turned it off after 2 days.

6. I like the gesture controls. It takes some learning to make it reliable, but once you get it, it works well. My advice: slow your gestures waaaay down...makes a big improvement.

7. Love "hey BMW" (voice control) for inputting navigation destinations and it works amazingly well. Other than that, don't use it much.

8. I agree, the volume knob is lazy and annoying...simply stupid. Consequently, I don't use the knob and use gesture or the steering wheel.

9. I don't ever really charge my iphone during the day, so the wireless pad does not get used. But, on our trip I immediately notice the cup holder interfering with the retrieval of the phone. Oh well, not a big deal and like not having cords lying around.

10. Messaging seats were a must for my wife. All of our recent past BMW's have had it. I like the additional settings and the feature keeps my back from hurting over the long haul. The cooled seats work no better or worse than our F10 (now gone) and F15.

11. If you turn the rear a/c off, the overall noise level goes WAY down and the front air volume goes way up...try it if you have not already done so. No different than our F15.

12. I had soft close doors on F10...pointless feature that annoyed me when someone slammed my door.

We love our Carbon Black/Cognac M sport. Cannot wait to get it back.

[gadgetfreak2024]

Originally Posted by David3

Nice write-up and I generally agree. My additions to your comments (I also have the 50e, highly optioned, in Carbon Black over Cognac):

1. Really love the 50e for around town driving (we have over 2k miles on ours, but it is currently in for service as are many others). We are averaging 112mpge...wow! We (I say we because it is supposed to be my wife's car, but I drive it a lot) predominately drive in electric mode around town.

2. The air suspension was really the deciding factor in purchasing the 50e. We pull around a small Airstream trailer with our F15 (with air suspension) and really like that the vehicle sits level with a loaded hitch. I love the ride over our F15...way smoother and makes the RFT a non issue.

3. We did PCD (factory delivery) and had a 1700 mile ride home so I used DAP a lot! I have retrofitted hands free driving in our F15, so it was not much of a change (other than higher speed). What I really don't like is the 4 second window of inattention. You cannot even study the nav map in the instrument cluster without a warning to pay attention. Eventually you learn to ignore the warning until the car starts to slow down and apply the brakes in the middle of the fast lane on the highway.

4. The parking package is cool. I even used the remote phone feature to get the car out of a tight space. But, the recorded path does not work for me either because our driveway is too steep (a published limitation)...darn! I also experienced the steering angle to sharp message. The automatic parallel and back-in feature works great.

5. Driver profile confusion bugged the living c**p out of us the entire drive home and still does. The proximity lock/unlock is flat annoying if you walk by your car often (i.e. in the garage or driveway). We turned it off after 2 days.

6. I like the gesture controls. It takes some learning to make it reliable, but once you get it, it works well. My advice: slow your gestures waaaay down...makes a big improvement.

7. Love "hey BMW" (voice control) for inputting navigation destinations and it works amazingly well. Other than that, don't use it much.

8. I agree, the volume knob is lazy and annoying...simply stupid. Consequently, I don't use the knob and use gesture or the steering wheel.

9. I don't ever really to charge my iphone during the day, so the wireless pad does not get used. But, on our trip I immediately notice the cup holder interfering with the retrieval of the phone. Oh well, not a bid deal and like not having cords lying around.

10. Messaging seats were a must for my wife. All of our recent past BMW's have had it. I like the additional settings and the feature keeps my back from hurting over the long haul. The cooled seats work no better or worse than our F10 (now gone) and F15.

11. If you turn the rear a/c off, the overall noise level goes WAY down and the front air volume goes way up...try it if you have not already done so. No different than our F15.

12. I had soft close doors on F10...pointless feature that annoyed me when someone slammed my door.

We love our Carbon Black/Cognac M sport. Cannot wait to get it back.

Great additional points. Fun to see where our experiences overlap and where they diverge. I’m always learning from reading how others make the most of their vehicles here. Thanks for sharing! Sorry you don’t currently have your vehicle! I’m just continuing to cross my fingers I somehow escape with a June 7 production vehicle…

[David3]

The cool thing is that we get to experience idrive 8 then a few months later get a major upgrade to 8.5. Sort of like getting a new car again. I suspect it will improve your indifference to the HVAC controls being on the screen. That part does not really both us with 8.0

I'm a tech lover, and DIY'er. But, this car is still a bit overwhelming and proving to have a long learning curve.

