What was the issue with the transmission at low speeds?

Sports seats are terrible. My E36 had much more comfortable seats than these. Maybe comfort seats are better, but retrofitting doesn't seem that easy or cheap...

M-sport suspension and run flat tires need to go. Just throw them in a ditch somewhere...

Climate control seems perfect to me and I'm very picky about it. Maybe some sensor is playing tricks on you...

The steering depends on too many factors to just blame bmw. My F11 has really heavy steering. It needs a good amount of force to make it turn at not low speeds (I like it!). Another F10 I drove a while back, had ultra light steering and resembled your experience. Maybe it is alignment (I had mine checked/done at a bmw dealer), maybe it is the tires, maybe a faulty control module. The car going straight on good road can't make you certain of correct alignment...

 

7 series

 

125k miles in my 14' 535i 6spd. Multiple 7k+ trips all over the continent: CA - WA - BC - AB - MT - WY - CO - NM - AZ - CA - the most recent example. Car loves open road. It is quiet and competent with 704 MSport suspension. No RFT of course. HK plays decent music, comfort seats let me drive uninterrupted for 500 miles at a stretch. Gentle tap on the gas and it is in the jail speed range. What is not to like?

 

Agree to disagree. I think the F10 is light years ahead of other luxury cars in terms reliability, performance, quietness, comfort, usability and cost. ZF8 is fantastic. N55 is a hoot. 100k on my ’15 535 M-Sport which is now my wife’s car. Just got bored with it to be honest.

 

I solved most of your F10 problems with my F10:

1. Optional Zenon headlights
2. Optional Multi-Contour Seats.
3. Ditching the OE RFT's for non-RFT's. I carried an aftermarket spare tire on road trips even when I had the OE RFT's.
4. Dynamic Handling Package. (With the flip of a switch, I can drive a Buick or a Porsche.)

The ZF8 is about as good as it gets.

When you sit in a car seat for hours at a time, you realize that hard seat cushions are better than soft ones. Hard cushions maintain the seat's correct shape, and that maintains your back's correct shape. The BMW marketing twerps overruled the BMW human-factors engineers on this issue with the G30.

The ideal road trip vehicle depends on how many people are going on the trip. I buy cars for road trips and we're a two-person household. My next one will be either a G20 (current 3 Series) or a G60 (next 5 Series). I prefer the harder seats in the G20 (and my F10). We'll see what the G60's seats are like.

Passenger cars also punch a much smaller hole in the air than SUV's, and at interstate speeds that has a huge effect on fuel consumption. A 330i gets about 40 MPG at 75 MPH. Frau Putzer's X3 xDrive 30i only gets about 32 MPG at 75 MPH.

If a third or fourth person is coming along, the obvious solution would be an X7 40i with the optional captain's chairs in the back, and a trailer hitch receiver in case you need to carry luggage on one of those platforms. A 40i would still get MPG in the low-mid-20's at 75 MPH.

Or, this...

Whatever I get next, it will be leaving the dealership with non-run-flat tires. It will also have a spare tire under the flat trunk floor.

 

I swear by old Mercedes (W124, W140, W126) for long road trips.

(I have a 1991 250TD that has to be caned for any semblance of performance, but will hold +90mph for hours on end and give you nearly 600 miles per tank. This is from an anemic 2.5 liter naturally aspirated diesel. Acceleration is best measured with a calendar, but once it's going it runs and holds the road like a train.)

However I just did a 4000 mile round trip to Florida in my BMW a couple of months ago. The F10, on regular tires, with regular seats, is a superb long road trip vehicle. Dynamic shocks in comfort mode, stereo at "you are damaging your hearing listening to music this loud for this long" levels, AC at your preferred temperature. 30mpg averaging ~80mph.

Your biggest problem is the run flat tires, sports suspension, and sports seats.

 

Your biggest problem is the run flat tires, sports suspension, and sports seats.

^ This. My 3-series (a different "tier" of BMW) was not great on highways with its former RFTs. The car glides along nicely with go-flats and adaptive dampers set to comfort. I don't have any complaints with the sport seats, but I'm relatively young 👶

 

My wife just got a Chevrolet EUV full electric after her X3 was granddaughtered.
She loves how it zooms silently to speed and it has one pedal driving so when you ease back on the gas pedal the main battery gets charged up instead of generating brake dust.
No more brake jobs?
Life is good.

