Sorry if this has already been posted. If not, enjoy! :cheers:
http://www.e90post.com/goodiesforyou/topgear-m5.wmv
http://www.e90post.com/goodiesforyou/topgear-m5.wmv
All those buttons.. what the single M button? yes, your right, its really complicated and hard to press a button isn't it.M5_2010 said:Nice.....
I agree with his observations. I wish they would get rid of all of those buttons and tune the car for us. Also, it should be 507hp all of the time with a 6 speed manual. He did say the ride was rubbish? I guess he meant very harsh?
This misses the point of the car. Instead of "tuning the car for us," BMW chose to allow us to tune it for ourselves, and to do so without leaving the driver's seat. The quality that sets the M5 apart from everything else is its ability to be a comfortable, perfectly tractable cruiser one minute and an assault missile the next. The small price to be paid for this unsurpassed and unprecedented flexibility is reading the owner's manual (something that most car journalists seem incapabale of doing) and spending a little time becoming acquainted with the controls (ditto). Anyone who truly cannot handle the M5's electronics can program once and for all his chosen settings into the M button and never have to touch anything else. All the rest of us will greatly enjoy the flexibility. If Clarkson were convinced in his own criticisms, he would never have bestowed the eventual accolades, which leads to the conclusion that others already have mentioned -- the first part of the show is more comic theater than serious critique.M5_2010 said:Nice.....
I agree with his observations. I wish they would get rid of all of those buttons and tune the car for us. Also, it should be 507hp all of the time with a 6 speed manual. He did say the ride was rubbish? I guess he meant very harsh?
MRichmond said:This misses the point of the car. Instead of "tuning the car for us," BMW chose to allow us to tune it for ourselves, and to do so without leaving the driver's seat. The quality that sets the M5 apart from everything else is its ability to be a comfortable, perfectly tractable cruiser one minute and an assault missile the next. The small price to be paid for this unsurpassed and unprecedented flexibility is reading the owner's manual (something that most car journalists seem incapabale of doing) and spending a little time becoming acquainted with the controls (ditto). Anyone who truly cannot handle the M5's electronics can program once and for all his chosen settings into the M button and never have to touch anything else. All the rest of us will greatly enjoy the flexibility. If Clarkson were convinced in his own criticisms, he would never have bestowed the eventual accolades, which leads to the conclusion that others already have mentioned -- the first part of the show is more comic theater than serious critique.
Clarkson is a journalist. As a journalist he should report his findings objectively AND also portray his personal impressions. He chose to blend the facts with his personal impressions in the first half of the show, and he did it in a humorous way! I think he echos a very valid sentiment that is shared by a majority of people with regards to the unnecessary complexity of otherwise simple functions. As much as you love the car, do not fool yourself by justifying the erroneous design that forces the driver to push 4 sequences of buttons to simply change the audio stationMRichmond said:This misses the point of the car. Instead of "tuning the car for us," BMW chose to allow us to tune it for ourselves, and to do so without leaving the driver's seat. The quality that sets the M5 apart from everything else is its ability to be a comfortable, perfectly tractable cruiser one minute and an assault missile the next. The small price to be paid for this unsurpassed and unprecedented flexibility is reading the owner's manual (something that most car journalists seem incapabale of doing) and spending a little time becoming acquainted with the controls (ditto). Anyone who truly cannot handle the M5's electronics can program once and for all his chosen settings into the M button and never have to touch anything else. All the rest of us will greatly enjoy the flexibility. If Clarkson were convinced in his own criticisms, he would never have bestowed the eventual accolades, which leads to the conclusion that others already have mentioned -- the first part of the show is more comic theater than serious critique.
First, flipping through presets (what is most common) is done via the steering wheel button or console button - same as any other car. Changing to a non-preset is easily and intuitively done through iDrive. In fact, it is simpler than in my pre-iDrive Nav+ E46 M3.Rezf said:As much as you love the car, do not fool yourself by justifying the erroneous design that forces the driver to push 4 sequences of buttons to simply change the audio station
How about changing from FM to CD, AM??bernhtp said:First, flipping through presets (what is most common) is done via the steering wheel button or console button - same as any other car. Changing to a non-preset is easily and intuitively done through iDrive. In fact, it is simpler than in my pre-iDrive Nav+ E46 M3.
Just a few days ago, my car returned from the dealer where the battery was replaced. This made the presets go away (they were all set to the local Christian radio station - invariably the result of the quixotic efforts of a zealous employee determined to save my wretched eternal soul, but that is another matter). Anyway, I went to select my favorite station that had a weak signal where I was, and the prev/next channel buttons would only scan to the adjacent stations with strong signals. It was frustrating and took me a while to figure out that I needed to go into the audio submenu of the nav and set the mode of the button to incremenet/decrement the tuning number instead of just scanning between strong stations. That was hard. I find iDrive easier.
Tom