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Porsche Macan 2.0 – Review

Porsche Macan is said to be the best SUV of the World. If you see the configurator, which looks like very tasty beef steak ,you will add up a little bit of equipment and some people think, that it will work like the 911 one, even if there is no S letter in the name.

Really?

The 2019 lifting model should be available within one month. I’ve taken the 2018 Version to see if it works. There should be a new interior and new features available with the new model. The driving and the character should stay the same.

Moderngranturismo graph.

Macan has had the best-looking graph of its short history since I started rating cars. And it is true, that it is one of the best compromised cars between the sport and the comfort one. That Porsche is unbelievably stable and balanced on the corners, perfectly insulated, and little bit too slow with the basic engine. But the S version is more expensive by only 4000 €.

Exterior Design

Design of Macan is very adequate and conspicuous. You can immediately recognise that is the Porsche, and with smooth lines, it loses heaviness and gains more lightness. The Coupe style of the rear reduces the capacity of the trunk, but matches well to the sporty character of the car. Big wheels, some exterior equipment and you can really enjoy it.

Interior Design

Interior design is comparable with the BMW F Series times, even if you find it a bit heavier.The materials look like having some years…

Nevertheless, I love that design with all the buttons in the middle tunnel.

How the new interior will look like, we can see in the new Cayenne style.

*No… That was only my expectation. Macan 2019 hast been shown with only minimal changes in interior. Even if it has been shown in China, I don’t think if it would looks different in Europe. That looks not good enough for me. Big screen is not everything.

So it’stay not so modern but still typical Porsche.

The steering wheel is a bit slimmer than the BMW M one but it is also very good. Also, its setting range is sufficient.

Sitting position is rather vertical but very comfortable.

Basic trim seats are very good, after 4 hours I didn’t feel any problems.

The Panorama glass roof is huge and works silently, there isn’t much noise inside when it’s open.

Driving

Driving Macan is like to be glued to the road. It is unbelievably stable, it does not tilt nor lean sideways on the corners,it makes completely no unnecessary movements. Porsche is much quicker than you think and than your girlfriend thinks.

It is a sporty car and you are pretty sure that you can rely on that construction without any doubts after 5 minutes ride.

Macan is also incredibly well insulated. Better than a new BMW 5 and you are utterly in your own comfortable world while driving it.

And it works until you touch the brakes. That is no matter if you have sports brakes and sports tires, the car with you on board weights nearly 2 tones. I use the SUVs in the worst conditions possible, and that could be the big problem, on the white roads you can have some issues. You can’t cheat the physics, the weight is the weight and if you have no grip, there is the question if you go ahead in the snow or can break in emergency.
The weight of that cars class: Q5 and X4 are comparable and people don’t drive it off-road.

So, if you want to take it out of the road, don’t forget that it will be easier with 1,500 kg SUV’s.

You can see in the photos that the test Macan had the 4 seasons tires. That is not acceptable for me, but it was funny to drift on them in the summer.

That is the common problem: people are buying expensive cars but want to save on the tires. Nothing more stupid, the first thing that you should learn about the cars is that the tires are the only part which has contact with the road. So, your car accelerates, brakes and turns as ably, as good are your tires…

Engine

I have seen many tests on the basis of which people claim that the 2.0 engine works there. That shows me what the value of that tests is… and it’s not the engine’s fault at all.

That car is much too heavy for 2.0 litres engine.

You can feel that engine wants to do everything what’s possible, but there is elasticity brutally missing. The exhaust could be also better. They could make it better for that engine at Wolfsburg.

So, if you want to buy Macan, it has to be minimum S Version.

If I drove that car, I would want to disappear quickly.

Assistance Situation

I want to rate it first when I see the lifting. With this car I had none of them.

Conclusion

If you want to have Macan, it would be good to give it more love.

Basic engine and basic interior is not what I expect from Porsche.

It probably doesn’t have to be the full equipment for me, but also not basic trim. I would also ask what tires come with it, to be sure that you have the best possible choice on your sporty SUV. With 2019one, the lifting should come with much better interior (we know already that it didn’t happen) and many interesting features, so don’t forget to order maximal safety and assistance equipment to drive safely and avoid stupid problems during exploitation.

