Finally got my 535i!!!! 1st BMW observation

[EJSDad]

Man!!! This is my first BMW and all I can say is wow!!! This is a far departure from my 03 Yukon. The wait was painful but I enjoyed driving it home last night. I was not able to do PC but I will schedule a driving school. If it wasn't raining today I'd post some pics. It feels so smooth. I didn't notice any turbo lag. However this is my first car with turbo. There is a definite power difference between the 530 and 535. I'm glad I waited. The power is excellent. I can only imagine what the 550 feels like. I-drive is a bit confusing but with time I'm sure it will all come together. The base audio is fine to me. The bass could be a bit tighter and not so boomy but that is not enough to justify Logic 7 IMO. The comfort seats are amazing. A few members mentioned that German horses are bigger than Japanese horses. I was skeptical about that statement because HP is a unit of measure such as temperature, torque and RPM. No one says degrees Farenheit in Canada are smaller than degrees Farenheit in the states. Well according to my gluteus dyno I will have to agree German Horses are either bigger or they hide a couple extra in there when QA isn't looking. The Lexus GS350 is rated at 303 hp and it is not as strong. I almost bought the GS. I had to choose between waiting for the 5 or getting a decked out GS off the lot. Fit and finish is beyond anything I have had previously. Excuse my inexperience here but the RFT's feel fine to me. Thanx to everyone for the advice these last couple months.:D

[MacHappy]

Congrats and thanks for mini review. My wait is painfully slow but boat is due to arrive 6/11 and I'm anxious to finally meet my new 535xi. I've previously driven the X5 (2002 I think it was) but my test drive of the 535 was a different, more comfortable experience.

How long was your wait from order to delivery? This is the first time I'm getting a car that wasn't in stock someplace. Patience is not my specialty!

[Tanin]

Excuse my inexperience here but the RFT's feel fine to me.

That statement shows me otherwise. Congrats for making statements on first person experience, not what you read or been told.

Yukon to 535 is quite a change. :thumbup: Welcome to the Roundel.

[Vitacura]

Very good choice! Can't wait to see pics!

[abe]

What made you pick the 5 over the GS?

[Bigdog]

Go drive them both any you will figure it out. A lexus just doesn't feel as sporty. The interior is to much like a toyota for me.

[iversonm]

A few members mentioned that German horses are bigger than Japanese horses.

There are 3 reasons the above is true:

1) Extensive work reducing the amount of rotating mass in the drivetrain,
2) Lower unsprung weight,
3) Less overall weight on the car through the use of Aluminium and other fancy engineering tricks,

and (for those Monty Python fans)

4) an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope! No! There are 4 main reasons...

[hormazd]

Its not the HP that is different, it is where and how it is measured. BMW measures HP where the rubber meets the road as opposed to the flywheel.

The new RFs are greatly improved with a more compliant side wall. I can verify with my short drive in a 535 with RFs that it was very smooth.

[SteVTEC]

1) Extensive work reducing the amount of rotating mass in the drivetrain,
2) Lower unsprung weight,
3) Less overall weight on the car through the use of Aluminium and other fancy engineering tricks,
This does help with acceleration and it does help them dyno well, but it doesn't mean you have more than 225, 255, or 300 or whatever horsepower the engine is rated at. The less inertial mass you have to spin up, the more of the engine's power there is that can be devoted to actual acceleration. This helps with braking too. SAE J1349 crank power measurements are static measurements where no acceleration is involved and hence there is no inertial component.

Its not the HP that is different, it is where and how it is measured. BMW measures HP where the rubber meets the road as opposed to the flywheel.
This is not even the least bit true. Even the "underrated" 335/535i still only dynos at 270-275 rwhp stock. I think it's funny that people are claiming the engine really has 350hp based on some flakey automobilemag dynos when a legit 350hp GM LS1 engine dynos at 300-310 rwhp all day long. I've seen this repeated here before, and it just doesn't add up. An E46 330i with the M54 and 225 rated hp will dyno at about 200 rwhp. A 300hp N54 seems to dyno around 270 rwhp? I thought I remembered seeing an E39 M5 dyno at around 360 rwhp. I saw an E90 325i dyno at I think 199 rwhp with 215hp rated. I saw some E90 330i's with 255hp rated dynoing around 210-220 rwhp. These were coming in lower than expected, probably because of the enormously heavy RFT's. From a bit of a torque dip at high revs, it also looked like the engines might have been experiencing from timing retard at the top-end due to either hot weather, or 91 octane "cali piss water" fuel.

