[azwillnj]

This thing just arrived from Amazon to go on the passenger side of the trunk. You get both sides but the drivers side still has the net so you don't need that one. It fits and solves the problem, looks a little cheap chinese in construction, we'll have to see how it holds up to the heat of the summer here but it alleviates one complaint.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099F32111...roduct_details

[TheMaxXHD]

Originally Posted by MaxW

Thank you so much for this write-up. I just bought a 2020 M340i for the adaptive suspension and had no idea what the "adaptive" button (which I now understand is a completely separate feature... though included when you get the adaptive suspension) had to do with the way the suspension operates. I had to go back and read several threads on it, but from what I read, your explanation is spot on. And with all of the confusion it has caused, at least in this forum, it makes sense that BMW seems to be phasing it out.

I've only had the car a week, but personally do not foresee any reason that I would want to have the adaptive mode button... it just happened to come with the adaptive suspension. The one plus I found is that when I was searching for a used car with adaptive suspension, I could easily tell if it had the adaptive suspension with a quick glimpse at the interior photos

No problem! Glad I could shed some light on this. It is a very common confused and misunderstood feature (both the adaptive suspension and adaptive drive mode).

It all into the general issue BMW has that is being discussed in this thread, about consumer awareness and understanding of what is and is not included in their vehicles, and how to use certain features. All manufacturers have this issue to varying degrees, but BMW appears to be one of the worst offenders.

Part of it I think is general incompetence in the way their lineup and features are structured. BMW takes a more "Porsche" like approach where many things are a package or add-on. Their vehicles are also more complex in some regards then they need to be. This basically leads to issues of needing to read fine print and understand every package and feature for what is included and what it does so you can make a decision BEFORE buying. Otherwise you might be out a feature you wish you had.

This also doesn't help dealerships either, with sales and even mechanics sometimes not understanding what features your car does/will or doesn't/won't have. This forum is really helpful in minimizing this.

It is also likely for more nefarious reasons. BMW can more quietly tweak what is and isn't available on a per MY basis and what is in their packages, without consumers noticing. As OP of this thread has shown by the big list of small but after adding up, pretty huge deletions or changes that consumers otherwise wouldn't be aware of or know they were missing out on from prior years or models.

My favorite is their non-dap vs dap vs dapp positioning. DAPP is the only way you get ACC. You know what is on the standard feature list, "dynamic cruise control", which sounds like ACC, until you realize its just a fancy way of saying normal cruise control from 15 years ago. This pisses me off, my family's subaru from 2017 that cost 30,000 has ACC, and a 50,000+ vehicle from BMW does not even have it as standard. It isn't even standard on their 5 series that start at 60,000+. You can buy a Honda, Subaru, or Toyota with ACC for 25-30,000 now of days...

Again, some of it is incompetence and negligence, but I also think some of it is intentional to mislead or hide things from the consumer.

I had to order my car using the official pricing sheet to ensure I got exactly what I wanted. What a world we are in where one has to use a multi-page pricing sheet mostly intended for dealerships to guide me, a pretty well informed car consumer, on buying the car I want. Madness

[zazzau]

Originally Posted by TheMaxXHD

I agree, and I think this way you mention makes a ton more sense and flexibility for the driver. Just letting the driver chose if they want the car to adaptively change transmission, steering, suspension, independently of each other. I think that would make a far more pleasant experience to the driver as opposed to a one size fits all adaptive mode.

They already have the menus and functionality for users to individually change those as you mention like in sport individual mode, but they could just include an adaptive setting for each option.

Personally have never sensed the steering stiffen on the fly even when I floor it while on Adaptive. I think that depends on a number of variables — otherwise it seems to be COMFORT bias. Are you sure the steering sensitivity changes too? Now that you mention it I'll go test it out again.

By the way I don't think your earlier assertion about Adaptive auto switching between driving modes in the background is accurate. It's not that simple. That's not how it was explained to me by the foreman and some of the threads on this forum. By and large it just uses elements from the other MODES depending on driving style and road condition (including GPS data) to adjust accordingly. It is it's own driving MODE. It does NOT automatically switch between the other modes. Someone here can correct me. This is part of the confusion.

TurtleBoy had a very great explanation for this from a thread I read when I first bought my car.