The Porsche residual wert is behaving much better than other manufacturers. Check before you leave it back after leasing.

And most excitingly, Porsche is does not offer diesels from the spring 2018. Good choice.

BMW 6 Series F06 – Review

When the 2 Coupe/Cabrio gives you best driving emotions, the 6 Series, is for me, the best looking one. I have to say, it was not my first date with that car and I am thinking for two years, not how to get it, but how to… make some of my garages longer. BMW 6 Series is also much more my choice then 5 Series or 7 Series.

Main Graph:

At the beginning: Main graph and short comment about it.

What we see, the 640d is very comfortable car, but not too comfortable. What I mean I have still feedback from wheels (what I can’t say about the 7-Series). The powerful engine doesn’t mean the 6 Series is really sporty. It’s rather stable and easy to drive. ( Graph is rated with specific engine and all options equipped)

Exterior design

It looks aggressive, looks strong, looks like typical, classic BMW in XXL size. When I see it, I see the harmony, I see the elegant, luxurious and balanced car, full of taste and smooth lines. Only the front lights design could indicate, that is the not nowadays project, even if that are Adaptive LED.

The BMW 6 Series still looks so fresh, that is hard to believe that is the end of production.*

*Valid only until 8 Series Lunch ;)

Interior design

That is probably the best interior I have ever seen.

All because of connection of the middle tunnel with the front wall, it’s unbelievable. Smooth lines are cutting clearly and naturally, the driver area and the passenger one. Even if the interior in 6 Series GT (lunched 2017) is much more modern, that one has something in it.

You have surprisingly not a lot of free space around you. It’s because the 6 Series hug you tight with sporty feeling and you have everything directly under your hand.

The interior looks luxurious but also simple and calm. That is not screaming, look how eccentric am I, or how expensive was that (like some Mercedes interiors). It makes you relaxed and ready for the activities at your destination. And that is pretty important for me.

All connected with the best infotainment system, let you feel good, and relax fully (until… you see that you are out of line and you need line keep assistance, what is the option that you can’t get there).

The navigation still makes mistakes. (See my article about TomTom)

The seating position is truly low, and I had to go little bit higher than other cars to see anything, even if I like to sit on the floor. The sport seat is very interesting, with the sporty trim keeps you stable, simultaneously have the perfect hardness and let you play a little bit during the long trips.

The buttons under the central screen are same as at F01 and that looks old. That is the only thing inside, that tells you, the 6 Series project have already a couple of years…

And one more time, buttons are ok. Just make it friendlier please…

Driving

BMW 6 Series gives you a lot of fun from driving. Suspension is stiffer than at 7 Series and you don’t have the feeling that you “don’t know where your wheels are”, 6 Series gives you a lot of feedback from the road surface, you can feel much more self-confident and drive more precisely. It is big and important difference when comparing with the 7 Series. It is also different then 5 Series.

The car has a sporty character, but is also big, heavy and stable.

That feels more like your well-known wife, then a young hot teen girl.

6 Series do all right and with no doubts, but there are none smoke and squeaky tires.

That is not easy to drive it sidewalls with xdrive and to drive it daily and at winter without the xdrive. If you want to push it hard, there is one Version to do it right, that is called M6. The normal 6 has soft suspension, it’s hard to go really wild on the mountain roads.

Bullshit! The 6 Series has one problem: The difference between the Sport mode and Sport+ is too big. Some examples: The 430d could be really aggressive even in sport mode. The 230i let you drift slightly in sport mode. But 640d not. It is everything like playing with the tiger separated with the glass. You have to activate the sport+ to see that tiger face to face (sport+ activates the sport mode of stability control, what means that you can spin, and the IT Specialist wouldn’t really help you). And that is a big problem. Because most of cars users are not professionals and cannot drive 300 HP car without electronics. But most people who buy this car want to do it and don’t waste money. In sport+ mode the 640d is super sharp, and finally behaves as it should… all or nothing. Not so modern there?

Nevertheless, 6 Series is perfect for everything else.