The Japanese tend to overrate products on almost anything they do whether you're talking about engines or cameras. For engines, they'll "cheat" and use a much lower amount of oil for less drag, "cheat" and use a non production spec "test" alternator and other engine accessories that have much lower drag as well, and "cheat" and test the engines on 93 octane fuel even though they'll only say that 87 octane is "required". They finally got busted a year or two ago when all of these loopholes got closed in the latest Aug 2004 revision of SAE J1349 and suddenly a "210hp" Camry was really only 190hp. :rofl:

The American/domestic manufacturers were never lying. In fact some of the ratings even went up. Ditto for the German/European makers. So that old saying about German cars being rated in horses and Japanese cars in ponies was really true afterall, only you can add American cars in with the Germans. :D I used to have a 200hp Accord and that thing was a sloth compared to a 200hp GM 3800 powered car. Of course, the 225 lb-ft of torque in the 3800 had a big say in that vs the 195 lb-ft rated (more like 185) in my Accord.

Speaking of which, that 300 lb-ft of torque below 2000 rpm will most definitely make the 535i feel quicker than the GS350 which has much less torque and at a higher RPM. This doesn't mean that a 535i will walk away from a GS350 flat-out at high speeds, though. Also, the shift pattern in Toyotas tends to be extreeeeemely conservative in favor of better gas mileage, which can also make even pretty powerful Toyota/Lexus cars feel pretty uninspiring. Just need to flip it over into Sport mode or manually shift. My wife drives a Toyota Highlander with the 3.0L, and it's not bad but not quick either. It doesn't really need the bigger 3.3L or 3.5L engines, though. What it needs is better gearing, and a secondary/sport mode shift map so that it'll actually let you get into and STAY in the powerband when you're on the gas. An in-law's ML350 (2004) is techically a lot slower, but "FEELS" more powerful and responsive because the gearing and shift mapping is tuned towards responsiveness instead of economy. BMW gets this right and hence they can get away with smaller and less powerful engines in cars that are more efficient yet "FEEL" just as responsive if not more so than other cars that are technically more powerful in a spec sheet sense.

Needless to say, there are a lot of games that engineers can play to give a car whatever kind of feel they want it to have. Lexus likes to advertise gigantic power numbers but then ends up dumbing their cars down with economy-castrated shift mapping and the cars don't feel like you think they should. BMW doesn't care about this, and also pays penalties to the EPA every year for not meeting fuel economy targets. This cost is built in to the price of your shiny new BMW, lol. :D

[iversonm]

This does help with acceleration and it does help them dyno well, but it doesn't mean you have more than 225, 255, or 300 or whatever horsepower the engine is rated at.


Absolutely correct. The engine makes its stated power, but *feels* more powerful when compared to other cars due to better powertrain and chassis engineering.

Thanks for explaining the issue with more eloquence than I could muster.

[M6OnTheWay]

Congrats on your new car!!! There is no going back after this...I love lexus prior to my first bmw, now...well I will always have a bimmer!!!

[aficionado]

There may or may not be turbo lag.

After 3 weeks, I have found the shifting to be agressive. This shifts from 1st to 2nd gear maybe around the sametime the turbo's are kicking in. Thus there may be a percieved turbo lag, when it's actually the shift points.

[jcatral14]

Congrats :)
You know of course that there is no going back :bigpimp:

[BIMMERUSAM5]

you gotta love the turbo!!!! Congrats:thumbup:

[BruceOmega]

Does anyone know if the 535i / 535xi come with an oil cooler from the factory?

Thanks
Bruce

[gweiden]

Does anyone know if the 535i / 535xi come with an oil cooler from the factory?

Thanks
Bruce


Yes it does. Click on the following post for more information: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=201156&highlight=oil+cooler

[BruceOmega]

Yes it does. Click on the following post for more information: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=201156&highlight=oil+cooler

Thank you!

[550Mocap]

Congrats, I'm sure you'll love it. Can't wait for my 550 to come in!!!!!

[SouthBayM5]

Congrats! Great review on a great car. I know how you feel, we love our new 535xi wagon.