[TheMaxXHD]

Originally Posted by zazzau

Personally have never sensed the steering stiffen on the fly even when I floor it while on Adaptive. Are you sure the steering sensitivity changes too? Now that you mention it I'll go test it out.

By the way I don't think your earlier explanation about Adaptive auto switching driving modes in the background is accurate. It's not that simple. That's not how it was explained to me by the foreman and some of the threads on this forum.

It was an oversimplification yes. That isn't how it operates, but that is the result. The result is it will dynamically adjust between the other drive modes based on road and driver inputs. Behind the scenes, to achieve it, it gets pretty complicated, using road surface measurements, driving throttle and steering inputs, radar, cameras, even the BMW guidance system, to adjust the settings. But the settings it is choosing from is the settings you have available.

There is some debate whether eco pro is one of the settings it will chose from, I didn't see anything definitive on that, so I wasn't sure, but comfort and sport are the two settings it definitely has (and when I say that, I mean the comfort and sport settings for transmission, steering, and suspension, like you can adjust in sport individual, it will adjust those individual settings independently).

Steering, I am 90% sure is impacted, based on what I was reading. If you have something to the contrary, I would definitely like to know, but it is my understanding it will also adjust steering as well.

Edit: It is it's own mode yes, it is not literally switching between comfort and sport for example. But the settings it is switching between in the background are the settings for comfort and sport respectively. So again, it is essentially tweaking the settings on the fly like the settings you have in sport individual switching between those various settings as it sees fit, but it does not introduce NEW settings that are not already present for the driver to chose from manually.

[zazzau]

Originally Posted by TheMaxXHD

It was an oversimplification yes. That isn't how it operates, but that is the result. The result is it will dynamically adjust between the other drive modes based on road and driver inputs. Behind the scenes, to achieve it, it gets pretty complicated, using road surface measurements, driving throttle and steering inputs, radar, cameras, even the BMW guidance system, to adjust the settings. But the settings it is choosing from is the settings you have available.

There is some debate whether eco pro is one of the settings it will chose from, I didn't see anything definitive on that, so I wasn't sure, but comfort and sport are the two settings it definitely has (and when I say that, I mean the comfort and sport settings for transmission, steering, and suspension, like you can adjust in sport individual, it will adjust those individual settings independently).

Steering, I am 90% sure is impacted, based on what I was reading. If you have something to the contrary, I would definitely like to know, but it is my understanding it will also adjust steering as well.

I updated my previous comment a bit. I will test it out later today but the last time I floored the car on a straight road I didn't feel the steering stiffen at all. Certainly the mapping for throttle and engine changed to meet up with the demand but not the steering. I might be wrong but I'll verify when next I hit the highway. I'm not saying it doesn't change I'm just saying it might not be that simple.

[TheMaxXHD]

Originally Posted by zazzau

I updated my previous comment a bit. I will test it out later today but the last time I floored the car on a straight road I didn't feel the steering stiffen at all. Certainly the mapping for throttle and engine changed to meet up with the demand but not the steering. I might be wrong but I'll verify when next I hit the highway. I'm not saying it doesn't change I'm just saying it might not be that simple.

I understand, and I am also not saying that I am fully correct, this is just my understanding of it. Supposedly the steering can be adjusted in adaptive, but probably under only certain conditions. One such condition I imagine is under tight fast cornering, which would logically make sense when you would want it to stiffen up.

But to summarize, the fact that even this forum debates the adaptive suspension and mode constantly shows that their (BMW's) explanations and integrations of the features are not helpful, even if they work great. Only making things worse by including the mode only on adaptive suspensions (which is dumb because besides the suspension, there is no reason why they couldn't still adapt the steering and transmission in cars without the adaptive suspension, they just have it not adapt the suspension lol).

Now they don't include the mode anymore which makes it worse going the other way because people used it as a definitive way of knowing if their vehicle had the adaptive suspension if it had the button, which is no longer true anymore.

[zazzau]

Originally Posted by TheMaxXHD

But to summarize, the fact that even this forum debates the adaptive suspension and mode constantly shows that their (BMW's) explanations and integrations of the features are not helpful, even if they work great. Only making things worse by including the mode only on adaptive suspensions (which is dumb because besides the suspension, there is no reason why they couldn't still adapt the steering and transmission in cars without the adaptive suspension, they just have it not adapt the suspension lol).

