[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

[RCtennis3811]

Thanks for the honest review on it. My 2023 M340i xDrive is in the "ready for transport" phase right now and I'm honestly still on the fence on if I should go forward with it. It's spec'd pretty much the same as yours other than I chose Tacora Red Vernasca leather and open pore oak wood trim on the interior.

Like you, I chose the Shadowline package to get the better headlights since I also have LaserLight on my 2020. Even in stock formation, BMW LaserLight in my 2020 330i has been amazing on dark, curvy roads like where my folks live. It's a shame that the matrix LED ones in the US are terrible and a downgrade.

[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.

[Entropy89]

Very good review. This is the first time I'm actually happy I have the pre LCI version and don't feel like I'm missing out. The only items I wasnt able to get when I ordered my 2022 M340 was the adaptive suspension (sucks but I look at it as one less thing that could break), and the surround view camera which I did really want but figured wasn't a deal breaker. I think if i had ordered a few weeks later back in 2021 I would have missed out on a lot more.

I'll always prefer buttons to screens in a car but the iDrive 8 does look very nice. I was really hoping BMW would have kept all of the climate controls separate. Otherwise, cosmetically I miss the normal shifter. I absolutely hate that little nub. And the removal of the notch in the headlight was a small hallmark to the 3 series that they also took away.

[Panscan340]

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.

[SIZE="4"]My car[/SIZE]
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

[SIZE="4"]Devil’s advocate first[/SIZE]
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.

[SIZE="4"]Pros[/SIZE]
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.

[SIZE="4"]Cons[/SIZE]
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.
• 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.
• 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?

[SIZE="4"]iDrive 8 including dashboard and HUD[/SIZE]
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!
• 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?

[SIZE="4"]Final thoughts[/SIZE]
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.

[SIZE="4"]Pics[/SIZE]

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Just because there isn't an adaptive mode doesn't mean things aren't the same as they would be without the option.

[stanyu15]

Great summary and totally agree with most of the points listed. A few additional things to mention, I’ve had my 2023 m340 for a month now and also read that the driver assist lane information is no longer available in the HUD. I didn’t have this as an option in my previous 2016 340 but this would seem like a pretty good feature to have after reading about it. Idrive 8 for me has been working normally for me for about 95% of the time but in two instances while driving on the highway, it just goes completely blank and I had to restart it. Other times it would be glitchy and freeze for about 3-5 seconds before returning back to normal. Just mainly Google maps and Spotify running in these instances. Hopefully this can be fixed in upcoming OTA updates.

[zazzau]

All the more reason I'm happy with my pre-LCI. I sat in a LCI at the dealership and didn't like anything about the car especially coming from a pre-LCI. I agree with you that the screen is an improvement but my only gripe with it is that it doesn't feel integrated to the car. Just feels like a huge iPad placed on the dash. Just not my taste; can't get past it personally. The gear knob or lack of it thereof is just a huge turn off too. Obviously this is a steady trend towards electric. I get it; but for now I'm satisfied with my build.

[stein_325i]

Thank you for the detailed and brutally honest post. I've played with iDrive 8.0 in the iX and it is 100% a huge step back with some very awful quirks. Be glad that your iDrive controller is still physical, in the iX and new 7er its actually haptic touch and very poorly done at that.

I had no clue about the heated seats being tied to the HVAC, that absolutely sucks and would drive me nuts! I like you love to have windows down and seat heaters on, so that is a huge oversight by BMW.

[Cammy440iGC]

I think that when you choose the sensatec seats you don't get the lumbar support. You only get that when you have leather seats. Im going with leather for that very reason...plus the stitching you get on the door panels.

[TM5]

Appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts -we all have different priorities and perspectives. Agree that driving experience is best in class. I do find the auto stop start a bit annoying - it seems to be getting more intrusive as I add miles or maybe just more noticeable.
not sure I understand your comments about hvac being tied to heated seats. I drove around yesterday with windows partially down and heated seats on - wasn’t an issue - ac was off - temp set at 72 and fan on low…

I will double check when I get back in car - but believe tach is visible on right side when in comfort mode - might depend on which display you choose

[TheMaxXHD]

I appreciate this review, thank you for your effort in putting this all together.

I will be going from a 2011 LCI E90 328i xDrive to this. I wonder how much different our experiences will be once I get my m340i LCI this month (hopefully). Mine will have the kick tailgate thankfully.

One of the interesting things I find is the headlights. Like you, I have the infamous xenon's on my E90, so that is a minor concern I have, and is disappointing to hear that they might not be utterly amazing, which I was really hoping for.

A lot of your other issues I likely won't find annoying (not that they aren't valid), just because I haven't driven all the cars in between my E90 and this, so likely the overall package will be well worth it. I will be happy just to simply have carplay period.

As for why a wide screen over tall screen. Technically, it likely is better from a safety pov than a taller screen, because your eyes don't have to change as much on the Y-axis, thus allowing your eyes to be peripherally closer to the windshield than if you had to look down some more on a screen that is tall but not nearly as wide. That said, tall screens are a lot easier to design and navigate.

For your iDrive 7 vs 8 complaints, I feel like some of those depend on how much a driver uses the built in functions over carplay/android auto. That said, I am sure they are still valid. I have driven an iDrive 7 car (an X3), and I gotta say, iDrive 8 looks like a huge upgrade. iDrive 7 looks outdated and lacking of functionality in areas. I think some of it is subjective to software. Some people prefer Apple, some people prefer Android, that type of thing, is the nature of software. Again, no knocks against your review, just that I will be interested to see if I have the same thoughts as you.

