[Stickware]

I previously posted that I got my hands on a eDrive40 while my M50 is on order. I plan on reselling this before delivery.

So I have driven the car for four days, and here are some things I noticed and questions. These are not necessarily complaints, as I find this car totally amazing.


The first thing I noticed when I first sat in my i4, looking at the rearview mirror was that the middle seat head rest in the back was taking up a large percentage of the window, and I could not see right behind me. I flipped it to the "down" position, so that helped some.

I like to see the mi/kwH usage while driving. I have been getting mostly around 3.9. Sometimes up to 4.2. What numbers are you seeing? I drive exclusively in "B" mode, and I rarely touch the brake petal. I own a Honda Clarity Plug in hybrid, and I just put brakes on it for the first time at 168,000 miles. I expect I will need brakes on the i4 even much less because the regenerative breaking is like 5x as strong.

The thing that is bothering me, is that I only see these numbers for mi/kwH on the dashboard. Can you get it on the infotainment screen?? I could not find that information in any menu. I previously owned a 530e, and you can see "trip date" on the screen there. I'd like to see trip data on screen. Anyone know how?

I often drive with the "map" option on too. I drive Lyft, so it helps to know an area. I also use Apple Car play / Google Maps (satellite view). When I am navigating in Google Maps, it shuts off the map on the dash board and says something like "Map Unavailable. Guidance on Apple Car Play". In my 530e, I will still able to use the map when navigating with Google. I'd like it to be on please.

Also my 530e showed the street name along with route numbers you were driving on on the bottom of the dash. Nothing in the i4. I really miss that feature. It was a big help.

My car has the parking assistance package. The salesperson showed me how to use it to park, but when I have tried it, I can't get it to work at all.

It has "Backup assistant" that I thought I could use to back my car in my driveway, but it shuts off immediately after I turn it on. I have no idea how that works.

When I park my car, I go back then slight curve to park next to my wife's car. I was expecting the i4 to memorize where I park, and pull in automatically. No such luck. Is that impossible?

No AM radio. at least I can stream it on phone.

Driving at night with the headlights on auto, it would sometimes randomly turn on the brights. It did a good of turning them off when cars were coming at me, or I got behind someone. However, I really don't need the brights in these situations, so I end up turning them off.

I have a speed warning set at 75mph. If I reach that, I get a warning and the little "i" in a triangle on the screen. That triangle stays on the screen way too long though. I have to do a test to see how long, but I felt it was a good 5 min after the warning and it was still there.

Based on my calculations (I'm a math teacher), I calculate my full range to be around 330-350 miles in "B" mode.

I only charge the car to 80% though.

I am very happy having this car, but it's just a temporary car for me until my M50 arrives. I really want the driving package!

Ok...I might add more later....

 

[rollermonkey]

Backup assistant is like a rewind button. It will move backwards along the same path, up to a certain distance. It may also have a time limit, and I do not believe that it will rewind past a change in mode or gear selector position.
the manual has more detail than I can remember.

Parking assist requires that there be a car in both spaces on either side of the ‘target’ spot. It will not see or park in a space if one or both are vacant. You have to activate it before you have found the spot, and you must drive past it until the available spot is shown on the screen.

when I read those parts of the manual, (as well as several others) I really wondered how useful some of these features actually are. Much like ‘Summon’ in a Tesla, they seem like party tricks, more than anything.

 

[Magicrat]

I previously posted that I got my hands on a eDrive40 while my M50 is on order. I plan on reselling this before delivery.

So I have driven the car for four days, and here are some things I noticed and questions. These are not necessarily complaints, as I find this car totally amazing.


The first thing I noticed when I first sat in my i4, looking at the rearview mirror was that the middle seat head rest in the back was taking up a large percentage of the window, and I could not see right behind me. I flipped it to the "down" position, so that helped some.

I like to see the mi/kwH usage while driving. I have been getting mostly around 3.9. Sometimes up to 4.2. What numbers are you seeing? I drive exclusively in "B" mode, and I rarely touch the brake petal. I own a Honda Clarity Plug in hybrid, and I just put brakes on it for the first time at 168,000 miles. I expect I will need brakes on the i4 even much less because the regenerative breaking is like 5x as strong.

The thing that is bothering me, is that I only see these numbers for mi/kwH on the dashboard. Can you get it on the infotainment screen?? I could not find that information in any menu. I previously owned a 530e, and you can see "trip date" on the screen there. I'd like to see trip data on screen. Anyone know how?

