New F15 X5 xDrive40d SE on order - some questions to you F15 owners

[DoubleD]

Hi all,

A newbie to this site and to BMW X as well. I placed an order for my X5 earlier this week and I'm currently showing a build slot for week 37 (week commencing 8th Sept). Hoping to take delivery mid-Oct.

I'll start by sharing the obligatory spec, then I have some questions I'd value your opinions on.

A90: Sophisto Grey Xirillic
LCEW: Ivory White / Black Dakota leather
4B9: Fine Brushed Aluminium interior trim
ZGF: Dynamic package
    2TZ: 20" Star-spoke style 491 - Black alloy wheels
    456: Comfort seats, front
    760: Exterior trim, High-gloss Shadowline
3AG: Reversing Assist camera
402: Panoramic glass sunroof
430: Ext. mirrors - folding, auto dimming
5AC: High-beam Assistant
676: Loadspeaker system - BMW Advanced

I've spec'ed my X5 for a 'stealth look' from the outside. Someone near to my home drives around in a black X6 with black wheels and grill, and whilst I'm not a fan of the X6 myself, I do like the colour combo - or lack of it I should say. Thought the Sophisto Grey Xirillic would give a similar look but with a slightly different slant. I may change the standard titanium grill for a black one after I get the car.

So my questions:

1) To counter the dark exterior, I've spec'ed the Ivory/Black interior. Has anybody got this interior colour in their BMW, and if so could you comment on whether you've been able to keep it clean and showroom fresh. If so, what do you do to keep it looking good? I've never had a car with a light interior so I'm paranoid it's going to look grubby quickly and age the car.

2) I've gone for the High-gloss Shadowline trim on the exterior rather than matt chrome. As standard, the SE comes with black roof bars, but there is an option to have these in Shadowline gloss too. I haven't spec'ed this option but would welcome any views as to whether this is a mistake. My thinking here is that it wouldn't be that noticeable and therefore save £200; however, I'd gladly spend the money if the standard items look cheap and nasty. I test drove a M Sport model which has these as standard, so I haven't seen the standard black roof bars in person.

3) I'll be changing from an Audi A4 Allroad to the X5, so I've gone for the standard SE suspension as I'm now used to a softer setup. As I said, I test drove the M Sport model and left the suspension in Comfort mode most of the time as I figured this would be as close to the SE setup as I could try. I was generally happy with this setup although there was a little more body roll than I'm used to, but I guess that's to be expected with this type of car. Certainly the ride quality was acceptable and that's more important to me than out and out dynamic control for this car - must be my age, or the fact I'm lucky enough to have a Porsche Boxster S for the weekend hoon. My question to you good folks is, do you think I'm making a mistake and should I be considering one of the optional suspension setups? Anyone with regrets about your own setups that you'd be willing to share?

4) Does the 5 year service inclusive package cover the topping up of Adblue? I can't see anything in the BMW literature which says it does, but I read on a couple of forum posts that others believe it does. Anyone able to confirm this?

5) Do the comfort seats come with a Ivory White or black back to them? Again, conflicting information here as the BMW configurator seems to show white, but the dealer says black. Personally I could live with either; however, black looks like it might be easier to keep unmarked.

6) Any recommendations for exterior and interior protection? I've turned down the dealer seal and protect offering, and I'm planning on have a new car detail with a Nano sealant applied by a specialist instead. Any stories here? Any recommendations on who to use in the Hertfordshire area?

Thanks for reading my rambling post, and thanks in advance for any answers/opinions to my questions.

[allforus]

hi and nice list of options, ill try and give my answers to the ones I know, the adblu is not part of the service package and costs around £23 for 10 litres.

The ivory interior looks great and so far (7K) it looks great any marks have just wiped off mud dogs paws etc

I have not got comfort seats but the standard come with cream backs

I have found the msport suspension and found it good in comfort and great when towing caravan when very windy in sport so I would keep the standard and not go for the comfort but hey ho I like the slightly harder ride

the last one I can contribute to  have always on the last three cars had the Williams ceramic coat applied and for me it works very well (applied by a detailer)


hope this helps

[DoubleD]

Thank allforus, your reply was very helpful.

Your info about the interior is quite reassuring. I love the look of the ivory/black interior; however, I was dithering between changing this for all black or potentially Terra simply because I wasn't sure how practical the lighter interior would be.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the approximate cost for having the Williams ceramic coat applied? And did this include a full new car valet?

[allforus]

The Williams cost me £400 with the new car prep on the paint work and took a day and a half

Ment to say that the seat backs in the boot are black

Graeme

[kenniff]

On interior and exterior protection, I went with:
Gtechniq New Car Protection Detail
plus glass coated with G1 clear vision smart glass
leather seats coated with L1 leather guard to prevent surface staining, carpets treated with I1 smart fabric -alloy wheels sealed with C5 wheel armour

..and finally in addition the paintwork was coated with ExoV2, which supposedly is "based on the next generation of inorganic-organic hybrid materials" and "it can
offer up to 2 years added gloss. The detailer was based in Stirling, near where I bought the car and they did the work at the dealer's premises.

On the roofbars, I'd match the shadowline (I have that on my car as its an Msport and I think ithelps that it matches.

[DoubleD]

That great, thanks for your reply.

I'm going for a new car detail and the detailer seems to use similar Gtechniq products. I've been conversing with the detailer over email who has been great answering all my questions and seems a really nice genuine guy.

http://www.tt-auto-detailing.co.uk/new-car-detailing

Apparently he will be spending over 12 hours on the detail whereas I'd be surprised if the dealer seal and protect offering would take them much more than a couple of hours to apply.

