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Review after 5 days

19K views 54 replies 24 participants last post by  krash 
#1 ·
Ok, I have had my car for 5 days now. Here's a review.

Modes and DHP: Very cool. You basically have 3 different cars. Each with a unique set of performance and suspension characteristics.

  • ECO Mode: I never thought I'd use this, but it's perfect for bumper to bumper rush hour traffic. I use this every day, but beware, in ECO mode, the car is just not very thrilling to drive at all. That's by design. It's designed to save fuel. I call it the Toyota Prius mode. But during rush hour traffic, it's not like I can go anywhere fast anyway...
  • Comfort Mode: Very nice. Perfect for driving around town, perfect for a quick trip to the super market. I call this the Acura TL mode, but in all fairness, even in comfort mode, the F30 is still much tighter and much firmer than a TL.
  • Sport Mode / Sport Mode +: Awesome. Just awesome. You just have to experience it yourself. This is what I use on roads where I can let it rip. My E90 335 never performed so good. Sport mode keeps the engine revving for sudden burst of acceleration. Speed is not just about 0 to 60. I am talking about acceleration across the entire band. 30 to 60. 20 to 50. 10 to 40. 50 to 70. WOW! JUST WOW! In terms of handling, I will never take this car on a track, but honestly, on the open road, it's as good or better than the E90. I really don't get how people could say otherwise. It's definitely not inferior to the E90. That's for sure.

Transmission: 8 Speed Sport with paddle shifters is a HUGE improvement over the base E90 335 Steptronic. HUGE! The 8 Speed is the fastest transmission I ever had. Overall performance is exhilarating in the Sport modes. Even though the E90 335 was wicked fast, there was always that lag I didn't like because of the Steptronic transmission. Keep in mind, I'm obviously only comparing the E90 6 Speed Step with the F30 8 Speed Sport. Manual transmissions aren't applicable here...

Engine: I already talked a lot about performance, but yeah, the 6 is lots of fun. 300 HP! Very cool! Acceleration is exhilarating. Nothing really to add...

Sport Seats: Jury still out. I obviously still need to fool around with the settings some more. One thing is for sure, I can see how a much bigger person would absolutely hate these things. I'm about 5'10" 175 lbs, and I feel like I am having a hard time squeezing into these. I am beginning to think that these sport seats might turn out to be the one thing I don't like about this car.

ASS: After reading all the negative reviews on the 'Fest, I expected the worse, but after experiencing it firsthand, it just isn't that horrible (IMHO). I definitely see no need to re-program it. I just leave it on all the time. Honestly, it's not that bad.

Steering: I read a lot of reviews asserting that the E90 had superior steering qualities, but keep in mind, that's subjective and opinion, it's not fact. Just like with ASS, after reading all the negative reviews, I expected the worse, but the steering is fine. Keep in mind, I have DHP -- so folks without DHP might experience something totally different. However, I really like the variable sport steering that comes with DHP and how it adapts to different situations. The steering feels perfect to me.

HK Sound System: Sounds great. 16 Speakers, 600 Watts. What do you expect? I took some of the advice I read on the 'Fest. I adjusted the fader to the back speakers ever so slightly. That really does improve it. However, I decided to leave surround sound turned on. I also set bass, treble and the EQ flat. I just like it better that way. I was listening to Dream Theater the other night, and it sounded fantastic. Of course, Sirius sounds like crap, and that was expected, because Sirius always sounds like crap no matter what kind of car or sound system you have. I still listen to Sirius a lot anyway…Lots of good programming.

NAV & iDrive: Excellent. I just love how I can email an address or POI from Google to the car. It's just fantastic! Perfect example is that I was looking at a college for my son on the internet. We're going to visit the campus 2 weeks from now. From Google, I simply just clicked on the address in Maps, and sent it right to my car. 2 weeks from now, when we get in the car to go, I can just pull it up in messages, click on it, and we're all set. How cool is that? I also like the much bigger screen in the F30 relative to the E90. In terms of iDrive in general, I've been a fan since the beginning. No complaints there at all...

