Electric Vehicles: General topics

I forgot how much I missed this car, not just CarPlay but the build quality is exceptional when compared that rattle bucket Tesla. While you can touch the screen for most things, it's still all available through iDrive, the ride is way smoother and quieter, with all the menu items logically laid out, with the most important (distracting) things placed right on the main screen so your eyes are never off the road for more than a couple of seconds.

bmw_i4.jpg
 
Do you have an off button for the center screen? Mine is off 90% of the time. I do use the backup screen (it has an awesome overhead view when in reverse), but the gauge display is what I use (Nissan's HUD sucks, really hard).
 
Yoused said:
Do you have an off button for the center screen? Mine is off 90% of the time. I do use the backup screen (it has an awesome overhead view when in reverse), but the gauge display is what I use (Nissan's HUD sucks, really hard).
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No HUD in this model and I'm not sure the screen turns off but I wouldn't ever want to do that anyway, it's too lovely of an infotainment system.
 
The road is plenty for me (and I strive to take interesting ones when I can), I have no desire to be infotained. It is bad enough she reads texts to me.
 
@Eric Love it and a bit envious. Although I like my ID.4 (Black Betty, bam a lam), I don’t love it for mainly the infotainment system, and lack of intuitive human interaction.
 
rdrr said:
@Eric Love it and a bit envious. Although I like my ID.4 (Black Betty, bam a lam), I don’t love it for mainly the infotainment system, and lack of intuitive human interaction.
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Don't feel too bad, I bought this model with no bells and whistles, not even adaptive cruise control. I'm on record here being super excited about all of that with the Tesla but it turned out to be so shitty that I got totally turned off to it and largely never used it. Now I'm blissfully taking full control of this car but it's so much more pleasant to drive.
 
Eric said:
not even adaptive cruise control
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Mine has a way to turn on standard or active cruise. The few times I have used it, it was active because you have to hold the activate button down for a second and a half to get standard. It seemed ok, not that big a thing. Hard to trust.

The much more troubling feature is the one where it adjusts cruise according to the speed limit. There is a camera that reads speed limit signs, so the cruise on a long trip can automatically adhere to the speed limit (or to an above/below number that you set it for). I have that awesome feature turned off.

And at some point, I turned off the invisible rumble strip. Not sure what activated it, but it was informing me about lane drift by vibrating the steering wheel. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on. I think it can do lane keeping for me, but that is just a little creepy IMO.
 
Betty has 3 cruse control modes, regular, adaptive, and something called partial drive assist. Used the latter once and it seem to work very well. However she does not like the cold weather we have been having. Sensors have been disabled or going off randomly, so I am not too keen on letting her take over.
 
rdrr said:
Betty has 3 cruse control modes, regular, adaptive, and something called partial drive assist. Used the latter once and it seem to work very well. However she does not like the cold weather we have been having. Sensors have been disabled or going off randomly, so I am not too keen on letting her take over.
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When I had the ID.4 I thought the travel assist worked pretty well, except when the camera is frosted over, or it decides to "split the wide lane" that is an off-ramp. But I turned off the lane keeping for local roads, it nearly did a Very Bad Thing(tm) during the test drive and turned that nonsense off before I even considered buying the thing.

Hyundai's system is about the same to be honest.

I've had distance keeping in the Subaru for years that worked quite well. Still not fully trusting the steering assist in these cars, but it is improving.
 
My car has some genuinely useless features. A power armrest with a motor that lets you slide it forward or back using a rocker button. And a center drawer in the dash that comes out with a button push, and goes back with another (you have to hold the flush touchpad buttons for the drawer to move) – though, it does have a cover that can be a useful writing surface.

However, there is
Put her in reverse:
IMG_5953.jpeg

The backup camera (to the left) is accompanied by a simulated overhead view. Cameras on the outside mirrors help compose the overall image (non-short things near the side of the car can look really freaky). I had to do a smudge, because otherwise my plate would have been readable.