[gadgetfreak2024]

Originally Posted by David3

The cool thing is that we get to experience idrive 8 then a few months later get a major upgrade to 8.5. Sort of like getting a new car again. I suspect it will improve your indifference to the HVAC controls being on the screen. That part does not really both us with 8.0

I'm a tech lover, and DIY'er. But, this car is still a bit overwhelming and proving to have a long learning curve.

That’s my hope too — that 8.5 will be a nice usability upgrade and fun to get to learn. I’m looking at it sort of like how I enjoy updating iOS every year and experiencing the new tools and toys. It’s also why I was super focused on whether pre-July production vehicles were going to have the right hardware.

So now I’m just trying to figure out how to I convince my SA to give me the update. Will see what I can finagle, now that the knee airbag recall is official here in the US.

[Lionel Hutz]

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

Glad it helped. I think the premium + sun shades would have gotten us 99%+ of the benefit we got from the Exec package, and saved a bit of money. I think the only part I might have missed would be the crystal iDrive controller. But day-to-day, would I really have noticed if I never had it in the first place? Probably not…

Yeah, I strongly dislike the crystal start/stop and gear selector rocker. Don't really want soft-close and am ambivalent about the fancy LED sunroof. So even saving some $ aside the premium is better for me.

[aaaaaaaaaz]

Originally Posted by Jongp3

I don't use an L2 charger yet, I've only been using the 120v Flex Charger. My charge times to 0-80% is about 20-22 hours. But generally I only put 10-20 miles on trips and it's usually back to 80% overnight. So I haven't had a need to upgrade yet, glad to know it will charge up in 3-4 hours though! The range usually says between 38-41 miles. In practice I usually get about 36-40.

A very low-cost upgrade is to buy a 12A 120v charger (as opposed to 10A max for the included charger) - almost any brand charger would work, just check if it supports 12A. On FB marketplace or similar it cost probably $100 and you get 20% faster charging speed.

[jad03060]

Check to see if the wiring to where you want to plug it in is 14g or 12g. If it's 12g, even if the breaker is 15A, (usually, depending on what else is in there) you can change it to a 20A one, and using the 80% rule, you could go to a 16A device, or 60% faster than the 10A unit.

[apw2607]

I owned a 2009 E70 diesel and the steering was absolutely perfect. But by todays standards everyone would immediately complain it takes too much effort to turn the steering wheel. The F15 I have now, the steering is pretty light and I suspect the G05 50e I’ve ordered, steering will be again worse. I guess that’s progress.

[rundeyvoo]

Great writeup, thanks for sharing!

[SwissBeemer]

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

I wish 4-wheel steering (IAS in BMW parlance) was available. I absolutely would have chosen that. I have to do a lot of backing up and maneuvering around and it’s a shame it wasn’t available at the time we ordered.

People on the German forum are complaining a lot about this and some are even willing to wait until next year to get a car that has it but there was someone the other day that said his dealer confirmed to him that IAS will actually never be available in the G05 again. To be honest I don't miss it on my 7-series that is a full 30cm (~12 inches) longer than the X5 although I'd have optioned it if it was available.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

I don’t really like the surface of the steering wheel. It feels kind of cheap, even though the wheel is nice and chunky. I wish they had some sort of grippier material to give it a more premium feel — particularly since that is the primary surface with which you interact. This is where Alcantara would have been really nice — but maybe it doesn’t wear well?

Alcantara does not wear well at all. On some cars it already looks disgusting after 10.000 miles.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

Soft close doors are worthless in our family. No one remembers they are there and everyone just closes the doors the same way we’ve been closing car doors for years. To be clear, you basically need to remember to almost close the door all the way, and then it will pull it closed gently for the last quarter or half inch. Now if it was like the i7’s automatic doors, that would be another matter. But these feel like paying for a feature that we will get near-zero benefit from and requires all of us to overcome muscle memory.

I think you will get used to it very quickly. For us it's actually the other way round: After driving our 7-series with soft-close for 3 years we can't close a car door properly anymore. We'd really miss this feature and love being able to close the door quietly or when carrying something that prohibits "throwing" the door to just push it so it makes contact with the car and is being pulled shut. So much so that when my dealer said it might get cancelled on my X5 due to the shortages I told him that I would reject the delivery then. Thankfully it wasn't cancelled in the end.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

Alcantara is nice, but probably was a waste, since you can only get in the dark gray. Every now and then I notice it, but from the driver’s seat, you don’t see many covered surfaces other than the A-pillars, and at that, you kind of really have to look to notice the different fabric. I don’t have Alcantara on the 2011 and I’m totally fine with the fabric in that vehicle. Still looked premium to me.

