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If I could rip the dashboard out of my 2008 535xi and replace it with something from say, a Mercedes it would be a great car. Great power, great brakes, handling is OK but it's hobbled by the tires. It has the best lighting of any car I've ever driven. It's hard to get used to "normal" lights after driving the 535.
BUT
BMW took an otherwise fantastic car and completely ruined it with the stupidest, most annoying control systems of any car I've ever driven ( and I once had a Citroen DS 21).
The HVAC is it's frikkin' ridiculous - you have to stop the car and screw around with iDrive to adjust the hot/cool air delivery and after 2 1/2 years I still haven't figured it out.
The steering wheel blocks the view of the speedometer and the turn signal indicators, which is important because if you hear a turn signal ticking you can't just touch the lever and know which one it is.
The levers for the wipers and turn signals fall back to the "off" position after you move them, which I find extremely annoying. Flip the lever up and you are either turning the left signal off or the right one on. You have to look at the arrows on the dash to see what's happening with the turn signals (but you can't see them because the steering wheel is in the way). I never know what speed I'm going to get when I flip the wiper switch. My Toyota has one lever with a barrel you twist to get three speeds and varying intermittent speeds. The BMW has a lever, a button, and a little thumb wheel thingy to do the same job (worse).
Two or three times I've returned to the car after leaving it in a parking lot to find the truck wide open. I don't know why.
The gear selector has two buttons and a lever. Why? My other cars all have one lever that does it all. It's not PRN321 like every other car I've driven either. You push it forward to go backward and pull it backward to go forward and push a button for park/neutral.
The warning chime is on all the frikkin' time. If I get in and put the key in the ignition before the door is closed, I get the chime. Open the door to pick the paper up off the driveway, chime; it's cold out, chime; open the door before I get the key out, chime. I want to take a hammer to that damn chime. My other cars give the same warnings, but they have a second or two delay before they sound off.
The piece de resistance is the warning on the iDrive when you put the key in. It says not to use the system unless traffic conditions allow you to do it safely. Under what traffic condition is it safe to take your eyes of the road and stare at a screen on the dashboard?
I was enthralled by the car's performance and I thought I would get used to the goofy controls. I was wrong. The 535 is definitely not a driver's car. The car requires that you spend way too much time looking at the dashboard and tending the controls instead of looking where you are going and DRIVING. Every time I get in the car I hate it more. It goes back to BMW in September and I'm going back to a Mercedes.
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