Now they don't include the mode anymore which makes it worse going the other way because people used it as a definitive way of knowing if their vehicle had the adaptive suspension if it had the button, which is no longer true anymore.

I agree. BMW is just terrible at providing feature information. Even some Geniuses @ BMW still can't explain what the feature actually does. Had to resort to this forum and played around with it to get a decent understanding. It was my default MODE for the longest but my suspension is so stiff I switched back to COMFORT. That didn't make a difference so I'm going to code it back to ADAPTIVE as default. Will test steering once it's coded and I'm on highway and will update this thread.

[bavarianride]

Originally Posted by zazzau

I agree. BMW is just terrible at providing feature information. Even some Geniuses @ BMW still can't explain what the feature actually does. Had to resort to this forum and play around with it to get a decent understanding. It was my default MODE for the longest but my suspension is so stiff I switched back to COMFORT. That didn't make a difference so I'm going to code it back to ADAPTIVE as default.

My G20 330i non-M is stiffer than F30 328i M-sport, in fact BMW claims 25% increase in G20 torsional rigidity compared to F30.

Some comparisons of G20 with other chassis are as follows:

E46 - 18,000 Nm/deg
E90 - 22,500 Nm/deg
F30 - 29,300 Nm/deg
G20 - 36,625 Nm/deg (based on 25% more than predecessor)
E46 M3 GTR (w/roll cage) - 46,000 Nm/deg
F80 M3 - 40,000 Nm/deg

http://youwheel.com/home/2016/06/20/...ehensive-list/

I test drove G20 330i M sport(on-adaptive) and the ride was too firm for me.

[Panscan340]

Originally Posted by azwillnj

That's what I thought, and its a pretty big deal. The feature in this car should be called "Adjustable M Suspension". There is a very notable difference between sport and comfort and that is very cool, but I wish the system would be adaptive, like it has been forever.

The system is adaptive . That's the whole point

[G30M]

Originally Posted by peelerec

Everything you mentioned with iDrive 8 as well as the lack of climate control buttons is what worries me should I decide to order a new M3 or go the used route and not end up with the exact spec I want.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the m340 pre lci for what it is.

the only other BMW that interests me is a M550i as it has more buttons than my M340i! but i can't find any used ones that have the DHP.

yes very glad my 340 has buttons. not sure if i dig iD7 - the car cannot understand me and vice versa.

[G30M]

Originally Posted by zazzau

I agree. BMW is just terrible at providing feature information. Even some Geniuses @ BMW still can't explain what the feature actually does. Had to resort to this forum and played around with it to get a decent understanding. It was my default MODE for the longest but my suspension is so stiff I switched back to COMFORT. That didn't make a difference so I'm going to code it back to ADAPTIVE as default. Will test steering once it's coded and I'm on highway and will update this thread.

to me adaptive has further "in between" steps between comfort and sport. but that was what i thought. i don't use adaptive now, i select exactly what i want in sport individual. if only there was a comfort individual for another selection set esp during winter. (sport individual allows the tail to break loose)

[CrownRoyal79]

Originally Posted by TheMaxXHD

Pretty big deal is fairly subjective, and you can look at the forums here and elsewhere to see that some people loved it, some people hated it and/or never used it. My guess is most people never used it. In theory it sounds great, but in practice sounds like it was a hit or miss. Personally imo, you are getting the most out of the car when you can chose the drive settings manually, because then it's exactly what you want until you tell the car otherwise. Steering in particular people are sensitive to, and adjustments to that on the fly beyond the control of the driver seems to be one of the weaknesses of the adaptive mode.

I don't disagree that it had some value, and a nice to have for those that did like it, but my guess is most people didn't use it.

I am one of those who uses the adaptive mode quite a bit. I drive in one of two modes: adaptive or sport individual. No reason to drive in comfort because adaptive is comfort mode until you decide to put the pedal down. FWIW, my sport individual is configured as sport+ with the transmission setting turned down one notch to make the car more drivable in stop and go traffic.

[zazzau]

Originally Posted by bavarianride

My G20 330i non-M is stiffer than F30 328i M-sport, in fact BMW claims 25% increase in G20 torsional rigidity compared to F30.

