Picking up the beast this week-Recommendations?

[brucewil]

I will be picking up my car this week if all goes well. what suggestions do owners have for me to make the learning curve as short as possible for the Idrive set up and break in periods?

[brutus]

RTFM, I also will be picking up my M5 this week (Open Road, Edison NJ), and besides reading this BB I've also read much of the on-line copy of the English M5 manual, while not exactly the same as the US manual that'll come with the car it's content is as far as I can tell is.

This is double impotent if your going to be picking your car up from a long distance like me (driving it home to Dublin CA (SFBay)).

Good luck, Enjoy,
Brutus (aka Bruce)

[Tim_M]

Pay particular attention to the section on Voice Control, it will allow you to shortcut directly into almost all of the iDrive screens. While it is 2 years out of date now there is a long list of all the alternative commands - depending on how you pronounce words some phrases give a much better hit rate than others.

Manual: http://www.e60.net/information/2006_..._Manual_US.pdf

VC: http://www.e60.net/information/E60_Voice_Commands.pdf

Don't pay any attention to the info about saving entries into the phone - the new system is more sophisticated than that - it uses a text to speech engine to work out how the entries in your phone's address book should sound. Say one of the entries is "Mum and Dad" hit the VC button and say "Call Mum and Dad" after the beep. The computer will think for a while and then ask you "Would you like to be connected to 'Mum & Dad'?" Say "yes" after the beep, and it will dial. You might want to go through the address book in your phone - abbreviations don't work well, and the longer the entries the better the hit rate. I used to store mobile (cell) numbers as (M) in my address book - now they are all written in full so for example I now have Nigel Mobile where it used to read Nigel (M). A bit long winded but that is one of the areas that the manual glosses over.
I hate to bring this up but there has been a problem with one of the oil lines. Buy a litre of Castrol TWS (it is the only approved oil for M cars), and set the trip computer to show oil level, just in case.

Don't forget while setting up M-Drive that you aren't supposed to use S5/6 during the running in period - set it to S4 which is plenty fast enough. Don't bother with the auto modes on SMG - it is so easy to change gear using the paddles that they are superfluous.

That's all I can think of for the moment - if anything else comes to mind I'll post as and when.

Tim.

[Crg]

Originally Posted by brutus

RTFM, I also will be picking up my M5 this week (Open Road, Edison NJ), and besides reading this BB I've also read much of the on-line copy of the English M5 manual, while not exactly the same as the US manual that'll come with the car it's content is as far as I can tell is.

This is double impotent if your going to be picking your car up from a long distance like me (driving it home to Dublin CA (SFBay)).

Good luck, Enjoy,
Brutus (aka Bruce)

What is your route heading West .Use the board to help you locate good BMW dealers in case of emergency.After reading posts here you should know of potential problems .i/e oil leaks (hose malfuntion),no oil filters at some dealers(on back order),tire problems(no spare just a pump with gel pack).I am glad to help if needed .I am located outside Chicago .Good Luck and have a safe trip. CRG

[brutus]

Originally Posted by Crg

What is your route heading West .Use the board to help you locate good BMW dealers in case of emergency.After reading posts here you should know of potential problems .i/e oil leaks (hose malfuntion),no oil filters at some dealers(on back order),tire problems(no spare just a pump with gel pack).I am glad to help if needed .I am located outside Chicago .Good Luck and have a safe trip. CRG

Thanks, yup have read about the problems, salesman already has an oil filter set aside and several quarts of oil for the trip. Current plan is to take I80, pit stop in Omaha NE at Markel BMW, talked to the server manager, they've done 1 '06 M5 already, said they'd have us back on the road in 4.5 hours.

Brutus

[M3Racer]

I'd say keep 2-3 liters of oil on hand, read the manual, take it easy on the car as recommended by the manual. Monitor the oil level in the display. Use S4, shift at around 3-5k and don't floor it all the way because it'll rev up so fast you'll easily go over the 5500 rpm mark. Other than that, do whatever you wish with EDC (damping control), and set up MDrive in the "Vehicle Settings" to S4, P500 (not P500 sport), MDM, EDC on sport, Head up display M Mode, etc. so that you can have a little more fun when you want.

[brucewil]

Stop on by on your way home and we'll compare notes. I'm just outside of philly. I'm guessing you are flying in, and driving it back? good way to break it in. by the time you get home you'll be ready to rock n roll.