I deliberately took this picture at night, on wet pavement, for the best effect. You can just see the little parking lot island on the right in both views and the white line for the space to the left (inside the green aiming line). This camera setup has gotten me into backing into parking spaces because it lets me get centered pecfectly. Daytime or on dry pavement, the overhead looks just like a bird would see.

I imagine other cars probably have something like this, but I am sure happy to have it on mine.
 
Yoused said:
I imagine other cars probably have something like this, but I am sure happy to have it on mine.
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Yeah, we love it, heck, I use it when pulling forward too, to get a sense of the curbs / avoid the rash :D

1740437013502.png



The mix of camera AND other sensors like USS is terrific, you get the additional object detection that's very accurate. A few different views/overlays, etc.

Ours isn't quite a psychedelic as yours :D
 
DT said:
Yeah, we love it, heck, I use it when pulling forward too, to get a sense of the curbs / avoid the rash :D

View attachment 33976


The mix of camera AND other sensors like USS is terrific, you get the additional object detection that's very accurate. A few different views/overlays, etc.

Ours isn't quite a psychedelic as yours :D
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Love it too! Tesla didn't have it and neither did my previous BMW but the new one does and it makes parking so much easier.
 
This is pretty cool, ABRP via CarPlay uses both displays, a zoomed in on the driver's, an overall route view on the center, and while BMW isn't providing SOC data - yet - I'm getting it via a BT OBD module, note the BT symbol % in the top right.

1740754829422.png



So my starting / continuous SOC is displayed, and the actual consumption data is determined in real time:

1740754881139.png


The two values with the blue car/wave icon are from the dongle (vs. being manually entered without)
 
Oh yeah, the 2026 iX configurator is online too, with the new 45, 60 (replacing the 50) and 70 (replacing the 60).
 
DT said:
Oh yeah, the 2026 iX configurator is online too, with the new 45, 60 (replacing the 50) and 70 (replacing the 60).
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i’m probably going for the 70, but I’m off to the configurator!

Update: nope. the 60. Much better range.

Update 2: lol. Configured 2025 would lease at around $1250 a month when I checked a few weeks ago. Configured 2026 leases at $2600. In 3 years that would be $93,000, which is close to the car’s price. What?
 
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Cmaier said:
i’m probably going for the 70, but I’m off to the configurator!

Update: nope. the 60. Much better range.

Update 2: lol. Configured 2025 would lease at around $1250 a month when I checked a few weeks ago. Configured 2026 leases at $2600. In 3 years that would be $93,000, which is close to the car’s price. What?
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I've been having a difficult time wrapping my head around this, all things being equal the only thing I can figure is you're not locked into a purchase this way.

I figure I'm going to upgrade in 3 years anyway and it's nice to be able to walk from it at the end of the lease, otherwise I'm almost always rolling up negative equity into the next purchase. So I don't like to actually buy unless I think I'm going to keep the car long term, which was my intention with the Tesla so I went all in on that one just to lose much of the equity.
 
Cmaier said:
Update 2: lol. Configured 2025 would lease at around $1250 a month when I checked a few weeks ago. Configured 2026 leases at $2600. In 3 years that would be $93,000, which is close to the car’s price. What?
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Usually, when I see this show up on leases, it's their way of saying they'd rather you take on the depreciation, or they think the car may be practically unsellable at the end of the lease. With folks reporting that EVs are currently depreciating 30+% in one year, this doesn't surprise me too much.
 
Nycturne said:
Usually, when I see this show up on leases, it's their way of saying they'd rather you take on the depreciation, or they think the car may be practically unsellable at the end of the lease. With folks reporting that EVs are currently depreciating 30+% in one year, this doesn't surprise me too much.
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Given that last year’s model had half the lease payment, I am guessing it’s a bug, something that is intended to penalize people who don’t buy off-the-lot, or a temporary thing.

Anyway, if they’re serious, I’ll lease a Macan instead.
 

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