I often drive with the "map" option on too. I drive Lyft, so it helps to know an area. I also use Apple Car play / Google Maps (satellite view). When I am navigating in Google Maps, it shuts off the map on the dash board and says something like "Map Unavailable. Guidance on Apple Car Play". In my 530e, I will still able to use the map when navigating with Google. I'd like it to be on please.

Also my 530e showed the street name along with route numbers you were driving on on the bottom of the dash. Nothing in the i4. I really miss that feature. It was a big help.

My car has the parking assistance package. The salesperson showed me how to use it to park, but when I have tried it, I can't get it to work at all.

It has "Backup assistant" that I thought I could use to back my car in my driveway, but it shuts off immediately after I turn it on. I have no idea how that works.

When I park my car, I go back then slight curve to park next to my wife's car. I was expecting the i4 to memorize where I park, and pull in automatically. No such luck. Is that impossible?

No AM radio. at least I can stream it on phone.

Driving at night with the headlights on auto, it would sometimes randomly turn on the brights. It did a good of turning them off when cars were coming at me, or I got behind someone. However, I really don't need the brights in these situations, so I end up turning them off.

I have a speed warning set at 75mph. If I reach that, I get a warning and the little "i" in a triangle on the screen. That triangle stays on the screen way too long though. I have to do a test to see how long, but I felt it was a good 5 min after the warning and it was still there.

Based on my calculations (I'm a math teacher), I calculate my full range to be around 330-350 miles in "B" mode.

I only charge the car to 80% though.

I am very happy having this car, but it's just a temporary car for me until my M50 arrives. I really want the driving package!

Ok...I might add more later....

No AM radio in any EV due to the interference caused by the electric motors.

 

[Stickware]

Backup assistant is like a rewind button. It will move backwards along the same path, up to a certain distance. It may also have a time limit, and I do not believe that it will rewind past a change in mode or gear selector position.
the manual has more detail than I can remember.

Parking assist requires that there be a car in both spaces on either side of the ‘target’ spot. It will not see or park in a space if one or both are vacant. You have to activate it before you have found the spot, and you must drive past it until the available spot is shown on the screen.

when I read those parts of the manual, (as well as several others) I really wondered how useful some of these features actually are. Much like ‘Summon’ in a Tesla, they seem like party tricks, more than anything.

Yea. I watched videos on backup assistant. I was able to use it to park where I just drove out of. Not what I need. Why can’t it store that to use when I get home?

I took video but can’t upload it here

 

[Stickware]

No AM radio in any EV due to the interference caused by the electric motors.

I read that however other EVs have it

 

[Elle BMW]

Yea. I watched videos on backup assistant. I was able to use it to park where I just drove out of. Not what I need. Why can’t it store that to use when I get home?

I took video but can’t upload it here

It's sort of for getting out of tight spots on dead end streets where you can't turn around. It will back you out the same way you came in. It doesn't store anything other than that. That route is gone once you start driving again I believe.

 

[jak]

I've had my eDrive40 for 1 week now. I used the backup assistance a couple of days ago for the first time, and it worked great! I was dropping off a friend and her driveway is long, variable width, and has a 2' tall brick retaining wall running most of the length on the passenger side. The backup assistance made navigating that a snap.

 

[thev]

I like to see the mi/kwH usage while driving. I have been getting mostly around 3.9. Sometimes up to 4.2. What numbers are you seeing? I drive exclusively in "B" mode, and I rarely touch the brake petal. I own a Honda Clarity Plug in hybrid, and I just put brakes on it for the first time at 168,000 miles. I expect I will need brakes on the i4 even much less because the regenerative breaking is like 5x as strong.

The thing that is bothering me, is that I only see these numbers for mi/kwH on the dashboard. Can you get it on the infotainment screen?? I could not find that information in any menu. I previously owned a 530e, and you can see "trip date" on the screen there. I'd like to see trip data on screen. Anyone know how?

Awesome writeup, thanks! 😁 Love to hear people's first impressions.

If I understand correctly what you're asking here, then yes it's possible. You have to go the "Live vehicle" app, either from the home screen widgets or from the app list, and there tap "Content" and choose "Journey Data". It will show you your consumption, distance travelled and battery charged through regenerative braking since last charge/factory/this trip/individual.

Is that what you were looking for?

 

[northerncalguy]

Parking assistance both in parallel and perpendicular modes relies on a certain set of "best case" circumstances / conditions to be really effective...such as clear delineated, repeating park space lines and as another poster noted, cars detected. In practice, parking assistance is not very practical and it's way faster to park traditionally than to rely on this system.