Some comparisons of G20 with other chassis are as follows:

E46 - 18,000 Nm/deg
E90 - 22,500 Nm/deg
F30 - 29,300 Nm/deg
G20 - 36,625 Nm/deg (based on 25% more than predecessor)
E46 M3 GTR (w/roll cage) - 46,000 Nm/deg
F80 M3 - 40,000 Nm/deg

http://youwheel.com/home/2016/06/20/...ehensive-list/

I test drove G20 330i M sport(on-adaptive) and the ride was too firm for me.

It's just one of those phenomena where some experience a comfortable ride in COMFORT and others, myself included, find it harsh. I drove around with foreman and even he conceded that yes the ride is harsh on potholes/uneven pavement even in COMFORT but he claims that's expected for my chassis. I had a whole thread about it; at this point I'll just have to live with it since there's nothing I can do about it.

[TheMaxXHD]

Originally Posted by zazzau

It's just one of those phenomena where some experience a comfortable ride in COMFORT and others, myself included, find it harsh. I drove around with foreman and even he conceded that yes the ride is harsh on potholes/uneven pavement even in COMFORT but he claims that's expected for my chassis. I had a whole thread about it; at this point I'll just have to live with it since there's nothing I can do about it.

BMW: We will make steering duller and more vague for a more relaxed driving experience.

Also BMW: We will make the chassis and suspension more stiffer befitting the ultimate driving machine.

Getting some crazy mixed signals BMW

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by TheMaxXHD

Pretty big deal is fairly subjective, and you can look at the forums here and elsewhere to see that some people loved it, some people hated it and/or never used it. My guess is most people never used it. In theory it sounds great, but in practice sounds like it was a hit or miss. Personally imo, you are getting the most out of the car when you can chose the drive settings manually, because then it's exactly what you want until you tell the car otherwise. Steering in particular people are sensitive to, and adjustments to that on the fly beyond the control of the driver seems to be one of the weaknesses of the adaptive mode.

I don't disagree that it had some value, and a nice to have for those that did like it, but my guess is most people didn't use it.

Comment from a member on another UK forum...

My neighbour has Adaptive Mode on his G21 and he just leaves it in that all the time "as it does a better job than the person driving trying to chose a setting"!

Best user summary I've read on the whole "Adaptive Mode" subject.

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by bavarianride

My G20 330i non-M is stiffer than F30 328i M-sport, in fact BMW claims 25% increase in G20 torsional rigidity compared to F30.

Some comparisons of G20 with other chassis are as follows:

E46 - 18,000 Nm/deg
E90 - 22,500 Nm/deg
F30 - 29,300 Nm/deg
G20 - 36,625 Nm/deg (based on 25% more than predecessor)
E46 M3 GTR (w/roll cage) - 46,000 Nm/deg
F80 M3 - 40,000 Nm/deg

http://youwheel.com/home/2016/06/20/...ehensive-list/

I test drove G20 330i M sport(on-adaptive) and the ride was too firm for me.

Torsional stiffness typically makes for a better drive, as the suspension can be made to work more precisely. Suspension stiffness that is another set of parameters altogether.

[RLL RACER]

Originally Posted by azwillnj

I just took delivery of an almost completely loaded M340i xDrive and have some mostly negative thoughts on this g20 LCI. I have never written anything like this before but there are too many shortcuts and omissions in this iteration of the 3-Series that I felt like I needed to write them all down. At this point I have had seven BMW 3-Series cars as my primary vehicle going all the way back to the 2005 E90 so I have a very in-depth view of the features of these cars and how each one is equipped. (2005 E90 325i > 2008 E90 328xi > 2011 E90 LCI 335i xDrive > 2013 F30 328i xDrive > 2016 F30 LCI 340i xDrive > 2020 G20 M340i xDrive > 2023 G20 LCI M340i xDrive) Every new 3-Series I have leased has had a list of things that have been removed or changed that I was unhappy with but there was always a much larger list of things that had improved. That has been true until the g20 LCI arrived, this is the first one that I can say is worse than its predecessor and for a higher price tag.