Interesting to read. Bought my 7-Series used and didn't care for this feature until I saw it in real life and said my next car absolutely needs to have this. It makes it feel SO much more luxurious. Althought my 7-series not having a sunroof and therefore having a huge ceiling might have something to do with it. As far as I remember the G05 LCI doesn't have Alcantara on the part that covers the sunroof and if the cover is open there's a lot less real estate with this material.

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

Gesture controls are fun, but kind of gimmicky. We usually forget they are there and they are a bit hit or miss in terms of being picked up. And sometimes my wife, as a passenger, will gesture something and suddenly the volume is accidentally cranked up. I’ll have to give some more thought to what the best use of the customizable gestures are, and maybe it’ll get more use over time.

Haven't seen a single review where this isn't just annoying. I've turned it off immediately in my 7-series.

Thanks for the in-depth review!

[gadgetfreak2024]

Originally Posted by apw2607

I owned a 2009 E70 diesel and the steering was absolutely perfect. But by todays standards everyone would immediately complain it takes too much effort to turn the steering wheel. The F15 I have now, the steering is pretty light and I suspect the G05 50e I’ve ordered, steering will be again worse. I guess that’s progress.

Yeah, I'm sure we are in the minority in our preference for the weightiness -- and it's just sound business for manufacturers to cater to the masses. I wish the "Sport" setting added more perceived heft, but honestly, I don't think I can tell the difference between Normal and Sport. Sometimes I accidentally end up in Electric (normal steering) vs. Electric Individual (sport steering) and I have no idea, other than noticing the different gauge layout or seeing some other non-steering related tell.

[gadgetfreak2024]

Originally Posted by SwissBeemer

Alcantara does not wear well at all. On some cars it already looks disgusting after 10.000 miles.

I suspected that may be the case. Maybe I just have to wear the steering wheel in a bit to the point it feels a bit grippier.

Originally Posted by SwissBeemer

I think you will get used to it very quickly. For us it's actually the other way round: After driving our 7-series with soft-close for 3 years we can't close a car door properly anymore. We'd really miss this feature and love being able to close the door quietly or when carrying something that prohibits "throwing" the door to just push it so it makes contact with the car and is being pulled shut. So much so that when my dealer said it might get cancelled on my X5 due to the shortages I told him that I would reject the delivery then. Thankfully it wasn't cancelled in the end.

Going to try to make a concerted effort to remember to take advantage. But I suspect my wife and kids have no interest in changing their habits and overcoming that muscle memory. Glad you all like them.

Originally Posted by SwissBeemer

Interesting to read. Bought my 7-Series used and didn't care for this feature until I saw it in real life and said my next car absolutely needs to have this. It makes it feel SO much more luxurious. Althought my 7-series not having a sunroof and therefore having a huge ceiling might have something to do with it. As far as I remember the G05 LCI doesn't have Alcantara on the part that covers the sunroof and if the cover is open there's a lot less real estate with this material.

You are correct that it doesn't cover the sunroof cover. So either we have a large swath of roof that is glass, or a large swath that is fabric (non-Alcantara) cover. I definitely don't mind the look of the Alcantara, and agree that it does have a bit more of a "luxurious" look to it. But for us, on 99 our of 100 drives, no one is noticing it's there. Just our experience, of course.

[TurtleBoy]

Originally Posted by gadgetfreak2024

I suspected that may be the case. Maybe I just have to wear the steering wheel in a bit to the point it feels a bit grippier.
.

I don't know if it applies to the LCI, or depends on packages, but at one point in time they changed the steering wheel so it was no longer leather wrapped but rather used sensatec or some other fake leather. I had a loaner with it and it really felt bad/cheap. I would imagine with some wear that it would start feeling better.

[Lionel Hutz]

Originally Posted by TurtleBoy

I don't know if it applies to the LCI, or depends on packages, but at one point in time they changed the steering wheel so it was no longer leather wrapped but rather used sensatec or some other fake leather. I had a loaner with it and it really felt bad/cheap. I would imagine with some wear that it would start feeling better.

The cover on the LCI msport wheel felt kind of cheap. Very "dry" feeling. I have to assume it will get better as it breaks in. I thought the base steering wheel material actually felt nicer.

[gadgetfreak2024]

Originally Posted by Lionel Hutz

The cover on the LCI msport wheel felt kind of cheap. Very "dry" feeling. I have to assume it will get better as it breaks in. I thought the base steering wheel material actually felt nicer.

I agree. I don’t know what the material is but it doesn’t feel particularly premium whatever the case may be. Hoping it improves with age.