For now, there is hard to say, what can be better on it, or on any other car… Or wait a minute! Yes, engine: unfortunately, that was 640d not 650i (maybe that is the reason, that sport mode isn’t sharp enough?), I would prefer the petrol engine here. 3.0 BMW Diesel is not bad, but V8 petrol is better choice, when you buy the car for 130 k €. Why not to do it right? Or half right with 3.0 petrol? Have you heard that sound of petrol there!?

In the city, you feel the 5 meters of BMW 6 Series. Parking places are often to short, turns to narrow. Because xdrive do not like turning around. But cruising is still much easier then at 7 Series, because the car is not lazy, reacts quicker and precisely.

What is missing?

There is no Line Keep Assistant and no Traffic Jam Assistant. At the Configurator you can not find a tow hook. Even if google knows, you can order it, please do not ask me, how much it costs… That’s one of the reasons I do not have the 6 Series convertible yet – because I need my bicycle always with me, and the tow hook is equally expensive as a professional enduro bicycle…

Convertible situation

The trunk is big enough, also at convertible. There is enough place to take everything for the one week in Italy. The soft roof have also the unbelievable design with the ‘horns’ on the back. It looks like see devil. Awesome.

Conclusion

The BMW (M)6 Series is the most expensive BMW on the market. And there are the reasons of that situation. You get exactly what you pay. Classic lovely design, rich sporty character, lot of comfort, powerful reliable engine, impressive infotainment. All the best, what BMW can give you. If you want to buy a big BMW, you should buy 6 Series. Not 5 and not 7.

The only reason to not to do it is: a lot of jealous people around you (that days I had to park away from my customers, even if they know that we are developing cars…), or… that the 8 Series will be lunched soon.

We are introducing the Moderngranturismo main graph.

That is the easiest way to present how the cars really are – the Moderngranturismo main graph.

From now, will be added to each test here.

On that graph you can see two bars:

Comfort bar – tells us if the car is comfortable, quiet and suitable for 1000 km in a one day. 100% lay somewhere on the S-class level.

Sport bar – tells us how much fun that gives and how difficult to drive is it. 100% lay on the supercars. It is not about the 0-100 time or any other time, it is about fun and car behaviour.

Demanding sporty car, but also very comfortable.

But, at that page it is important, to stay reliable. That’s why you see:

The Moderngranturismo recommended Range:

All the cars out of range are not recommended for a Gran Turismo in the way I understand it.

Now you ask me, why the comfortable car is not suitable for Gran Turismo? That’s easy: it could be boring. For example: you have travelled 700 km to see some mountain road and you can’t push because your car doesn’t like it? Or you ask me why the supercar is not suitable for it? Because after that 700 km you are already dead because of driving uncomfortable car and you don’t have energy to push any more?

BMW 7, exactly how you expect very comfortable and not really sporty. Two times out of my range.

That is also very good explanation what is that page about: compromised, complete cars you can relay on. The cars you can push when you want but also the cars with the assisted driving.

If you have different priorities than me – that is no problem, you can still see on the graph how the car is and choose something for you.

Newest Mazda MX5, unbelievable good and sporty car, but I can’t imagine travelling with it…

Out of range doesn’t mean that aren’t good cars.

Out of range cars will still appear here, because there are different cars for different things.

Is the BMW 7 Series F01 still modern car?

That was totally unexpected… therefore only short note about it: We had an appointment 260 km ahead, and my friend came at the morning with the previous BMW 7 Series generation and asked me to drive, because he had the work to do…

Exterior and Interior Design

The exterior is… like previous 7 Series. Nothing hot for me, and it have to be like that, invisible. Next week I should have 6 Series, and that is the right choice if somebody want to talk about exterior design.

The interior design is generally really nice, there are lot of complicated shapes and lines, that looks really good. The materials of the interior are also better than previous 5 Series, only thing that tells us the age of the car are ordinary buttons.

I don’t have nothing against the buttons in BMW, but here it looks old like Famous Trio on the Grand Tour…

My good impression could also have something in common with my favorite wood inserts. So, the interior – still ok!

Driving

Driving is like everybody expect, it is more like sailing then driving. That is the motorway killer and I generally don’t know where that 260 km gone. That is generally dangerous car, because you can drive 200 kmh, feel like 120 kmh and have no idea what is happening under the tires, because that car gives you completely no feedback, and that feeling is much stronger than at 5 Series. I have realized that I didn’t use the sport mode, that was the first BMW that haven’t pushed me to do it.