 

Every year I challenge Milady Wife navigator and travel agent to plan an itinerary with some 1,000 mile days (80+ MPH average X 12 hours).

 

I did I-95 through South Carolina at an average speed of 80 MPH once or twice. After twelve hours of driving, you'd be tires and punchy. Tired, punchy, and 80 MPH are a bad combination.

Due to a late start, I did Bubbaville Beach to N. Falmouth (Cape Cod), about 1500 miles without a real overnight stop. I'd sleep for a few hours in rest stops.

 

Scooters are slow suicide..

 

Scooters are Life is slow suicide..

Fixed that for you.

 

...

1. The seats, both front and rear, are absolutely terrible for anything longer than 2 hours at a time
2. The M-Sport suspension absolutely make the ride horrific on rough roads like those on I-40 East bound in AZ (What does AZ use their highway tax funds on? Highway road was so bad......)....
3. The new RTF tires were absolutely a PITA and I will never buy these again...and since their ride quality is based on keeping them "exactly" within 1PSI of the BMW pressure value, keeping them at the right tire pressure where there was a huge outside temperature differences, such as between Las Vegas and Flagstaff where in 1 day tires saw a 40F difference, was a PITA (but do-able)...which is not required for non-RTF's........
4. The cabin temperature, on "auto" climate mode was too cool at 70F, but too warm at 71F....a 1 degree extreme? Really? (and this was NOT due to solar loading - as this was an issue at night)

2 and 3 are messing each other out, with 1 contributing to it. Historically, German comfort is hard and well designed seats on a comfortable suspension and tires. Mess with the other two and you get what you get.
4 is very likely due to the outside temperature being very, very close to your interior temp setting. It's like that with pretty much all cars I've had (non-German ones). When its hot or cold outside, the car can set the interior temperature perfectly. The problem comes when it has to juggle between bringing heat from the engine - it can't do it in a refined enough way, and on top of it - it varies when you accelerate. You get puffs of hot air.
It could of course be something very different on a highly advanced HVAC like BMW's, but on more mundande cars - this is the reason. 72 farenheit is about the hardest temperature to maintain when the temperature is close outside.

 

I did a long trip in the F01 750i. Wasn't as comfortable as I expected. Combination of M sports suspension tune, 20" run flats and perhaps that it's getting a bit old. Air baggy things would certainly help. But it was still very nice to drive. Comfort seats have so many adjustments it's hard to get the thing perfect.

 

Love our G30 540i m-sport. RFT's will definitely get replaced upcoming summer. But as it is, plenty comfortable for a day-long trip.

 

I traveled F02 over 150k just on long hauls same over CA.NV, TX, CO, Utah, NM, Wyoming, WA, Oregon and Montana. I have arthritis in spinal and never issue. My last hail car had 210k at start and still great. Lights same as your at first but I use LED bulbs and helped a lot

 

I know I’m going to be in a minority with this opinion, but I recently purchased my second E46 M3 after having sold my first one seven years ago. I had forgotten how much I loved this platform. I find the the sport seats to be the most comfortable seats I’ve ever used. I can and have driven from Phoenix to Twin Falls ID in one day and while I wouldn’t recommend it, I was no worse the wear fort it. I’m nearly 70 years old and I’m driving it down to Phoenix for spring training. I think I have the best generation M3 ever made. I don’t want run flats, I love the sport suspension and I can get over 30mpg at 70mph. What’s not to love?

 

What BMW is an absolute "dream" for both the Driver and it's Passangers on long hauls? All opinions and flames welcome.​

Great article..... I did a last minute run from mid/northern British Columbia Canada straight through, no sleep to Phoenix in my E39 M5 and loved it... I wouldn't trust my E60 M5 for a run from one county to the next one adjoining it in the same state... what a huge difference.

Thanks for the posting.
Jen

 

+1 on the E39 M5. Comfiest seats I've ever felt. Great road trip car unless you run into stopNgo traffic.