My car
2023 M340i xDrive
Brooklyn Grey Metallic
Tacora Red SensaTec
Driving Assistance Pro
Shadowline
Parking Assistance
Premium
Remote Engine Start
Adaptive M Suspension
Harmon Kardon
Wireless Charging

Devil’s advocate first
I think compared to other auto manufacturers BMW is doing a really good job of keeping supply up and making cars with most of their features. I know components are much more expensive right now and being an engineer in a tech field I know how hard it is to actually get components on any sort of schedule and how much the price of things has gone up. The majority of the shortcomings in this review are likely a direct impact of parts shortages and supply chain difficulties and I think BMW as a whole is doing a great job to produce what they are. I think they should have been more forthcoming on some of the omissions and allowed the consumer to know the whole story before ordering a car. Knowing all the omissions on this car may have impacted my decision to lease this 2023 vs. buy the 2020 from the previous lease which is why I am writing this.

Pros
Let’s start with the pros. The driving experience is absolutely sublime. The powertrain is silky smooth and the new mild hybrid system has made an enormous difference in the drivability of the car. There is almost no discernible turbo lag because the hybrid system kicks in to give a little boost as the turbo spools. The sound is also improved, the exhaust sounds throatier and still has a bit of a burble, not as crackly as the 2020 but from my understanding that was the only model year that had those crackles on the B58. The hybrid system also makes the auto start stop system operate much faster and smoother as it uses the powerful 48v motor as the starter motor. However, you can no longer turn the ASS system off unless the car is in sport mode, more on that below.

The interior is also very nice, I got the Tacora Red Sensatec interior and the color is just beautiful, dark enough to look elegant but bright enough to add a little flair to the interior. The sensatec also seems to have improved, it feels much more like leather now, much more premium. The perforations will be nice in the DC swamp summer too.

Cons
This started as a list of things missing from the car but blossomed into more. I am going to keep it as a list and elaborate on things in bullet form. Organized in no particular order.

• The headlights are horrible compared to the previous BMWs I’ve had. I got the shadowline package because that's the only way to get the better 552 headlights, and the 552 headlights are not good. They auto level but they don’t turn at all, in every 3-Series I have driven other than this one the lights turned with the steering wheel, that was a huge feature. It being gone is a massive letdown. The US lights are dumbed down and do not do anything they are capable of, overseas they have active light distribution and can adapt to oncoming traffic but I don't think even that could replace the pivoting lights. I am comparing these to the lasers from the previous generation which were the best headlights I have ever used so it's a tough comparison. I think these are maybe the worst headlights on any of the BMWs I have had, the E90 xenons might have even been brighter.
• The LCI has a plastic key, the 2020 had a metal surround on the M340, this one is completely plastic. Honestly this is a bit of a plus for me as it's lighter in the pocket but it's still much less premium than the previous metal key and should be noted
• Lumbar and the sport side bolsters are missing on the front passenger seat. Every 3 series I have had came with passenger lumbar, even the E90s with sport package had adjustable bolsters on both seats.
• The sport side bolsters are missing on the driver's seat! This is insane, to take this off the driver's seat in the M-lite car is completely unacceptable especially with how expensive this car is above the standard 330.
• Gesture control not available. This is not too big of a deal for me, the gesture control is not something that I used often but it is a large feature omission and should be noted. It also could sense your hand approaching the screen and would pop all the extra buttons out of the sides of the screen before your hand got there on iDrive 7 which was a nice little feature.
• Adaptive drive mode is missing. This is the first car that I optioned the M adaptive suspension, I wanted it for the Adaptive mode.. This car does not have the adaptive mode. The button is blank and it is no longer available on the car. The suspension does change quite a bit between comfort and sport but it doesn't seem to adapt to anything.
• The auto start stop disable button is gone. It will disable the system in sport mode but there is no way to disable it in comfort mode.
• Auto start stop turns the engine off when slowing down under 5mph. This is maybe not a con, just something different to get accustomed to. When slowing down it turns the engine off while you’re still rolling, takes a little time to get accustomed to as the car stops differently without the engine running so stopping smoothly is a little bit of a challenge when it sometimes decides to ASS and not ASS.
• The kick to open trunk was not available when I ordered my car. Some parts shortage thing prevented me from ordering this, I miss it a lot.
• Power trunk not available in the US. This is a huge one for me, combined with the kick to open I think I might be missing this more than anything. Kick to close with hands full of groceries was amazing.
• The passenger side cubby in the trunk is missing the cargo net and the attachment points. If they were going to cheap out and not include a $0.50 net they could have at least left the holes and charged $20 for the net, I would have paid for it. Edit: Got this from Amazon, it fixes the problem but looks like it might be cheaply made, I'll see how long it holds up.
• The little organization area on the door to the glove compartment is gone.
• The small glove compartment by your left knee on the driver side is gone, again they just completely removed the mounting area, if they made it a replaceable panel we could have retrofitted it, and I would have, but instead they just removed it.
• The heated seats are now automatic and they are tied to the climate control. There are 4 levels and the feature seems really half baked, it is never on when I want it to be and seems to turn on and stay on way too long. If you want to use automatic climate control you have to use the automatic heated seats. The only way to get it to go to manual heated seats like every other 3-Series I have driven is to disable the automatic climate control and manually control the temp, fan and distribution. Also, if you turn the air conditioning off you can't turn the heated seats on, they are linked. In all my other BMWs I enjoyed turning the climate control off on a cool fall day, turning the heated seats on and opening the windows, impossible in this one.Edit: I was wrong about this one, you can disable automatic climate control on the left then set fan speed to 0 and you can still have the heated seats on manual, cumbersome, but possible.
• Ambient lighting has been severely reduced. There are no more LEDs under each door when you open them, no more LEDs in the door pockets, no more LEDs in each door bottle holder, no more LEDs in the driver/passenger/rear seat climate vent wheels and the footwells seem a lot dimmer.
• No cooled seat option. There are perforations now, economy cars have had this feature for years, why is this not an option?