Ok, ok, I didn’t want to smash my friend face with his notebook…

Things are more complicated in the city, because the 7 Series is lazy… That turns and brakes slowly, all with the grace and authority. Ah ok I was totally relaxed and in Comfort+ mode… Designed to do so and make it so. I would personally prefer to know more about it, where my wheels are, and what they do.

BUT:

That driving was surprisingly, not boring. Little bit because of HEAD-UP Display and Active Cruise Control, little bit because of that,

that is still BMW and you can find that wild DNA somewhere deep in the plushness of comfortable suspension.

The Assistance Palette

…was here not bad, despite of that there is missing Line Keeping Assistant. One of the most important for me, especially on such a car… Of course, at the G Series we have already the next generation of Driving Assistant Plus, but you cannot compare the prices of that cars. The Active Cruise Control is working well, no mistake on the 150 km distance, what is obviously not a long enough test.

Engine

The BMW 3.0 Diesel is the best Diesel engine I have ever driven, and the only Diesel that dosen’t make me sick because of typical Diesel behavior. Even if I don’t like Diesels, that is logical choice for that car. 9 liters is enough to feed it.

Conclusion

If you need that segment car, and you don’t have to have warranty on it, you can buy it and I wouldn’t be surprised that you have made it. It is still modern car for specific customer, who need huge comfort, but still want to drive BMW.

My Complete Car Definition

As the automotive development engineer, I see the World from bit wider perspective, mainly a couple years earlier then you.

I am also the customer. With the obsessive inability to tolerate shitty solutions on cars…

Below I want to explain, my definition of the term “Complete Car” for the long-distance trips.

The nowadays cars have evolved:

from: “too much electronics”

to: “I want it so smart like my mobile”

very quickly, and most people are still on that first group. Even if they understand technical aspects, they have learnt that some… years ago.

The future could be sad…we wouldn’t drive, and we would rent instead of buying cars. But now we could enjoy being in the middle of that way!

What makes the Car Complete for me?

Driving first!

Most important: Driving, driving and still driving!

It must be somehow interesting. Most of time I need something fast, loud and exciting. But when I want, that has to be calm as well. Complicated compromise. That is what the modern Granturismo car has to fulfill.

Volvo or some Mercedes, are probably one of the most comfortable cars, but there will be difficult to find it here. I can’t find the place for something so calm in my garage… I have some days, when I can say, I really need it now! But I can’t buy a car for the 3 days in a year :D

Drivetrain

I do not like Front Wheel Driven Cars, life’s too short to drive them (maybe with some exceptions). Best summer car could be RWD, all other should be 4×4 for me.

That little bit over steering, that balance in the corner, that makes me happy.

Not all of 4×4 are good enough, but there are also electronically controlled which are all right.

I’m not happy with the new BMW X1 xdrive, but I’m happy with the Mazda CX-5 drivetrain. Subaru S-AWD was my best one, but there was missing anything above it…

Safety

NCAP do it right. Also, with the electronic systems rating.

Remember there is no better way to protect people, than when there is no collision.

If you have the version without the electronic safety systems, your car is less safe then full version. That systems have saved my hood two times and that have nothing in common with that if you are a good driver or not (can the daughter of your neighbour drive? Probably not😉 ). It works. And don’t worry, hardware is also always under the investigation. 5 stars are important, and that have to be nowadays 5 stars (Remember Punto test from last year?).

Convertibles are generally not safe cars, no risk no fun!

Interior quality

That is the place where you spend all the time in car. It has to be fine to make you fine. Materials and design, have to be my taste. Obvious? So, tell me why Toyota sells so much cars? Nobody needs the good interiors! Only we, here! Freaks. Last year one rental gave me an Octavia (instead of Volvo, telling that is the same class!) for 3000 km (that was one of the short moments when I wanted to drive Volvo!), smallest engine, lowest trim level. I was highly disappointed, and it was hard to enjoy the trip. It was the meditation challenge: stay happy despite of travelling that…

What is interesting, despite my love to the modern solutions, I don’t like touchscreens. Good buttons are good choice in my opinion.

