Yesterday's 'handover' was a surprisingly cursory affair, not that it didn't take quite a while, more that I realized on the way home that there was quite a lot I still didn't know. For example, how to open the fuel filler (easy, as it turns out) and what to do with all those buttons on the steering wheel (still not obvious.) So, having woken up too early this morning, here I am with my pot of tea and 260 pages of Owner's Handbook. That's 140 pages slimmer than the equivalent for the LEC, so I'm winning already, but still a lot to take in.
First impressions: nicely written and laid out in clear UK English - although with some oddities like 'to prevent that you are shut out of the car accidentally' that betray its Continental origins - but the cockpit diagrams all show LHD, which means that important things like the ignition and lights switches are in entirely different places. Given that this isn't just a UK and Ireland car but one sold in large numbers in RHD markets across the world - there are instructions on installing a child seat to the standard required in Australia and New Zealand - how hard would it have been to produce a set of drawings the right way round? Pretty sure the MB and Volvo manuals both managed it.
One thing I do like is the way the book explains the 'operating principle' for a system before diving into the details. For example, it explains the significance of the remote key units and how each stores a different set of controls and preferences (which will cause some confusion since they look exactly the same) and then explains how to set my preference for the combination of doors and boot it will unlock with one or two presses, and so on.
Lots more to read - how to work the four-way control for lumbar support and inflatable kidney-squeezers, how to fold the back seat, how to choose the right sensitivity for the speed-sensitive volume control - but I thought the panel might appreciate this on the handbrake:
'The lever applies by itself.'
I'll have to watch out for that. No mention of pressing the button in until it's time to release, but as an anti-corrosion measure it does want me to occasionally apply the handbrake before the car comes to a halt. So that's what all those BMW drivers are doing in empty car parks; they've R'd the FM.
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>> I'll have to watch out for that. No mention of pressing the button in until
>> it's time to release, but as an anti-corrosion measure it does want me to occasionally
>> apply the handbrake before the car comes to a halt.
Thats a good point, how many people here do that. I have to confess that I, almost as second nature, once or twice a month, give a gentle tug on the handbrake lever
'The one that doesn't apply by itself' as we are going along, getting a satisfying "clonk" from the rear as the shoes and drum (separate drum and shoes for handbrake) get "anti corroded"
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The dealer gave me a manual to distract from the tedium of waiting for the V60. Not cracked yet.
(I tried the anti-corrosion thing on the Insignia last year. Turns out that it's quite hard to modulate an electronic brake and faintly alarming to become aware of the fact that the back of the car is gradually overtaking the front on the inside lane...)
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Sat 30 May 15 at 10:12
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You will have hours of fun now working out what features in the book are actually fitted to your car. Other manufacturers (Ford, for example) clearly highlight optional equipment with asterisks or italic text. BMW don't bother, save for a generic "some items are optional equipment" type message buried in the pages somewhere.
The only thing I've had to actually refer to the manual for is to find out how to put the wipers in raised mode so they can be pulled clear of the screen for washing (they foul the bonnet edge when lifted in the park position.) To save you the trouble if you haven't found it yet, with the ignition off, flick the wiper stalk up as if you are putting the wipers on, but hold it against the stop for a few seconds. The wipers will perform one cycle, then stop vertically on the next. Release the stalk and you're good to go. A flick wipe when you next turn the ignition on will reset them to the normal park position.
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Thanks, DP. The LEC has a similar wiper arrangement but all I have to do there is grab the nearside one and pull and the mechanical linkage does the rest.
The 'optional equipment' thing is kinda nice this time. With the LEC the manual describes all kinds of things I know my second-from-bottom car hasn't got, whereas here I'm smugly in the middle of the range and can skip past the sections headed '4-cylinder models'. Haven't got Hill Descent Control, though. Or Independent Heating System.
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I have got Drive-off Assist (6-cylinder engines) though. Tried it on the way up the hill to home this evening - I have to pause on a steepish climb to cross another road - and it worked very smoothly. Not that it was ever any trouble to pull up the handbrake and move off, but now I have another option.
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>> I have got Drive-off Assist (6-cylinder engines) though. Tried it on the way up the
>> hill to home this evening - I have to pause on a steepish climb to
>> cross another road - and it worked very smoothly. Not that it was ever any
>> trouble to pull up the handbrake and move off, but now I have another option.
>>
Nothing in the manual about indicators tho is there.......
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Since when did we need indicators to overtake you 4 cyl Boyz?
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Nothing in the manual about indicators...
A surprising amount - although that may just be because they're one of those expensive optional features DP mentioned - and it's introduced me to the term 'pressure point'. It tells me how to use them; it just doesn't say when.
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>> Nothing in the manual about indicators...
>>
>> A surprising amount - although that may just be because they're one of those expensive
>> optional features DP mentioned - and it's introduced me to the term 'pressure point'. It
>> tells me how to use them; it just doesn't say when.
>>
On the zig-zags outside your local school at 8.45am seems to be perfectly acceptable.
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What a faff. So when the wipers have to be parked, there's the possibility of them running over a dry screen. Thank goodness I've never had the slightest desire to buy a BMW. Is this daft arrangement on other makes too?
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Probably, given that concealing the pivots is a pedestrian safety requirement now - although I agree the Mercedes arrangement is simpler and neater. If I'm concerned about wiping a dry screen, I can just use a pull of the washer switch to park them. No big deal.
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Realized this morning that I'd been doing this for years. Crawling up to join the M4 I was letting the car roll to a near-halt with the clutch down and using the handbrake for the final stop. Very gentle and no clonk, but evidently just a habit I'd forgotten in three years of mostly automatic driving.
It evidently didn't prevent the S60's handbrake shoes from delaminating, although that may have been more of a design weakness. Should I be more vigorous this time (although perhaps not in closely spaced moving traffic?)
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>> ...as an anti-corrosion measure it does want me to occasionally
>> apply the handbrake before the car comes to a halt. So that's what all those
>> BMW drivers are doing in empty car parks; they've R'd the FM.
>>
I thought it was standard practice for any car with a drum rear brake. I used to do it with the old drum-in-disc S60 and Porsche also recommended it for the drum-in-disc setup.
Dunno what you're meant to do with the push button handbrakes if you only have discs all-round.
I know when the car is moving it applies all four brakes like pressing the pedal and the ABS also works.
I would personally prefer a lever working on just the rears but there you go, progress. Who am I to argue ?
Until the day the hydraulic system fails and I no longer have a cable connected to a set of brakes. I've always got 1st, or reverse with syncro, as a last resort I suppose.
I'm not sure what would happen if I pressed the Start button while car was moving, if that would shut down the engine. Sunday morning playtime beckons. At least the supermarkets here are closed on Sunday giving me somewhere to go try it out.
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BMW - R'ing the FM - Zero