iDrive 8 including dashboard and HUD
A few general notes first. The screen is beautiful, sharp, colorful, bright, really striking. The touch is very responsive generally and the animations are smooth. An ultrawide screen is really not conducive to showing a map that you are traveling ‘up’ on. I can see miles to the left and right of the car but only about ½ a mile in front of me, seems like a dumb decision. I could see if BMW maybe intended this screen to be a stop gap while they implemented a taller screen in their new designs but this made it into the iX and XM so I am just confused. The whole system seems so much more dumbed down than iDrive 7, there are so many features missing and the experience doesn't seem very cohesive, it feels like a very beta software experience not like the polish of iDrive 7. I guess this is what happens when software engineers work separately from home during COVID.

Touchscreen climate controls have to be one of the stupidest things I have ever used in a car especially in this terrible implementation.

The HUD is huge, graphics are much improved and presented in a much more beautiful manner. The map view and intersection views are huge and much improved as well.

The ‘instrument cluster’ for the most part is nice, I think the graphics are a little better but there are a bunch of things that are missing (see below). It also feels like configuring the dashboard display with the existing steering wheel buttons is really half baked using buttons that were there to just kinda make it work. You get used to it but it still seems cumbersome. As an example if the low gas notification comes up you can dismiss it by pressing the next song button on the steering wheel even though there is a left arrow on the notification. Pressing the next track button with a notification up will interact with the notification first and not skip the song. It is a little annoyance that just doesn't seem as cohesive of an experience as I am accustomed to in a BMW.

Some more specific thoughts are below.. For the bullets I will refer to iDrive 8 and iDrive 7 as just 7 and 8. Again, these are in no particular order.

