Rants

[PB07NOVA]

Lots of things about the 135i I like, but.......

Steering wheel sits too low and obscures gauges. With manual seat adjusted to bottom and steering column tilted to top, the steering wheel still obscures part of the speedo/tach gauges, as least with telescope set all the way in. At 5'11", this shouldn't happen. There's no apparent gap between the top of the column and the dash, so I'm wondering whether anything can be done about this drawback.

Premium Hi-Fi fidelity is marginal. I suppose it's okay if you like lots of bass, but vocals/treble lack crispness and clarity. Overall sound is a bit muddy.

Manual sport seats lack firmness in the lumbar section, and have no adjustment for such. Seats in general are much softer than I anticipated and way softer than the M Sport Seats from the Z4 Coupe.

Steering feel is adequately-weighted, but feels artificially heavy. Doesn't present a true and lively, connected-to-the-road feel the way an E36 M3 did.

Manual shift knob is awkwardly shaped and is not an ergonomic fit...to my palm anyway. Looks great, but doesn't feel great.

Audio controls are a bit of a mess. It takes too many dash mounted buttons to drill down through menus in order to change between Tuner/Sat/CD and the various levels of audio adjustment.

E46-style HVAC fan speed push button adjustment is lame and inefficient. Give me a quicker and easier rheostat twist knob anyday.

No way to fold down rear seats from inside the cabin. Presumably designed as such for trunk security purposes, but this could be alleviated with a simple keylock, a la Honda.

[Crowley]

Just a quick thought on your premium hi-fi part .... have you messed with the electronic EQ for the logic 7 at all? Maybe you can adjust to where you like ..

Crowley

[Numb3rs]

Originally Posted by SR08NOVA

Lots of things about the 135i I like, but.......

Steering wheel sits too low and obscures gauges. With manual seat adjusted to bottom and steering column tilted to top, the steering wheel still obscures part of the speedo/tach gauges, as least with telescope set all the way in. At 5'11", this shouldn't happen. There's no apparent gap between the top of the column and the dash, so I'm wondering whether anything can be done about this drawback.

Premium Hi-Fi fidelity is marginal. I suppose it's okay if you like lots of bass, but vocals/treble lack crispness and clarity. Overall sound is a bit muddy.

Manual sport seats lack firmness in the lumbar section, and have no adjustment for such. Seats in general are much softer than I anticipated and way softer than the M Sport Seats from the Z4 Coupe.

Steering feel is adequately-weighted, but feels artificially heavy. Doesn't present a true and lively, connected-to-the-road feel the way an E36 M3 did.

Manual shift knob is awkwardly shaped and is not an ergonomic fit...to my palm anyway. Looks great, but doesn't feel great.

Audio controls are a bit of a mess. It takes too many dash mounted buttons to drill down through menus in order to change between Tuner/Sat/CD and the various levels of audio adjustment.

E46-style fan speed adjustment is lame and inefficient. Give me a quicker and easier rheostat-type knob anyday.

No way to fold down rear seats from inside the cabin. Presumably designed as such for trunk security purposes, but this could be alleviated with a simple keylock, a la Honda.

Why not just raise the steering wheel a few notches so you can see the guages?

[jraymond]

I haven't seen any clarity if this logic 7 is the same as in the 335?

[MZWIE]

Originally Posted by SR08NOVA

Lots of things about the 135i I like, but.......

Originally Posted by SR08NOVA

Steering wheel sits too low and obscures gauges. With manual seat adjusted to bottom and steering column tilted to top, the steering wheel still obscures part of the speedo/tach gauges, as least with telescope set all the way in. At 5'11", this shouldn't happen. There's no apparent gap between the top of the column and the dash, so I'm wondering whether anything can be done about this drawback.

Been like that for a while in BMW's

Originally Posted by SR08NOVA

Premium Hi-Fi fidelity is marginal. I suppose it's okay if you like lots of bass, but vocals/treble lack crispness and clarity. Overall sound is a bit muddy.

I guess I never cared about the stereo. I am surprised how many people do however. I always thought it was about the car.

Originally Posted by SR08NOVA

Manual sport seats lack firmness in the lumbar section, and have no adjustment for such. Seats in general are much softer than I anticipated and way softer than the M Sport Seats from the Z4 Coupe.