Back up assistance is a bit of a misname, in my view. I too thought that I could use it to "back into" my driveway more easily but it's clearly meant to "rewind" or back out of a narrow alley or pathway, not to be used as a "back up into" assist. That's why it turns off when you reverse because it doesn't expect that. I don't think the product marketing managers did a great job at naming this. That said, the functionality you're looking for is more like the perpendicular parking assist -- which I also tried to use to "back up into" my driveway, but it was very sketchy and I stopped it right before it hit the curb.

So much for assistance! YMMV, but in all cases be ready to hit the brakes because each assist situation is different and until technology can confidently handle like 99% of the variations, I'm going to keep parking like I've always done it...with my eyes closed .

 

[Stickware]

Awesome writeup, thanks! 😁 Love to hear people's first impressions.

If I understand correctly what you're asking here, then yes it's possible. You have to go the "Live vehicle" app, either from the home screen widgets or from the app list, and there tap "Content" and choose "Journey Data". It will show you your consumption, distance travelled and battery charged through regenerative braking since last charge/factory/this trip/individual.

Is that what you were looking for?
View attachment 13519

Ok. I’ll try to look for that!!!!

 

[ssh]

Backup assistant is like a rewind button. It will move backwards along the same path, up to a certain distance. It may also have a time limit, and I do not believe that it will rewind past a change in mode or gear selector position.
the manual has more detail than I can remember.

Backup assistant remembers forever (unless you run the electronics out of power, I guess). I drive rarely at certain times, and it remembers over many days (330 with iDrive 7). I use it every time I back out of the garage because I have a tendency to be impatient (I know, shocking!) and I have clipped a rear view mirror on more than one car on my way out of the garage (we have two single doors on this garage, but I managed to do it on a double when I was a kid! Ripped all the brick off the front of that side of the garage!).

 

[Stickware]

Ummm. It remembers your drive and does reverse. Do you pulling into drive then backing out Is remembering that last instance. Not forever.

I need it to back into my drive safely.

 

[ssh]

Ummm. It remembers your drive and does reverse. Do you pulling into drive then backing out Is remembering that last instance. Not forever.

I need it to back into my drive safely.

They wouldn’t be backup assistant, I’m afraid… You’d need PAP. And it would need to believe your garage was a parking space.

 

[slipnslider]

Backup assistant is like a rewind button. It will move backwards along the same path, up to a certain distance. It may also have a time limit, and I do not believe that it will rewind past a change in mode or gear selector position.
the manual has more detail than I can remember.

Parking assist requires that there be a car in both spaces on either side of the ‘target’ spot. It will not see or park in a space if one or both are vacant. You have to activate it before you have found the spot, and you must drive past it until the available spot is shown on the screen.

when I read those parts of the manual, (as well as several others) I really wondered how useful some of these features actually are. Much like ‘Summon’ in a Tesla, they seem like party tricks, more than anything.

Yeah the most useful part of the parking package seems to be the bird's eye view, which you can't get on a tesla. I rarely use the auto parking on my tesla and almost never use SUMMON.

 

[ssh]

Yeah the most useful part of the parking package seems to be the bird's eye view, which you can't get on a tesla. I rarely use the auto parking on my tesla and almost never use SUMMON.

Totally agree. I use the view all the time in my 330. Have never gotten the parking to work consistently.

 

[SpiritAdriftM]

I previously posted that I got my hands on a eDrive40 while my M50 is on order. I plan on reselling this before delivery.

So I have driven the car for four days, and here are some things I noticed and questions. These are not necessarily complaints, as I find this car totally amazing.

What sort of driving have you done so far in the little time you've had?

 

[Magicrat]

It's sort of for getting out of tight spots on dead end streets where you can't turn around. It will back you out the same way you came in. It doesn't store anything other than that. That route is gone once you start driving again I believe.

I think you're right!

 

[Ken7]

I read that however other EVs have it

Actually most do not have AM. I’m on my fourth EV and only my 2017 MS had it and it was unlistenable because of the electric motor. In fact Tesla discontinued AM shortly thereafter.

 

[Stickware]

Awesome writeup, thanks! 😁 Love to hear people's first impressions.

If I understand correctly what you're asking here, then yes it's possible. You have to go the "Live vehicle" app, either from the home screen widgets or from the app list, and there tap "Content" and choose "Journey Data". It will show you your consumption, distance travelled and battery charged through regenerative braking since last charge/factory/this trip/individual.

Is that what you were looking for?
View attachment 13519

Found it there! Thanks!!!

wish I could add that to widgets though.

 

[Stickware]

What sort of driving have you done so far in the little time you've had?

hey. I drive Lyft. So lots of city driving. In my personal time, highway. I got 730 miles now