Slashdot Mirror

As a hardcore BMW geek, I am really glad to see the M3 and it's very cool SMGII transmission make it to the front page of Slashdot. For more info, check out:

BMW's Flash SMGII Transmission Presentation

The Unofficial BMW E46 FAQ

I wouldn't call Launch Control an easter egg however. If you explore the BMW Flash presentation, they mention it. While BMW North America said it would be disabled on US cars, as soon as the M3 SMG came over, the first (privilaged lucky bastard) owners tried it out and it worked.

I have a new 325Ci (5 speed) and a previous genneration M3 race car that I built up from a crashed car and used parts. My only regret is that many people view Bimmers as yuppie mobiles, when in fact, they are amazing to drive, very technically advanced and probably the best overall vehicles on the road. Oh well... that feeling goes away when I am at the track or on an empty road.

Freude am Fahren

Bah, I knew I should have bought a German car!

I bought a German car, and it's not diesel-based, so the simple act of buying a German car does not necessarily mean it's not going to use gasoline.

BMWs iDrive System on the BMW745i is the real deal.

iDrive consists of a computer that controls 270 functions (including basic climate and stereo settings), a center-mounted LCD screen and a console-mounted rotary pushbutton knob that works as the system's "mouse." It's an amazingly powerful system that BMW sees taking over almost all vehicle functions.

More info here.

Now while cars with this engine aren't sold in the
US, one can purchase a Golf or Jetta with a slightly larger 1.9 liter TDI
which makes 50 MPG, and generates between 90-115 HP. (with a torque peak
of 155 lb. ft. @ 1900 rpm) 0-60 is a pathetic 10s, but 0-40 is a phenomenal
~4 seconds, which I find easily leaves a Subaru WRX or a BMW M3 in the dust.

If said vehicles are driven by Miss Daisy.

BMW M3. 343 bhp. 365 Nm. 0-100 km/h: 5.2 seconds.

Subaru WRX. 250 bhp. 333 Nm. 0-100 km/h: 5.9 seconds. (Original spec)

Buddy, I don't think so.

Dude, it's obviously not a "mouse-type interface" where "you have to watch a pointer". I mean, c'mon, the interface might suck, but BMW isn't so completely demented as to make you manuever a mouse pointer around on a screen, trying to click on something while you are driving.

If you had used your mouse-type interface and watched your pointer click the link given in the post, or maybe this other link given in the post, you would have read that you just bump the control in a certain direction, or twist or push it. From the NY Times article:

"To operate innumerable other iDrive features -- including the audio, climate and navigation systems, the built-in phone and all sorts of programmable settings for the locks, the lights and the like -- you use the disk on the armrest, called the iDrive controller. First you tug it one of eight directions that correspond to the points of a compass. To call up the navigation system, you push the controller to the right. Then you scroll through menus and submenus on the central screen by twisting, twirling or pressing the knob. It is not a hands-free process."

So, to get to each of the major systems, you bump the knob in a particular direction. After you learn the bump direction for each major system, you wouldn't even have to look at the screen. Same thing goes for the other twists and pushes, they are always the same every time and can be done without looking when learned.

Even while you are learning, you certainly don't guide a pointer around like a computer mouse while driving, trying to click on things. I'm not saying that the iDrive is great--in fact, it sounds like a bitch to learn. But please, take the 30 seconds or so to peruse the articles before posting, so you know what you are discussing first.

the reviewer finds the interface 'maddening

I can see why, if the interface was designed by the same people who designed their website.

When I pulled up their site I got the worst mis-rendered disaster I have ever seen. I got a column of text wordwrapped at !!14!! characters. Some of the text was invisible on black background. I got random little lines all over the screen. I don't know if it's because I'm using Netscape. I don't konw it it's because I have cookies shut off. But I *do* know it's not just because I have JavaScripting shut off. How do I know? I tried turning it Java script on and reloading. It actually wound up rendering *less* of the page.

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As an example, you can get a telematics system in new luxury cars which can get GPS info, email, web pages, weather, stocks, local info, etc. See BMW's iDrive

I noticed that too, then again, almost all the news sites that have names the same as their titles are searched for. What I think is more funny is how many other sites that couldn't have been explained by people looking for cached versions of the site there are: nokia, sony, bmw... and Amazon for *'s sake! I guess it's good that people are using Google, but how stupid are they, really? And I didn't think bookmarks/shorcuts where that advanced of a concept.

I don't mean this to be flamebait but these chairs are much like the BMW Z3, for those into cars: faddish and a faulty symbol to some (usually blandish types.)

The cars are not very fast, smooth, reliable, but a niche (quite sizable) is presented and filled, and then suddenly they are of meaning.

I think anyone who's ever driven one of these, these, or these, would say Germany's pretty industrialised.