Imagine setting the Porsche suspension and drive mode on touchscreen…

but on the other hand I can’t wait to try new a7 to see if I’m wrong.

Audi A7 Sportback (C: Audi press materials)

Infotainment, Assistance equipment

If you drive too much, and I thought if you read that, you drive too much, it is much more better when somebody is watching you. It is your IT specialist.

He drives probably better then all of us. That is fact.

Full options there makes your life and your money safer. The systems I mean are: Emergency braking Assist, Active Cruise Control, Active Line Keep Assistant, Blind Spot Assistant.

Of course, conclusion of that point is sad: it is only okay, until you can still shut him up. Completely.

Porsche Panamera (C: Porsche press materials)

Petrol

I always want to drive petrol engine.

I don’t like Diesels vibrations and I miss the music of petrol exhaust.

Of course, there are the cars, where the Diesel choice is obvious, but I will rather choose smaller car with bigger petrol engine.

Not every car have to be Complete…

So, tell me now, is the 10 years old Aston Martin “Complete Car”? No. But that is not important, there is so much value according to first point (driving!) and not each car have to be complete. But still, when you don’t have Aston, it’s fine, when it is as complete as it could.

Aston Martin DB11 (C: Aston Martin press materials)

Porsche to stop selling Diesels, Virtual Cockpit in cheap cars.

That is not most fresh feed, but I’ve made 2000 kilometres that weekend and I had no time to post it earlier.

That could be common there… that I am traveling to much.

We have two things there:

Porsche to stop selling Diesels. That is the historical moment. I was always sure, that Diesel is not right choice for Porsche. Sorry if you want sports car, you want a sports car. That is not LMP1, that Diesel had nothing in common with the performance car. If you buy Porsche, you should feed it correctly. I am very happy to see that Porsche comes back to petrol and hybrid only. BTW, in my opinion plug-in hybrid is ok. It could be really effective and powerful. Only problem is the weight, but let them optimise it…

Second thing is that KIA and Skoda introducing the new cars equipped with the Virtual Cockpits… would it mean that that cars would more complete? Maybe, but adding the Virtual cockpit to the nothing-special-car do not make better car for me. Driving first.

More about my complete car definition is coming soon. Stay tuned.

BMW has shown the new BMW X4 G02.

Does it ride how we expect?

Driving the new BMW is more and more precious, fine and easier. At least until you have 40i or 40d. But the point is that, when you shut down all electronic systems, would you still have fun exactly like you want? The compromise between comfort and sport is not easy to achieve, and in my opinion the Bavarian have made that, mainly right (except the new X1). That is that factor which decides if you chose Audi, Mercedes or BMW. Depends on your taste.

The interior in the G-series is a completely new standard. The materials are much more modern and with new design looks really good.

Same as 5 Series and X3, G02 will be given Driving Assistant Plus, which keeps the distance, line and brakes itself when you make mistakes. Today the car without that systems is not more complete for me. Your safety, and your wallet safety is always good reason to invest into that option.

More about new BMW Interior standards, from 5 Series ride:

BMW 5 Series G30 Interior and Infotainment

The manual gearbox is not available. Finally. If you have the grandchildren, you can start to teach them what the manual gearbox was…

If I would buy the SUV from BMW it would be that car. Stylish, big enough and at the same time not unwieldy.

That smells like the new big player and really complete car, if you want to take it on some adventure.

Update: Sitting position and first feeling:

The sitting position is slightly different then in X3. BMW makes the same trick as at first generation: The same seat from X3, but different seat positioning. And the X4 is much more my style then X3. I’ve tried sport seat and my feeling was better from the beginning. You are sitting not to high and with right angle, really comfortable, immediately ready to next hundreds of kilometres.

Sitting position at the second row is limited by the roof height. The limit lay at 175 cm passenger height, and there is enough space for knees when the driver is 180 cm. The second-row seat is comfortable and available with an angle regulation at the small range. Seat belts are also the best-known safety and comfort level.

The interior is known from the X3, and again leaved me with a good taste. Especially the wood implementation, is definitely high trim.

I have heard that X4 is more likely Mercedes than BMW now… In some way yes, it is unbelievably comfortable, but from the other hand it is still BMW DNA. Mainly with iDrive, hopefully the driving will be also typical, little bit aggressive.

