Learning curve

[Wolverine]

As I was making my way through the M5 manual tonight, it struck me how daunting a task this would be if I hadn't been driving a 545 for over a year now. It took me perhaps 3 months to really 'warm up' to the car in terms of being comfortable with all the controls, and another 3 months to really understand the whole car and what all the options were. I'm still discovering the assorted feature that I find quite helpful.

Specifically, the turn signals, wiper and light controls, mirrors controls, ventilation, seat controls, radio, CD, phone, etc.... took me a while before I was really comfortable just driving the car. Then it took me a while longer to understand the more subtle things, like what functions could be auto-programmed into my key, how I could quickly cool the car, auto-ventilate, one-touch all windows down...etc..etc..etc...

The M5 is an even more complex car, and I can't imagine those of you who have recently started driving it are fully utilizing all the features. What has your experience been? How long does it take before you are really comfortable with the controls?

[hal2000]

I havent gotten to the manual. I figure its no more diffucult that teaching yourself linux? (i hope)

So what is the deal about the turn signals not self cancelling? so if you make a signal you cant turn it off?

[cidair]

I had driven the 545 for 36000km before I got my M5. That was a big help.

[scoop]

Originally Posted by hal2000

So what is the deal about the turn signals not self cancelling? so if you make a signal you cant turn it off?

It auto-cancels if you turn the wheel back and forth beyond a certain threshold. If you tip it, it flashes 3 times (for changing lanes for example) and auto-cancels. If you completely switch it on and don't turn the wheel beyond mentioned threshold, you can cancel it by tipping it again in the same direction (which is what was apparently confusing the hell out of the guy in the Top Gear video)

Regarding the learning curve itself, I've never been actively driving any BMW cars besides a 1999 Z3 M Coupe (I've been an Audi guy to date) which was everything but packed with electronics. Last week, I've been testdriving an E60 M5 for a couple hours and after that I was pretty confident that I'll manage my way through all the electronics systems of the car without reading every page of the manual. Even iDrive can be dealt with just fine if you grasp some of its (arguably not too obvious) inner logic.

Just my two cents.