• When on a phone call the system locks out the number input with the iDrive dial. They force you to reach up to the screen and tap the button to open the number pad then tap the number. This is so much more distracting and dangerous than just using the dial. This one feels like a software bug that hopefully will be fixed because it makes no sense.
• The sport gauges in 8 are terrible, they are these stupid vertical bars and they only show when you are in sport mode. I really liked the awesome display in 7 that you could keep up all the time and have in a home screen widget.
• Sport gauges in the instrument cluster are missing. There is only a g meter, that’s all you get, again, massive disappointment.
• The tach in the HUD is horrible. They apparently modeled it off a fighter jet or something, all I know is it is impossible to tell what is happening at a glance and it just looks stupid. 7 had a perfect bar graph that actually showed you information.
• The tach in the dashboard in comfort mode is gone. Yes, gone. They replaced it with some dumb power meter that basically shows you the throttle position in percentage. This is an M-lite car! It has the best 6 cylinder engine on any car, Show me the tach! I didn't buy an electric car! Edit: I was wrong about this one, after seeing some comments in the replies I looked a little more and you can change it to the sport dash in comfort mode.
• The 1-8 shortcut buttons are gone! Why why why! They took all the other buttons out, if they had left those you could have solved most of the problems with the new system but instead they got rid of them for cost cutting. You can bump the iDrive controller up to get to 4 shortcuts but that's not the same thing.
• You can push up on the idrive controller to view your shortcuts and some other things like notifications as mentioned but you can’t pull down to go to the climate controls. This seems really shortsighted, if you could pull down to go to the climate controls I think it would make the horrible climate control system a little better.
• Every. Single. Time. I turn the car on Spotify starts from the top of the current playlist. It is incredibly irritating, hopefully this will be fixed in software.
• The map has these 3 stupid settings, that are not configurable, Reduced, Adaptive, and Expanded. In every version of iDrive I have had in all of these cars you could configure what POIs you wanted to see on the map, now Germany decides for you and if you don't like it they don't care. (unless I’m wrong about this one, please correct me if I’m missing something)
• The only way to get the auto-zoom feature from 7 is to select one of the stupid map modes they force you into, Adaptive. That mode dosn’t show the traffic on the map!
• The only way to see traffic on the map is to go Expanded with manual zoom.
• You can't search the contact list by writing letters on the touchpad anymore. I loved that feature.
• There is more than enough room in the bottom bar on the screen for heated seat buttons, why are they not there?

Final thoughts
The driving experience of the new mild hybrid system is absolutely amazing. They didn't skimp on the powertrain which is very nice in the Ultimate Driving Machine. When you really boil it down that's what this car is all about. It drives and responds like nothing else on the road, it makes me happy every time it roars to life and when it effortlessly zips around a Prius from MD going 15 under the speed limit I remember why I love it. I think I made the right decision to continue leasing because I was very concerned with the cost of maintenance on all the electronics on these cars now. However I still hate the omissions and shortcuts in this car, it’s missing so much. A lot of the experience seems like they are getting ready for electric cars but this is an M-lite car with an amazing engine, give me some engine features. The fact that all these things are missing and there are so many shortcomings but they are charging more for the car and just announced another price hike is really disappointing. I am really hoping the next gen or the LCI2 or whatever it’s going to be in 3 years is better.

Pics

Attachment 3045503
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Attachment 3045501

100% AGREED. In my time with the new LCI 3 series. I can say BMW recall the current LCI and bring back the 2019-2022 version. There is not one good thing and then that gets taken away by 3 more bad things. The new lci does not earn the famous 3 series moniker. By the way they really F..k up the LED headlights for 23..the light was better on my 1978 Volvo GT.. Glad all of my 3s have lasers!

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by TheMaxXHD

There is some debate whether eco pro is one of the settings it will chose from, I didn't see anything definitive on that, so I wasn't sure, but comfort and sport are the two settings it definitely has (and when I say that, I mean the comfort and sport settings for transmission, steering, and suspension, like you can adjust in sport individual, it will adjust those individual settings independently).

Steering, I am 90% sure is impacted, based on what I was reading. If you have something to the contrary, I would definitely like to know, but it is my understanding it will also adjust steering as well.

When Adaptive Mode was introduced to the 7-series, reference is made to using EcoPro, Comfort and Sport modes, (but not restricting comfort features in EcoPro).

The technical data describes switching from Comfort to Sport modes, includes the steering, in the same statement.

When looking for data on other models, say the G30 5-series, it refers back to the G11/12 data for further information on the Adaptive Mode function. I've not read other documents which adjust that original description, except for features which are not included, (e.g. Active Roll Stabilisation) but described in the G11/12 data.

Electronic Power Steering (EPS) and the automatic transmission, for example, are switched between "COMFORT", "SPORT" and “ECOPRO” settings depending on the driving situation. However, when "ADAPTIVE" mode is active, no changes that restrict comfort (seat heating, A/C settings, etc.) are made in the event of switching to "ECOPRO" mode.

