An example of news that is no news. I'd rather have them release a patch that allows us to remotely start our vehicles and beat their chests over that accomplishment. It was -15F here this morning, I hate running out starting the car and then popping back into the house.
My understanding is the Remote Ventilation option is available 2014's and newer via the phone app. Unfortunately the last thing I'd want to do is cool the car down even more. The app should be handy in the warmer months but unless it starts the car heater it's not much use in the northern climates at this time of year.
It mentions it will activate auxiliary heating, but in the fine print it points out you must have the 'optional equipment item auxiliary heating'.
I set an Activate time for later today, lets see if turns on my steering wheel and seat heaters. If it does, that's reasonable substitute for remote start.
The BMW Remote app will only ventilate in the US and Canada. It will not heat, cool, or turn on your seat heaters or steering wheel heat. In Europe, it may activate an auxiliary heater, if installed.
I've found that the seat heaters and steering wheel heat "usually" make an acceptable substitute for a remote starter. However, given the 40"/102cm of snow which I have been blessed with in the last ten days, I'm not happy with the windshield defroster. The ability to remote start and blast the windshield with 20 minutes of defrost would have helped with some of the interior fogging issues that I've recently experienced.
My opinion on "usually" may change in a few days, when I'm expecting a -5F/-21C morning.
On very cold mornings with a small amount of ice on the windshield (just outside the driver's side wiper arc), I also experience interior fogging problems in the upper part of the windshield but it is distracting because it is in front of the drivers face. Never had this issue on any other car. Putting the HVAC system in full defog sometimes even has a hard time clearing the moisture; it seems like there is not a good even distribution of air over the interior of the windshield. When the system is in "Auto" and I push the buttons on the left to manually direct some air flow to the windshield, the system does not stay in auto and fan speed now becomes a manually controlled item too. So, for an automatic system, there ends up being a lot of manual control directing air to the windshield to clear the fog and then putting it back to auto until the fog reappears a short time later. My Lexus RX350 that I had up here two years ago (and I hate driving) was much better behaved in this regard.
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