So how long it is since you had your car detailed, and is the protection holding up, i.e. Is water beading off the bodywork well and brake dust rinsing off the wheels still? How often do you wash your car?

Sorry for the questions, but I've been using the local hand car wash place weekly over the past 10 years or so mainly for the convenience factor. Tbh, they have been generally great although I know the chemicals they use, particularly on the wheels, are very harsh so I don't intend to use them for my new X. But that said, I'm hoping the Gtechniq products will make cleaning the car myself very quick and easy, with maybe a yearly professional valet to maintain the protection.

[kenniff]

I got my car detailed immediately before delivery, which was 30th november 2013.

I think the protection makes a big difference to how easy it is to clean -  and still seems to be working well. I do a very low mileage - 7000 a year, so the car usually just gets dirty sitting on the street!

I had to get a windscreen replaced following a stone chip and I've noticed the new (unprotected) glass is harder to keep clean.

I get the car washed only every 6 weeks or so because of the low mileage, but each time it comes up a treat inside and out. This was my experience with my previous E70 that had similar protection and washing frequency.

I should add that when I get the car washed its done by a guy I've used for the last 5 years. He's very good - taking him 4 hours each time. He does it at my house so I can see he's working all that time. Every 6 months or so I get him to put polish on it as well. The result is that when I traded in my last X5 it looked mint. I think that "presentation" makes a difference to the trade in provided of course you are going to push the dealer quite hard as well. It makes it easy to see there's nothing there for them to try and mark you down. Its probably more of an asset in a private sale.

With your local handwash place, if you do end up using them I'd make sure they are using a 2 bucket approach as otherwise they'll probably end up putting swirl marks on your paintwork. also, it kind of doesnt make sense to spend money on expensive protection then let someone strip it off with harsh chemicals. Doing it yourself is a fun option if you have the time - i think i washed my last car 4 times myself and each time it took me the best part of 4 hours (and it wasnt as good as my usual guy!). However, having done it myself thats why I think the protection does make it easier to clean that I've experienced with previous cars.

hope that helps

[Woofer]

Hi

Ad blue is not included, just paid £48 for a top up at 6000 miles

I've had a space grey with the light Dakota leather on an E70 , it was very difficult to avoid jean dye transfer especially , I used Gliptone cleaner which was ok'ish

Nappa leather marked less easily on my older X5

Spec looks fine, I went for the honeycomb(?) aluminium finish having had scratches on the type of inserts you've specced, so far I much prefer it.

Finally consider Harman Kardon if you like your music, it is great value IMHO , way cheaper than the individual option that I've specced before that was better but IMHO not enough to justify the price.

I'd also stick with 19's as the rim protection seems better and the ride definitely is.

Enjoy your car!

[kenniff]

Good point on the Harmon Kardon - I have that and am glad i spent the money.

[Dr C]

Ditto above - well worth it.

[DoubleD]

Thanks guys.

Has anyone compared the BMW Advanced Loudspeaker System to the Harmon Kardon?

The car I test drove had the standard speaker system which wasn't great. However, the first dealer demonstrator I sat in many months ago had the Advanced Loudspeaker system in it. Although I was just flicking through radio stations, I remember thinking it sounded pretty good hence that's why I spec'ed it.

I've never compared it to the F15's HK system though. I did have a old version of HK on a E46 330Ci Convertible many moons ago and I was disappointed with the sound in that particular car, even with the roof up. Thought it had lots of bass and sharp highs, but very muddy mid-range. I could never really get a balanced sound stage setup.

Problem with all these options on the F15 is no dealers seem to have cars with the different systems so you can compare. In fact all the dealer demonstrators seem to be pretty similar in spec, so you can't even go to a few different dealers and compare the options. As well at the 4 speaker options (std, Adv, HK and B&O) this is the same for the 4 different suspension offerings too.

[petert]

Minor point on Adblue as Woofer mentioned £48 for a top up at 6000 miles.  I just had my 35d serviced and paid my usual BMW dealer $40Canadian for a DEF refill after having covered nearly 10000 miles since the last top up.  40 Canadian = 22 Pounds Sterling...
BMW part number (in Canada) is 83-19-2-283-030
Peter T

[DoubleD]

Update: Changed the colour on my order from Sophisto Grey to Mineral White after seeing the pics below. My car will now look like this, albeit with quadrilateral exhausts, aluminium side steps and titanium grill, but no LED headlights or privacy glass 

[kenniff]

On sound systems, whilst its not comparing like with like, I had the "Advanced" in my E70 and now have the "HK" in my f15. The HK is very much an improvement. By contrast, I had the HK in my 330ci sport a few years ago and was pretty unimpressed. It wasnt bad but I expected better.

In general, the more you spend the better result you'll get and at the time I ordered the extra to go from Advanced to HK wasnt much (esp with the discount I negotiated  )

[DoubleD]

Received a surprise email from my dealer a few days ago. It contained a link to a video showing my new X5 having just been unloaded from the car transporter 

It still had all the protective plastic all over it and bits of trim missing, so definitely pre-PDI but I thought it was a nice touch sending over the video which included a quick 90 second walk around the car both inside and out as a teaser.

I honestly wasn't expecting to take delivery of the car until end of Oct, but seems BMW and the dealer have pulled a blinder and managed to get me the car for a 1st Sept new reg plate delivery. That will be 5 weeks and 5 days since I placed my order for a bespoke factory ordered car. I'm impressed so far and looking forward to Monday when I pick the car up