 

7. The cabin temperature, on "auto" climate mode was too cool at 70F, but too warm at 71F....a 1 degree extreme? Really? (and this was NOT due to solar loading - as this was an issue at night)

I must ask…did you take advantage of the stratified air dial (or air slider for some of the newer BMWs which was moved into the selectable options when you press the IHKA’s MENU button)?

This is what BMW‘s stratified air feature is designed for. You can select the temp you want the car to be…but when situations change and you feel either too cold or too warm…you can move the stratified air selection to temper the air from the dash vents warmer or cooler.

This allows you not to have to keep changing the overall temp in the cabin…and allows you to just adjust the temp of the air blowing on you.

IHKA MENU button location if you don’t have the stratified air dial built into the dash’s center vent:

(Circled in yellow in 1st two pics below…depending on what your IHKA control panel looks like)

MENU button takes you to Heat/Vent selection for stratified temp adjustment

 

I must ask…did you take advantage of the stratified air dial (or air slider for some of the newer BMWs which was moved into the selectable options when you press the IHKA’s MENU button)? ....

Are you referring to the temperature thumbwheels? (circled in 1st picture)....If so, these are kept balanced between hot and cold - always...then there is the air flow vent wheel settings in the 2nd picture and typically set to position 3....

Also, my seats installed in my '14 F10 are ///M5 seats, and are comfortable for trips shorter than 2 hours - scooting around SoCal, but beyond that, not very comfortable (too hard).

Also, my transmission makes a faint, but annoying whining, that is audible during idle, and very slow speeds slower than 10 MPH...maybe I'll do a fluid flush, but maybe it's normal.

 

I had an E46 M3, bought new, which I kept 12.5 years and 115k miles. I kept accurate fuel records. On the interstate, even behaving, I'd only get 23 to 25 MPG. I broke 30 MPG once, on rural surface roads, no AC, and staying at 60 MPH or less.

A critical flaw as a road trip car was the lack of a spare tire. I bought a front full size tire as a spare. It pretty much took up the whole trunk. It was fine for one person, turning the back seat into a duffle bag storage area.

 

I used to think the f10, ours being a diesel, was the best long distance vehicle, even with RTFs. Now we prefer our f15 35d. Just got back from a 1000 round trip in the f15 and felt pretty decent, but it was only about 6.5 hours in the seat. Got out a couple of times for bio breaks and lunch.

 

what is an f-15 or an f-10? I've seen an F4 Phantom taking off with a full load of bombs during the vietnam war but i must assume you are not talking airplanes. this is a strange auto site. why can't everyone just tell it like it is? I mean... I have an 2021 X3M40i. What is that called..an F32456? I've been around cars all my life and never heard of an f10 or f15 until i started owning a bmw.

 

... I have an 2021 X3M40i. What is that called..an F32456?

A lot of BMW enthusiasts refer to their vehicles using the Chassis code, and then when refering to the engine, the engine code...and to complicate things further, BMW throws in a mid-cycle model update called a Life Cycle Impulse - more here (but pre-LCI and LCI have key parts that are not interchangeable)

So in your case, your 2021 is when the chassis, G01 (X3), was updated to an LCI, and in your case with a ///M40, it has an B58TU engine, or to be more exact, has an Engine Code key, B58B30M0, defined as:

1. the "B" = Standard Modular Engine
2. the "5" = inline 6
3. the "8" = TVDI
4. the "B" = Gas/longitudinal
5. the "30" = 3.0 liter
6. the "O" = Obure/upper power level
7. the "0" = Original Engine Revision

....probably more than you care to know...but still good to know.

 

Since they want to confuse many of us, I will simply call mine the moose-mobile jarhead edition.

 

Using the chassis nomenclature or the engine nomenclature helps with quick identification…especially when a model’s nomenclature has been around for decades.

If someone posts that they have a problem with their BMW 530i…that could be anything from a 1984 530i (w/M30 engine) or a 2021 530i (w/B46 engine). But if you include that you have an E34 530i…a BMW enthusiast immediately knows which chassis and generation 5 series you are referring to. Same if you were to say you have a G30 530i.