Rear View Camera: This is going to be a controversial statement, but this might be one of the biggest improvements the F30 offers over the E90. Rear camera is really nice; especially in conjunction with PDC. I also like how it kicks in automatically when you're pulling into the garage. You don't have to be in reverse for it to kick in. Very nice.

Instrumentation & Controls: Generally speaking, it's very similar, and almost identical to the E90 in a lot of ways. The 2 extra programmable buttons is a nice bonus. I do like the 4 dial layout better than the 2 dial layout that was in the E90. I also like the extra sport dials you get in sport mode: HP and Torque. Very cool! In terms of HUD, I like it. I'm not as passionate about it as others, but I like it.

Fit, finish, quality of materials: Very very good. Not as opulent as a 535, but still very good…

Comfort Access: It's basically the same as the E90 comfort access, but also includes hands free trunk opening. This is a nice feature because I throw my laptop in the trunk when going to and from work. I haven't had too many problems with this yet. Only exception was Thursday after work. Not sure why, but it just didn't open…Plus, I sort of looked goofy trying to get it to work. People were looking at me like I was some kind of moron. I finally just opened it manually, but it has worked fine since then.

Lighting package: It comes standard with the 335 and is basically the same as what we got on the E90, but I just felt it necessary to say how much I love it.

Overall, after 5 days, no regrets at all. I'm loving it.
:roundel:
 
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#3 ·
Yes, that's exactly what happens. As long as I have PDC activated, it automatically kicks in when I pull into the garage. That was a very pleasant surprise. I didn't expect it to work like that. Plus, I really need it because I got so much crap in my garage...

The PDC button is right below the driving mode button on the center console. Just push it to turn it on.
 
#4 ·
:)Interesting comment about the sport seats. As we age I think we like our clothing and our seats to be less form fitting.:rofl: My wife, size 10, says the sport seats in my Audi are too firm and too tight. Funny she doesn't complain about the sport seats in my Z4 but then again we often don't drive very far in the roadster.

Hopefully over time you will adjust to them or they will adjust to you.
 
#5 ·
:)Interesting comment about the sport seats. As we age I think we like our clothing and our seats to be less form fitting.:rofl: My wife, size 10, says the sport seats in my Audi are too firm and too tight. Funny she doesn't complain about the sport seats in my Z4 but then again we often don't drive very far in the roadster.

Hopefully over time you will adjust to them or they will adjust to you.
I'm thinking the age has a lot to do with it.
:thumbup:
 
#14 ·
....Overall, after 5 days, no regrets at all. I'm loving it.
:roundel:
Great write-up! I still feel great about my F30 also after 4 months.
 
#17 ·
Can someone explain the steps for sending an address from google to the car? Haven't been able to figure out how to do this.
 
#18 ·
Gotta have a BMW assist account.

1. Search for the address in google.

2. Click on the map.

3. Click on the pink A that is your address on the google map

4. Click on the hyperlink that says more

5. Click send

6. Click car

7. Select BMW from the dropdown that says make

8. Type in the email address used for your BMW assist account IN ALL CAPS

9. Click send
 
#20 ·
Sport Seats: Jury still out. I obviously still need to fool around with the settings some more. One thing is for sure, I can see how a much bigger person would absolutely hate these things. I'm about 5'10" 175 lbs, and I feel like I am having a hard time squeezing into these. I am beginning to think that these sport seats might turn out to be the one thing I don't like about this car.
I was thinking the same thing when I first sat in a sports line car at a dealer. Then I found the bolster adjustment and then all was well. :D
 
#41 ·
I haven't lived with the ASS, so I may not be the best to comment. However, I drove a 2013 for over 500 miles so I did get to try it.

I am sure I will get used to it, but my complaint is that it is not very smooth or "BMW-like." Sometimes the car gives a odd shutter when it shuts down, and more often when it starts up. It's like starting a car that is in gear (back when you could do that) and it lurches a bit before taking off smoothly. I think it probably works better with a 6MT because the engine re-starts when you push in the clutch (and it's not in gear yet) rather than with an auto when you actually feel it lurch a bit.
 
