Thought some of you might appreciate some 530d musings now I'm 6 weeks in.
I like this car. It's definitely not another 335i, that thing was a disaster. The interior for me is the best bit - I love absolutely everything about the way the interior looks. It's a wonderful place to be, all the controls are perfectly laid out, the 10.2" widescreen dominates the cabin and the materials you touch on a regular basis are all of high quality and feel great.
The other big surprise is the standard stereo system. It's absolutely excellent, a massive surprise given how dire every other BMW system I've experienced is. It's absolutely enough for me and doesn't sound that much worse than the Professional system in my Dads 520d. Lovely. The whole audio setup is excellent really, I love the way iDrive works with my music and scrolling through tracks in the instrument cluster using the steering wheel is great.
Infact the whole instrument cluster itself is wonderful to use. It feels modern and fresh and you always know exactly which speed cruise is set to, etc. Navigation instructions in the cluster are a great touch, too. I absolutely love the tech in this car, to be honest it's the most appealing thing about it for me. This is what made me finally change my car and I'm really pleased about this aspect.
I'm finding the BMW Connected Drive service a mixed blessing really. It's hugely functional with everything from news and weather to Google Streetview but really I never use any of that. What I do use constantly though is the BMW ConnectedDrive android app, it's great to send destinations to the navigation from my phone as I walk to the car.
Engine and gearbox - I'm finding the diesel engine must less intrusive and annoying than I thought it would be. From cold it's still diesely and intrusive but once it's warmed up it's pretty quiet and very refined. The 8 speed autobox is absolutely sublime, when you want to just waft about it does so effortlessly. However the Sports Auto Transmission function, probably one of the most under-rated options on the F10 (It was £105!!! and most people ignored it?!) completely changes the character of the box. In Sport mode the changes are lightening fast - off the line the acceleration is nothing like you'd expect from an automatic diesel barge. I had wondered quite how BMW managed to get the optimistic looking 6 second 0-60 time from a 1.7 tonne car with only 245bhp but it seems the reason is this transmission. I honestly doubt I'd have got my 335i to 60 any quicker and it's all down to the transmission. It's great.
Performance is generally very satisfying - I've yet to be left wanting and it's a very good overtaking companion. The box nicely irons out the otherwise lacking powerband and means that you've just got plenty of power whenever you need it.
The other thing that I've been pleasantly surprised about is fuel economy. I didn't buy it for this and had figured it'd be pretty crap but actually it's fairly good - it's settling on about 26mpg around town from cold (the cold starts really hammer it - it'll average over 30 if its warm) and on long motorway runs it sits between 45 and 50mpg. A nice bonus.
Nothings perfect however, this is what sucks about the F10:
Everything you touch routinely is well built and nicely finished. Nothing else is. Cheap plastics around the seat base, door sills with bits that fall off (Seriously, I've lost the B, M and W letters from the drivers sill and I opened the door on my parents F11 the other day and some trim fell of that, too). It's like they've ticked the box for the bear minimum required for it to still be classified as a quality product and nothing more. On the E39 even bits of plastic nobody but a service tech would ever find feel nicely made.
The tyres are totally crap. I've no idea why BMW continue this ridiculous obsession with RFT tyres but they continue to ruin cars. The noise in the cabin is unacceptable at cruising speed and the ride quality is, whilst not as bad as I thought, still short of what you'd expect of a car of this type. I cannot wait to replace all of them with 4 proper tyres.
Keyless start. Seriously, what IS the point in this? You still need the fob to open the car but not to start it. So you are left with a key and no slot to plug it in. So it goes in your pocket. Or in your coat. Then you get out of the car and can't find it. I actually walked off with the engine still running the other day (Plus: Guess the diesel is quiet. Con: WTF?!) but noticed just in time. There was nothing wrong with having to put the key in a slot.
Actually there was nothing wrong with turning a key in the ignition!
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Or me, I never used to be fussed that the AUC warranty excluded trim because never once had I ever had a piece of trim break on any car I'd ever owned. That was before I bought a newer BMW. Now I wish it didn't exclude trim, I've got a rattle from my seat too 