This doesn’t just happen with European cars…for example, the Corvette has been around for like 8 decades…and their enthusiast also use chassis nomenclature. This helps quickly identify if you have a 1958 ‘vette, or a 2023 ‘vette. They refer to them as C1, C2, C3, etc…which quickly indentifies which chassis and generation ‘vette that is being discussed.

 

Took my 2018 M4 CP 6M on an 8K mile trip late Sept thru Oct leaving SC, taking southern route to San Diego, up to Idaho, over to the UP of Michigan, back to SC. Great ride, no issues.

 

I never much cared for vettes due to some of their owner's mentalities.

 

One of the big demographics of Corvette owners is over 60 years old. Bubba Estates, like all of Floriduh, is full of retirees. There are a lot of Corvettes in garages here, hooked up to a battery charger... because it's painful for the older owners to get in and out of the cars with their bad knees.

My mother's cousin had a Corvette back in the late-1970's. She was going on a road trip with a friend, and another friend offered to swap out his E21 320i for the Corvette for the trip. The Corvette owner fell in love with the 320i, because it was comfortable, had a big trunk, and got reasonable fuel economy... a car for the real world.

 

Personally speaking, I think vettes are ugly.

 

Two trips to compare in two different BMW. Miami to NY and back in 2019 330i. 19” wheels with run flats. Avg speed 80mph, avg fuel economy 39 mpg. I say it’s pretty good. Now just did another trip in 2023 X3. 20” wheels with run flats. Same speeds, but fuel economy was just around 29 mpg. But ride in X3 was much more comfortable than 330i.

 

Two trips to compare in two different BMW. Miami to NY and back in 2019 330i. 19” wheels with run flats. Avg speed 80mph, avg fuel economy 39 mpg. I say it’s pretty good. Now just did another trip in 2023 X3. 20” wheels with run flats. Same speeds, but fuel economy was just around 29 mpg. But ride in X3 was much more comfortable than 330i.

That's about what I've seen with loaner 330i's and Frau Putzer's X3 xDrive 30i. I saw 32 MPG on about 75 miles of rural interstate, at 75 MPH in the X3, but I had a tail wind.

Aerodynamic drag is equal to:

Cd A (1/2) ρ v^2

where:

Cd is the drag coefficient
A is the cross-sectional area
ρ is the density of air
v is velocity

Cd x A is referred to as the "drag area," Ad

For the X3 30i, the drag coefficient is 0.32 and the cross-sectional area is 2.65 m^2 (square meters), resulting in a drag area of 0.848 m^2.

Specs 2023 BMW X3 xDrive30i (aut. 8) (automobile-catalog.com)

For the 330i sedan, the drag coefficient is 0.26 and the cross-sectional area is 2.22 m^2, resulting in a drag area of 0.577 m^2.

Specs 2023 BMW 330i (aut. 8) (automobile-catalog.com)

So, the 330i sedan's aerodynamic drag force is only 68% (0.577 / 0.848) that of the X3 30i.

From the aerodynamic drag equation, aerodynamic drag is proportional to square of velocity. So, if you slowed down to 75 MPH from 80 MPH, your aerodynamic drag would be reduced by 12% ((75/80)^2 = 0.88).

Those run-flat-tires cost you about 1% in fuel economy.

With non-run-flat tires and dialing the speed back to 75 MPH, it's possible to crack 40 MPG on the interstate in a 330i.

The current Putzer fleet is a 2014 535i and a 2018 X3 xDrive 30i. My 535i's window for replacement (10 to 12 years) is coming up in 15 months. I'm planning on getting either a 330i or a G60 (next generation 5 Series) 530i. SUV's are handy as all get out, but we only need one of them, and I don't need to be punching those large holes in the air on long road trips.

I'm waiting for BMW NA to bring back the front passenger power lumbar adjustment on the 330i. If not, that will stretch out the service life of my 535i until BMW gets all the bugs out of the G60... or I'll get a Mercedes-Benz. BMW NA's finally brought back the front passenger power lumbar adjustment on the X3 30i (with ventilated seats and leather). They now need to do it on the 330i.