[zazzau]

Originally Posted by zazzau

I agree. BMW is just terrible at providing feature information. Even some Geniuses @ BMW still can't explain what the feature actually does. Had to resort to this forum and played around with it to get a decent understanding. It was my default MODE for the longest but my suspension is so stiff I switched back to COMFORT. That didn't make a difference so I'm going to code it back to ADAPTIVE as default. Will test steering once it's coded and I'm on highway and will update this thread.

I tested this about an hour ago on I-880. Floored the car — it was responsive as ever but no change to steering sensitivity. To be sure I was wasn't crazy I switched to SPORTS+ the change in steering weight was instantly felt.

[TheStoic]

Geez, I almost wish I didn't read this thread.

I don't know what NEW car I'd get besides a '23 M340i.

Most of the "negatives" listed don't mean much to me, but I'm curious about the laser lights, are they really that big of a deal?

[j luke]

Originally Posted by TheMaxXHD

Okay so, there is common confusion on what the adaptive M suspension does and what the adaptive mode does (or used to do), and the confusion is likely one of the reasons why they got rid of the adaptive drive mode. I will attempt to explain, but the short version is, them getting rid of the adaptive drive mode isn't really much of a loss because all it was effectively doing was switching between comfort and sport drive settings automatically in the background silently based on road and drive conditions.

Here is the more thorough explanation. If you have the adaptive M suspension, as long as it isn't actually broken, you are already getting the functionality of the suspension. What it does is adjust the dampers based on what mode you are in. It does not change the dampers while in the mode (to my knowledge). The changes in dampers happens when switching manually between sport and comfort modes. Sport is a more stiffer suspension damper setting, comfort is a more comfort damper setting.

This is in contrast to the base non adaptive m suspension, which has only 1 damper setting that cannot be changed, regardless of in comfort, sport, or eco pro. The non adaptive m suspension is generally considered to have a stock setting of stiffer than comfort on the adaptive suspension, but more comfort than sport on the adaptive suspension.

This is different than the adaptive drive mode, which used to be a mode on adaptive m suspension equipped cars, but in recent MY's BMW has started to get rid of quietly. What this setting did was in the background it would adjust essentially between comfort and sport drive modes (and possibly eco pro, not sure) automatically based on how the road was and what the driver was doing. It did not do anything more than that. It was essentially no different than manually toggling between the modes, just that the car did so behind the scenes, adjusting the transmission, dampers, and steering between the three modes. This mode added confusion to people who thought they had to be in the mode to get adaptive m suspension benefits, which is not true.

TLDR; If you have the adaptive M suspension equipped, you are already getting the full benefits of it. The adaptive drive mode was more or less the car switching automatically behind the scenes between the different drive modes. It did nothing more than that.

Perhaps I'm not quite understanding the concept but what you say is not my experience. I have the 2022 with adaptive M suspension and an "adaptive" mode button. When on the same section of road near my home the car is bouncier in comfort mode than it is in adaptive mode. I pass this way almost every day and it seems to bounce more in comfort mode than it does in adaptive mode. Adaptive seems to settle the car quicker. This is going the same speed as I did in comfort mode. So, when taking this section of road, whatever the car does behind the scenes in comfort mode not the same as what I feel it does in adaptive mode. Just my 2 cents.

[RCtennis3811]

Originally Posted by TheStoic

Geez, I almost wish I didn't read this thread.

I don't know what NEW car I'd get besides a '23 M340i.

Most of the "negatives" listed don't mean much to me, but I'm curious about the laser lights, are they really that big of a deal?

Even though some features were removed from the US market, including lowering the light output versus other markets, they still rated highest of all 3 pre-LCI headlights according to the IIHS.

LaserLight is gone in all LCI G20s worldwide, but the new Adaptive Matrix LED headlights (option 552) retain all of the good lighting tech...outside of the US again. And it seems like, according to folks here who have owned the pre-LCI with LaserLight and now own the LCI, the new headlights are just not as good.

Frankly, I'm still hopeful that BMW will offer an OTA upgrade via purchase through ConnectedDrive in the new year. The X7 LCI doesn't have LaserLight anymore, but in the "all you need to know" YouTube video from BMW's official channel, they mention that there will be a lighting upgrade available in the future. Since the lighting is also Adaptive Matrix LEDs on that, I'm wondering if they mean it'll be an OTA purchase.

see below at 4:02