Monday, March 28, 2016

BMW 328i 20,000 Mile Report

BMW 328i - 20,000 Miles of Very Nice


Elle is 18 months old and has clocked in a bit over 20,000 miles. Over the Easter weekend we took a quick run to Anderson, TX (about 200 miles round-trip). Elle instills tons of confidence when passing, although the Excess Speed Alert chimes just a bit too much. On the Toll Roads it will chime at 83 MPH, just to keep me honest. When passing, 83 is not realistic.  

BMW 330e

Old Posts: 


The Good 

The Auto Stop/Start feature is still on my "can't decide if I hate it" list. But, long stoplights mean 2-3 minutes where Elle is not burning fossil fuels. I'm watching some of the 328-based "e" announcements - with hopes that the rough restart is solved. Then again, the weight additions for the Hybrid do not look promising (so far.)

The Bad 

  • Eco-Pro Mode is hideous. Another nanny-state solution that simply does not work in the real world. I cannot see any reason to switch it on for more than a chance to heckle the feature. I have never been able to add >5 miles to a tank of gas, never able to get to +1 more MPG, never reached a mere 2% improvement. It kills the fun and yields nearly nothing. 
  • AS/S rough restarts can be defeated by slipping the brake, pushing the button on above the starter, of sliding the shift lever into Sport mode. It's love/hate on this feature.
  • The iDrive system hates my 32 Gig music drive. It fails to resume play and fails to return to the Current Playback song. I'm willing to cut my playlist... but dang, this is annoying.

The Ugly 

  • There is not enough open road in the entire state of Texas. (Same as last report).
  • I'll never buy another BMW without xDrive. I'm only an OK driver, so the xDrive was a very good friend. 
  • The engine Double-Tap to turn off - still hate it. 

Bottom Line

Eagerly waiting for June 2017 to take European delivery of an M235 with xDrive. But, worried that the political (social, cultural?) environment might be too risky.