Hmm...the ones I sat in felt exactly like all the other sport seats i've tried. Lumbar has always been a Premium Package thing not Sport Package. I think it should be standard however.

Originally Posted by SR08NOVA

Steering feel is adequately-weighted, but feels artificially heavy. Doesn't present a true and lively, connected-to-the-road feel the way an E36 M3 did.

To me it felt just like the E46 M3 wheel.

[Dave]

-i am 6ft and have no issues with the gauges.. i think you have to mess with the height and tilt of ur seat

-i dont care for audio and i think the std audio is fine for me and i love the tags for songs and the artist too and the direct tuning is awesome!

-i do get the feeling the steering wheels feels artificially heavy esp at low speeds, like when you pull out of the garage

-i love the manual seats and the electronic bolster adj is amazing

-oh and i feel seriously jipped that the auto shift knob has no M on it at all 8(

[MZWIE]

Originally Posted by izzodesh

-
-i do get the feeling the steering wheels feels artificially heavy esp at low speeds, like when you pull out of the garage(

Are you saying that it's hard to steer at low speed. If so that is common. I believe it has to do with the amount of steering boost at low speed and RPM's.

[PB07NOVA]

Originally Posted by izzodesh

-i am 6ft and have no issues with the gauges.. i think you have to mess with the height and tilt of ur seat

-i dont care for audio and i think the std audio is fine for me and i love the tags for songs and the artist too and the direct tuning is awesome!

-i do get the feeling the steering wheels feels artificially heavy esp at low speeds, like when you pull out of the garage

-i love the manual seats and the electronic bolster adj is amazing

-oh and i feel seriously jipped that the auto shift knob has no M on it at all 8(

Gee, I guess I missed it: where is the amazing 'electronic bolster' for the manual seat?

[E82tt6]

I think replacing some of the stock speakers with higher end components might be in order. I tend to do that in my cars. Easy cheap fix that really improves sound quality.

Good luck finding a car with E36 M3-like steering today. I don't think they exist anymore. :-(

[Stew]

Originally Posted by izzodesh

-i am 6ft and have no issues with the gauges.. i think you have to mess with the height and tilt of ur seat

-i dont care for audio and i think the std audio is fine for me and i love the tags for songs and the artist too and the direct tuning is awesome!

-i do get the feeling the steering wheels feels artificially heavy esp at low speeds, like when you pull out of the garage

-i love the manual seats and the electronic bolster adj is amazing

-oh and i feel seriously jipped that the auto shift knob has no M on it at all 8(

I know! I want to learn stick just for the M logo on the shift knob. I also noticed the steering wheel blocking the gauges, couldn't tell speed or rpms, but I didn't adjust the seat or steering wheel so hopefully I can fix it. Ditto on the radio, having ipod connections is high tech for me lol

[Ringmeister]

Originally Posted by SR08NOVA

Lots of things about the 135i I like, but.......

Manual sport seats lack firmness in the lumbar section, and have no adjustment for such. Seats in general are much softer than I anticipated and way softer than the M Sport Seats from the Z4 Coupe.

Steering feel is adequately-weighted, but feels artificially heavy. Doesn't present a true and lively, connected-to-the-road feel the way an E36 M3 did.

Manual shift knob is awkwardly shaped and is not an ergonomic fit...to my palm anyway. Looks great, but doesn't feel great.

The seats feel good but not great. A lumbar adjust would probably help and I agree they could be a little less squishy in the back portion. Again, I agree on the steering feel but it's basically the same as all new BMWs. I don't know why they can't make it feel like a 20 year old E30 M3 which has the best steering feel of any BMW. The knob is a joke, looks great feels like crap.

[kfiducia]

for some reason my EQ was set really really awful when i picked it up. also, bass +10, treble -4 ... why? logic 7 was off - i spent 15 minutes trying to get the sound to not be crappy. my suggestion is to play with the controls. and consider your source...

[Crowley]

Originally Posted by SR08NOVA

Gee, I guess I missed it: where is the amazing 'electronic bolster' for the manual seat?

toggle switch on the bottem left of your seat ..

Crowley