I will leave you with some photos now:

How to use smart navigation systems?

…just to learn which is working…

Do you know how much time do you waste each month in traffic jams?

Do you know how much does that time cost?

Do you know that you can avoid it?

Why people don’t use it?

There are many systems on the market, that are advertised as Live Traffic Navigation. To be honest, most of them do not work.

During each car test, I have always 2 or 3 navigating systems activated, just to compare and they make often stupid things…

There is one system that wins each and every time.

I also really often hear that some people use Google. Google is the best system to plan trips and see what the traffic is like. But it makes unbelievable lot of mistakes during the navigating. For example, Google likes letting you drive along small one-way roads in opposite direction, or private roads. The most irritating situations are, when you try to avoid the traffic, and in the middle, you see closed roads.

I also test the cars, where navigating system costs 2000 €. And it is f… funny to see how often they lose the duel with the cheap app.

Travelling over completly blocked motorway (under Rosenheim)

Moreover, I have spoken with some professionals, truck or ambulance drivers, and they also travel with that system.

We all use TomTom. And nobody pays us for it, also not for what you are reading now.

The Waste at the glance:

I will give you some numbers:

My start-stop system has been activated for 35 hours over the last year, also despite of that I am avoiding 90% of possible traffic. And I don’t travel by car to work.

My friend who uses car to go to work daily, needed over 50 hours. That is only the time when the start-stop is activated, so that means you waste much more than that.

The professional research says, that people lose even up to 48 h per month that way.

The traffic jams are the worst waste case. We lose time, money, petrol and health sitting and doing nothing (that is the time when you are thinking about the traffic jam assistant, to win the time to read this page).

Savings:

Ok that all means, if you can avoid that waste, you get your life back.

I’ve tried to count how much I have earned using TomTom. It is about 24 hours over 35 thousand kilometres distance. It is one complete day, so how would you feel if I gave you an extra holiday day? There was also a frequent situation when I earned 2 hours during a single trip. And that was 8 hours instead of 10, which is extremely important for your safety on such a trip. Once, I have won not to spend the long night on the motorway because of complete road block on the horrible 70 cars accident. TomTom offered me an alternative road 3 times, because of the next traffic jams around, and finally I was travelling on the empty quiet road, looking at the blue lights of emergency cars on the motorway. I’ve avoided completely blocked roads minimum 10 times, with that navigation for the last 6 years.

How it works?

How does it work exactly? It is very easy: The navigation shows the traffic precisely. You have some options to choose: ‘don’t care’, ‘let me choose’, or ‘optimise always’. With the second option you can see the blue current planned road and the green one: with the time that you can win. The last option always shows you only the optimised one and does not ask anything. I recommend you to use the second option. You must switch it on after app installation, and the same with the traffic.

Example: travelling to Genfer Autosalon.

I am pretty sure, that without TomTom I would get stuck in traffic the whole day and would see nothing.

That day I avoided wasting more than 4 hours. You can see the green road I took. You can also see the traffic in the city, later I changed the destination to the end of one of that traffic jams. I expected the Parking to be there. TomTom chose the alternative way immediately, I got the Parking in 10 minutes from the airport.

So why that one works and the other don’t? It is hard to say. But my tests in the hardest condition like Genfer Autosalon, Neuschwanstein, or any big cities al 5 PM show the power of TomTom.

Of course, even TomTom is not perfect. It is possible that traffic is not loaded, or there is possibility of application crash. Another thing is that even TomTom makes mistakes. The best solution for all these problem is to clear the phone RAM and switch it off and on. You may also have some doubts, when you are travelling from München to Frankfurt, and you have 3 motorways to choose. TomTom is still trying to travel the nearest solution and avoid traffic locally, because nobody said that this situation would be the same in two hours. In my opinion that is right (in most cases). Anyway, It is also only the app and will not replace your experience.

You do not have to buy a TomTom as an external device. You can download the mobile app for about 20 € for a year, or if you are lucky there are also the cars which have TomTom build in.

You can also try it for free.

Old good Tomtom build in Mazda CX5 first generation (dicontinued with Lifting unfortunately)

I can’t imagine travelling without that system anymore. I can recommend it to everybody and I am doing it without any cooperation with that company. I wish you good savings.