For why you don't have the sport adjustable side bolsters on the driver side, it is because of the senastec I believe. The leather options have it for the driver side iirc.

Finally for the cooled seats, yeah I agree (though to me, not having the option of rear heated seats is worse). The cooled seats though I don't know how much one is missing, I have heard of pretty bad seat and cooling quality on BMW's cooled seats on various of models.

Everything else though, I think you are probably spot on. Very thorough review. Thank you for your effort, this will help me understand the car once I get it hopefully soon. Should be a very nice upgrade over my E90.

[zazzau]

Originally Posted by TheMaxXHD

I appreciate this review, thank you for your effort in putting this all together.

I will be going from a 2011 LCI E90 328i xDrive to this. I wonder how much different our experiences will be once I get my m340i LCI this month (hopefully). Mine will have the kick tailgate thankfully.

One of the interesting things I find is the headlights. Like you, I have the infamous xenon's on my E90, so that is a minor concern I have, and is disappointing to hear that they might not be utterly amazing, which I was really hoping for.

A lot of your other issues I likely won't find annoying (not that they aren't valid), just because I haven't driven all the cars in between my E90 and this, so likely the overall package will be well worth it. I will be happy just to simply have carplay period.

As for why a wide screen over tall screen. Technically, it likely is better from a safety pov than a taller screen, because your eyes don't have to change as much on the Y-axis, thus allowing your eyes to be peripherally closer to the windshield than if you had to look down some more on a screen that is tall but not nearly as wide. That said, tall screens are a lot easier to design and navigate.

For your iDrive 7 vs 8 complaints, I feel like some of those depend on how much a driver uses the built in functions over carplay/android auto. That said, I am sure they are still valid. I have driven an iDrive 7 car (an X3), and I gotta say, iDrive 8 looks like a huge upgrade. iDrive 7 looks outdated and lacking of functionality in areas. I think some of it is subjective to software. Some people prefer Apple, some people prefer Android, that type of thing, is the nature of software. Again, no knocks against your review, just that I will be interested to see if I have the same thoughts as you.

For why you don't have the sport adjustable side bolsters on the driver side, it is because of the senastec I believe. The leather options have it for the driver side iirc.

Finally for the cooled seats, yeah I agree (though to me, not having the option of rear heated seats is worse). The cooled seats though I don't know how much one is missing, I have heard of pretty bad seat and cooling quality on BMW's cooled seats on various of models.

Everything else though, I think you are probably spot on. Very thorough review. Thank you for your effort, this will help me understand the car once I get it hopefully soon. Should be a very nice upgrade over my E90.

My buddy is placing an order so it's good to know that bolster is dependent on leather. BMW is terrible at marketing.

As far as the screen - I don't think most people, myself included, spend a lot of time interacting with the screen. I only ever have to interact with the screen for media/music/CarPlay. Sometimes I use it to set my nav. That's it. Once I'm on my way I use the HUD. So for those of us with pre-LCI there's no FOMO when it comes to the screen and having physical preset buttons is a bonus. If I had LCI with no physical buttons where I was forced to use the screen then that's a different story.

Congrats on your new car.

[RCtennis3811]

I'm curious about the voice commands for iDrive 7 vs 8. In 7, there's always a lag before it understands what and does it. Things such as "Hey BMW, lower the temp to 70" take about 5 seconds or more to process. Does it take as long in 8?

[RCtennis3811]

Also, not sure there's any functional upgrades of iDrive 8 vs 7 in the G20.

In iDrive 7, we get the same apps as 8: traffic camera info, uneven surface, automated habits, Alexa, drive recorder, etc. I think the only thing 8 has that I want, augmented navigation, isn't available on the G20.

[BobTX10]

I took delivery of my m340i a couple days ago and didn't receive a digital key card. Should the car come with one or no?

[TheMaxXHD]

Originally Posted by BobTX10

I took delivery of my m340i a couple days ago and didn't receive a digital key card. Should the car come with one or no?

Only if your vehicle has the wireless charger.

[zazzau]

Originally Posted by TheMaxXHD

Only if your vehicle has the wireless charger.

Is this a new requirement for 2023? When I took delivery of my car (2021) they didn't give me a key card. I found it tucked away in the sunscreen visor. Some found theirs inside the manual; otherwise reported finding it in some weird places.

[Panscan340]

Originally Posted by zazzau

Is this a new requirement for 2023? When I took delivery of my car (2021) they didn't give me a key card. I found it tucked away in the sunscreen visor. Some found theirs inside the manual; otherwise reported finding it in some weird places.

Yes now digital key is tied to the wireless charger option basically.

I agree, very opaque and poorly marketed. In general BMW does a terrible job marketing what is in each option.

[mondayze]

I've had an LCI for over a month now. Still extremely happy with the purchase, idrive8 and all.

[wrickem]

Thank you for your very well written review.

I hope after you spend more time with your new car, you'll give us an update if you still feel the same way, or if you actually like some of the "new" features and the way they work.

It sure is a beauty!

[Chubbiejones]

Fantastic review! Thank you for actually taking the time to compile all your thoughts and centralize them in one thread

[bimmerstar]

happy with my fully loaded 2020. sorry you are not completely satisfied. i actually just bought my 2020 used and was looking at the 21 22 and LCI 23. the bumpers on the 23 lci were enough to sway me to the 2020 not to mention all the cons listed. ID8 does not make up for all the missing content and honestly i like the id7.