BMW and M Power Owners

Comprehensive, £1279 a year with a £250 excess including breakdown. Pretty reasonable actually - I'll be paying more on my 7 :(

Edit - will likely be 20% cheaper on renewal, too.
That’s not bad. I thought the X7 has 7 series style/level interior? No doubt the leather and touch points will be high quality.

I test drove an X5M recently and that was a significant step up over my F80.
 
I thought that when I had a loaner X5 for a couple of months, it was a 45e but didn't have much spec, the interior was quite dull (though it's not bad).

It’s a great interior on a 3 series. But on a 7 series calibre vehicle? Not so sure.


But I haven’t been in one so can’t properly comment.


For example the F20 series BMW looked similar to the 3 series but when you get in them and drive them, they are quite different.
 
That’s not bad. I thought the X7 has 7 series style/level interior? No doubt the leather and touch points will be high quality.

I test drove an X5M recently and that was a significant step up over my F80.

You won’t be paying M level pricing with it being an M lite, which is probably a big part of it.
 
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That’s not bad. I thought the X7 has 7 series style/level interior? No doubt the leather and touch points will be high quality.

I test drove an X5M recently and that was a significant step up over my F80.

Some parts of it are, but it's a bit more like the X5. My 8 Series had this sort of interior too, but the G11 interior feels a step up in overall quality (for example).
 
I think if I did stay with BMW, the X5 would be big enough. I don't need 7 seats, and I think the X5 boot is big enough to have it split 50/50 for dog and luggage using a dog guard/divider.
You won’t be paying M level pricing with it being an M lite, which is probably a big part of it.
I think my F80 is currently £8-900 a year (£250 excess, breakdown cover).
 
I think if I did stay with BMW, the X5 would be big enough. I don't need 7 seats, and I think the X5 boot is big enough to have it split 50/50 for dog and luggage using a dog guard/divider.

I think my F80 is currently £8-900 a year (£250 excess, breakdown cover).

But compared to an M5 or M8, the X7 M50 is alright

I bet the XM is nuts.
 
That’s not bad. I thought the X7 has 7 series style/level interior? No doubt the leather and touch points will be high quality.

I test drove an X5M recently and that was a significant step up over my F80.
X7 interior is very high quality. Pretty much the same as the X5 just bigger/wider. That two-tone extended merino ivory/night blue interior on the M50i is just perfection
 
Long post, sorry!

I'm still learning more and more about my 320i every day (my 1st BMW for those that don't know).

Started getting the 'Battery Low' warning the other day. Put the multimeter across it and it was jumping between 12.0 and 12.4 volts. Two things sprung to mind. 1) voltage should probably be more or less constant, and 2) that voltage is way too low. Was getting 15.0v with the engine running so I know the alternator's good.

It's a '21 reg and the original battery, combined with the car being sat for a few months doing nothing in the dealership, so it's more than likely end of life. I'm surprised the car started at all. Didn't sound like it was struggling to start though.

Through reading (lots) online, I know it wasn't as simple as putting a new battery in the boot. So I bought the BimmerLink and BimmerCode apps as well as a Bluetooth OBD2 adapter and the new battery was registered flawlessly. Combined cost of battery, software and hardware probably still less than what BMW would charge for fitting a new battery, plus I have the hardware and software for life.

Then I've looked at the software version. Both the car and the MyBMW App showed the version number as 11/2020.42, so it's unlikely the software has ever been updated since originally purchased. Reading again online, there's been multiple software updates since.

Deutsche Effizienz. You'd think the app would tell you there's a software update available. The app was insistent there wasn't. So I used the iDrive in the car to search, and sure enough, it showed v07/2021.50 was available. It was once the car informed me of the available update, then the app did!

More Deutsche Effizienz. I've read online that you need to download and install each update sequentially instead of being able to update to the latest version with one download. On the plus side, I stupidly decided to install the update whilst waiting to pick my daughter up from dance class. iDrive said it'd take 20 minutes to complete (can't use the car whilst it's updating) and with 20 mins til my daughter's class finished, I went for it! It took 18 minutes.

All that aside, I'm loving the learning. And I'm still grinning from ear to ear whilst driving her. My family, neighbours, friends and colleagues are very complimentary about her. She is stunning. I've also washed/polished her more often than I have with every other car I've ever owned.
 
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