Will MBUX give Mercedes the reliable Infotainment?

From the last Year C-Class test, I remember two things:

Really good Audio (basic!), that cooled me down immediately after a stressful day,

And the Infotainment, where I had nothing to do after 10 minutes.

And maybe it is the best thing what I can say, because you need only 10 minutes to learn everything, what is perfect when you have 60 years old and you don’t need Infotainment, but for me it is boring… I must have something to do when I am traveling all day at motorway. So, there was not enough information about the Car status, petrol consumption etc. Moreover, each window on the screen had completely different graphic, I had the feeling that’s downloaded from a couple of different cars.

And now Mercedes have lunched This:

That is MBUX (Mercedes Benz User Experience) and it looks impressive. Apart from what do you think about Design of a new A-Class.

What I can say, it is the big chance for MB.

I wish the MBUX the best. It is quite difficult task to make the system easy for light-users and interesting for demanding ones.

I don’t think that changed their mind and designed such a complex system like my favorite I-Drive. They are making that lot easier not without the reasons: A lot of Customers (generally) don’t even understand how to set air conditioning properly…

You can watch the Prasentation from Amsterdam here:

(By the way it is the exellent source of the Cars Tests)

BMW 5 Series G30 Interior and Infotainment

Because I have been testing the BMW 5 Series G31 Touring in 520d, I want to focus on the more positive things than the basic motor. That is nothing more sad than BMW without power. There will be enough chances to talk about drivetrain of that car.

Step back: I have been driving previous generation of 5 Series last year. That was M550d at a full glory. From some reasons, I was confused: That was not really state of the art of autonomy. Interior was also not so fresh as it could be.

Do not understand me wrong, it is always f…abulous nice to drive BMW, but customers have been awaiting the new generation of automated driving. Why? Because that is the Business car and they need it to travel between Hamburg and München every week.

(I want to see Driving Assistant Plus in 1 Series, why not?)

And after 400 km, I want to be driven the next 400 km itself (and left at the end, with the energy for jogging!)

(Yes you see the TomTom there, why I need it? you can read it there:)

How to use smart navigation systems?

BMW also didn’t have the best interiors, just because that was not most important thing of the sporty car. Honestly, you forget everything around you, when the Bavarian horses starts to breathe. But nowadays… if you want to stay alive, you have to produce the complete cars…

Once I’ve said, when BMW learn how to make so fine Cockpits like “some” others, that will be big problem… for that others.

And that moment has come.

So, what I have learned in the first 600 km in new 5 Series:

New I-Drive and Infotainment: Is good. That is for sure the best Infotainment system on the market, even if 70% of the users haven’t seen 70% of the functionality. I am using 98% of it, and I really appreciate that. The main goal at the new look of the system was to tidy it a little bit up. And it is a bit different from that, what I am used to. But is still good I-drive where I have always something to do, when I want to have all the things, as I want to have it. And I do not need it as a Touchscreen (who want to clean that?).

Digital Cockpit: That works perfect. There is everything what I need on the screen. Only question is, how it would work at Convertible with sunshine on it?

Driving assistance plus: That is finally what tears me on when I am already off, because it allows you to drive longer and safer. And it is the point if you make 50 thousands kilometer per year. And that consists everything what is important: keeps the distance from others, keeps the line, brakes in emergency case alone. Try it ones, and you will never forget it.

Interior: The Interior of that BMW 5 Series is finally precious. With the Ambient light feature, works in the all conditions when it should make things easier, when you arrives to the car… with somebody else. Design is really elegant, materials are much more better and it is composed with good quality buttons. Because nobody said that everything have to be on the touchscreens.

The aim of that 2 days on the G31 with a poor motor was to discover if it is modern enough to be succesfull on the market. I have to say, it is exactly what I have awaiting from it, and it is one of the best BMW I have been driving.

You are given typical BMW driving, finally connected with nowadays features.

And there is one more gift, that platform is also available as 6 Gran Coupe. Offers more comfort and the same modern features. Well done.

PS. I have tested it in Tirol. That is unbelievable stable with xdrive, but if the things goes wrong, you realise how much that weighs! Fortunately the IT specialist have saved my wallet again…