BMW and M Power Owners
- Thread starter panthro
- Start date
Soldato
Must have:
Harmon Kardon
Icon Adaptive LED Headlights
Electric Memory Seats (IMO with lumbar support which was a further extra)
Electric Folding Mirrors
Nice to have:
CarPlay
Reversing Camera
Heated Seats
Through-Loading
Mine had every one of the above and was great. I had carplay and don't have it now and while I do miss it I wouldn't personally skip over a car that otherwise had everything else...
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- 19 Dec 2017
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Why?
I'm not sure it's worth getting too caught up on Carplay. Mine didn't have it, but it was easily added with a £10 antenna and a bit of coding.
Soldato
Because they look mint and the functionality is really, really, really good.
I have the non-LED version on the M5 and it is still absolutely wicked. To be able to drive down the road with your main beams on without dazzling other people and watch it move the beam around etc is both cool and really useful.
Soldato
Obviously it'd depend on you as an individual as to what is and isn't a must have. For some people, the base seats are plenty good enough etc etc. Adaptive lights (even basic ones) are good enough that I don't think I'd want to buy another car without them, especially not one I drive fast down lanes at night. I have adaptive lights on both the M5 and the Range Rover and I definitely miss them when I drive other cars (like the OH's Yaris) which don't have them.
Pitch black is definitely when you should go for a sporty drive rather than take it at a safe sensible speed. We’d all agree on that.
And adaptive/non-adaptive is probably not the issue with the Yaris - I suspect it’s down to brightness levels of the main beam.
I did read that BMW Xenons were brighter than LEDs, that was F30 pre-LCI vs LCI comparison though. Not sure how it translates to the M2.
Soldato
wasn't the brightness thing mostly in America? some strange reg on not having LEDs over a certain brightness or something strange, and yanks were coding it out. I have the "normal" LEDs in my LCI f36 and they're really rather bright (brighter than my LCI e92's bixenons, and a more even coverage). I do wish it had the icon LEDs for the adaptive purposes, would make the auto highbeam even more useful, but given it's a fairly rare thing to be specced I wasn't too hung up on it.
My experience with pre-LCI Xenons (F36) vs LCI LEDs (F30) was that the LEDs were just as bright but didnt throw as far and also cut off quite abruptly whereas the Xenons had a more gradual fall off in intensity. I preferred the Xenons but both were fine to be honest.
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This matches my experience, I wonder if it's due to the F30 LED system not using a projector lense? Subsequent BMW models I've driven with projector lense LED headlights have been very good.
Soldato
From this comment alone I wonder if you've ever even been a passenger in a car with adaptive lights let alone driven one with them. Beam intensity has almost nothing to do with it if the beams aren't pointed in the right direction or are off because of oncoming traffic - neither of which happens with the Adaptive system in recent-ish BMWs.
Soldato
I presume that the icons are similar to audi matrix, and if they are they are fantastic. I'll add it to the want list
Through loading is an option?:/
AFAIK only Tourings and the X-series cars have it by default. Maybe the weird 2 series Active Tourer has it by default as well. All other BMWs have it as an option...
Actually had them in an f11 535d and currently in my f31 335i although I haven’t driven in the dark yet with the new car
They were nice but still not essential in my view. Honestly it amazes me that you think everyone would have to have the same opinion and if they don’t it’s because they’ve never tried them. My experience is that not having them hasn’t been a problem at all, I’ve had other cars with non adaptive Xenons and LEDs between the two cars with adaptive headlights and been absolutely fine. Ok potentially you slow down a little bit here and there because you turn your high beam off when there’s a car approaching. To me that’s a slight inconvenience and not an essential safety feature.
To be fair you are arguing with the chap whose list IMO is totally inverted. No through-loading? Car is useless on that one occasion you need to put a broom or something daft in there. No reversing camera? Every time you go to park you are guessing where the rear end is like some kind of savage cave man. No heated seats? I think they're standard on Fiesta's. And no CarPlay? Right - live with no Google Maps/Waze and "expire" the cars infotainment 10x quicker than if you did have it.
Like you say though, one persons essential option is another persons "meh"
A few years ago i got a car already specced with loads of options sat at the port waiting for a dealer to buy it. Got a great price.
What I learned from that was for me personally there were options which i never used, never found useful and would certainly never tick the option box in future if I was paying for them.
But adaptive led headlights was one option I would certainly pay extra for, certainly over a change of wheels.,
Same with the 18 way memory better seats with lumbar support. Worth their weight in gold IMO.
And now I want HUD on every car.
and 360 degree camera.
I have a friend who wont buy a car without a panoramic sunroof no matter how good the rest of the spec is. To him thats his number one choice
Soldato
Not everyone who disagrees, just you with your comment - as I made clear. It isn't really even about high beams on or off it is about being able to see into corners much better and lighting up the areas on verges etc.
No reversing camera doesn't mean no rear parking sensors. Completely fine to have a car without the camera although it is very nice to have. I personally really detest heated seats and consequently don't give a hoot if they are there or not. CarPlay doesn't enable or disable waze on your phone - you can use Waze without it just fine, but it is nice to have.
Through-loading is useful but not essential IMO. I don't take the M5 to places I would buy long things, I take the Range Rover. If it was an only car then maybe it'd make the essential list.
Clearly these are all personal preference so maybe the fault is in the question rather than the responses