#46 ·
Whether or not ASS is a good thing, I'm pretty sure we all agree that not remembering your last choice is a bad thing. I could see using ASS in heavy stop and go traffic - why not? And yet for all the reasons given here, I can see why it isn't a good thing in a lot of circumstances. Why not just let us choose the default?

That's why I intend to re-program it so it remembers my last setting.
 
#47 ·
Thought I read one of the conditions that disables ASS is heavy stop & go traffic?

Anyhoo, I agree that there should be a way to toggle 'remember last setting' for several features in system settings. I imagine they wanted to present as few customizations to the user as possible to reduce customer confusion & technical support requests.
 
#48 ·
Krash, how have your tires responded to the power? Do you have the all-season or the summer performance in your car? I ordered a very similar vehicle (sitting at the port waiting to be shipped), and I'm nervous that my 225 width all-seasonals aren't going to be up to the task. I know Sport+ will disable a good amount of traction control....but if a Lexus IS 350 pulls up next to me at a light, are my tires going to handicap me?
 
#49 · (Edited)
I have Continental ContiSportContact 5 SSRs on my car, 18" Summer performance tires.

I wanted the all-seasons, believe it or not, but I never specified that. It just came with the summer performance tires. At first, I was little annoyed, but I didn't complain.

I always have the option of not driving my car in the snow. I can always take my wife's SUV to work. She's a stay-at-home mom, plus, I always have the option of working from home if snow is in the forecast anyway. So I have no plans to put snow tires on the car at all...

So far, so good. Performance is outstanding. When I'm in sport mode, and driving on a suitable road, it's just awesome. No complaints at all. At this point, I am really glad that I got these tires; especially with the nice weather on the way.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=ContiSportContact+5+SSR
 
#50 ·
I originally ordered the all-seasons (I live in northern Ohio), but changed my mind two days after I placed the order due to realization of the high speed limiter and worries of inhibited traction from a stoplight with the all-seasons. Well, I guess they put it into production so quickly that there was no way to change the order. Oh well. My wife is a stay-at-home mom with an SUV (Acura MDX) as well, but she uses her car too much for me to rely on it lol!
 
#51 ·
I really don't know a lot about the different types of tires that these cars come with. I asked my CA if I have all-seasons or summer performance. He said summer performance.

I wasn't even sure I believed him until I did a google search when I got home, and sure enough, it says ContiSportContact 5 SSR(Max Performance Summer) on all the internet sites.
 
#52 ·
I disagree with you comments about sport mode.

My 2013 335i replaces my beloved 2011 335 that met a tragic end. After two weeks with this car, I am honestly bored. It's like driving an E90 with a condom on. Yes, the gadgets are nicer, but the build feels cheaper, and the road feel is a big step down in my opinion.

As far as DHP is concerned, the car has to be in Sport to be tolerable, I can't imagine what I would use comfort or Eco for?
 
#55 · (Edited)
Comfort mode is fine for driving around the neighborhood and in-and-around town. Just can't see driving around the cul-de-sac in sport mode....

ECO mode isn't really applicable for DHP.

Sport mode is great for letting it rip.

I had in E90 too. After several weeks with the F30 now, I do think I like the steering better in the E90. Overall, I like the F30 better, but I do sort of have a love / hate relationship with the new steering. Sometimes I really like it a lot, other times not so much. On straight-aways at high speed, I feel like it's a little vague. But other times, I think it's fantastic and spot on. I just think I need to spend more time with the car to get a better feeling of it.
 
#53 ·
Agree and I will echo you comments. I felt same after a 2 months in my 335xi
They say that Eco mode is good for highway but you are right it works well on slow bumper to bumber ride in traffic where you do not need that quick acceleration and saves gas. Also not to initiate far between 328 vs 335 but must say after driving both on same day 335 is much much fun in sports mode than 328. You have to drive 335 to understand what you are missing with 328 - although it is great car with turbo now but not as good as 335. People in 328 might disagree and you don't need that extra little torque but to have that BMW experince - ultimate driving machine you have try 335.
6 months now and loving it.:thumbup:
 
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