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Top 5 things I hate on my BMW F20

6K views 57 replies 27 participants last post by  Uncle Tupelo 
#1 ·
#2 ·
Dont' find any of those an issue on my 125i. Things that I think could be improved:

1. Dashboard lighting is a complete mess - can't read dials when in shadow; bottom of panel frequently lit in different colour from top; overall a mess
2. Lights on auto gear selector far too bright at night - mine has black tape over it...
3. Some controls difficult to see from driver's seat - fog light buttons, light showing status of auto wipers etc.
4. Come to that, auto wipers themselves - never work properly! Give me variable intermittent wipers with a manual knob any day.
5. BMW continually knobbling functions and breaking things on ConnectedDrive by remote software updates...
 
#3 ·
spl23 said:
Dont' find any of those an issue on my 125i. Things that I think could be improved:

1. Dashboard lighting is a complete mess - can't read dials when in shadow; bottom of panel frequently lit in different colour from top; overall a mess
2. Lights on auto gear selector far too bright at night - mine has black tape over it...
3. Some controls difficult to see from driver's seat - fog light buttons, light showing status of auto wipers etc.
4. Come to that, auto wipers themselves - never work properly! Give me variable intermittent wipers with a manual knob any day.
5. BMW continually knobbling functions and breaking things on ConnectedDrive by remote software updates...
That's because yours is a 4 cyl and auto.

Is it preLCI?

1 to 5 don't have any issues to be honest but then again I don't get auto updates.
 
#5 ·
1. Sun visor has a massive gap between it and the A-pillar.
2. RFT´s for obvious reasons (will get them changed but might as well use them up)
3. rain sensor doesnt know what the hell its doing sometimes during certain types of rain. It also thinks its a good idea to stop wiping just because i´m standing at a red light. I still would like to see out of the car BMW..

4th and 5th will have to wait. All in all its a goddamn fantastic machine to drive and live with.
 
#6 ·
Top 5 things I hate about my f21....

Manual Gearbox is broken and complete garbage
Bmw won't release parts to rebuild gearbox
2nd hand gearboxes are expensive
The car has only done 42k and the gearbox is broken
And lastly that my gearbox is broken

[emoji24][emoji23]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#7 ·
Jonw246 said:
Top 5 things I hate about my f21....

Manual Gearbox is broken and complete garbage
Bmw won't release parts to rebuild gearbox
2nd hand gearboxes are expensive
The car has only done 42k and the gearbox is broken
And lastly that my gearbox is broken

[emoji24][emoji23]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
How on earth did you manage to break your box, remap?
 
#8 ·
M135i F20 5dr

1 - Hard to enter the car due to the small opening

2 - Clutch pedal is too far to the right/too close to the footrest

3 - It's difficult to get in a seating position where you can see the top and bottom of the dashboard without having to move your head

4 - You can't see when autowipers are turned on, or where the fog light button is. Plus the autowipers turn off when you lock the car

5 - If you open the window when the car's been parked up and it's been raining, water drips all over the seats/door card

6 - You can't link the passenger side cabin temp to the drivers side, OCD me ends up having to change both so they match

7 - No dipstick, I like to check the colour of the oil

8 - No volume control associated with the iDrive

9 - No way to view audio files in their file structure within iDrive

10 - Entry to reverse gear quirk, but only on day 1 as BMW forgot to tell me so I ended up stuck and on YouTube finding an explanation, should've made myself feel like more of a t"@£ and called concierge!

Right now I wouldn't give the car up for all its faults. They feel very insignificant because the rest of the car more than makes up for it.
 
#9 ·
marco_polo said:
Jonw246 said:
Top 5 things I hate about my f21....

Manual Gearbox is broken and complete garbage
Bmw won't release parts to rebuild gearbox
2nd hand gearboxes are expensive
The car has only done 42k and the gearbox is broken
And lastly that my gearbox is broken

[emoji24][emoji23]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
How on earth did you manage to break your box, remap?
Not sure, synchros have gone in 3rd and 4th Marco, I've found someone with a 320d who's had the exact same issue too so not sure if there was a few bad boxes? Believe my car was a lease car before I had it although I've had it from 8k miles and it's now on 42k with a broken box

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#10 ·
One more for good luck :D

I have auto lock turned on as it's quite a nice feature, I also have single click unlock (driver door) and double click (all doors).

Does anyone else find it annoying that when you open your door it only unlocks that specific door? Meaning if you have to go get a kid from the back of the car you have to reach for the keys or remember to push the unlock button on the dash before you get out of the car.

I can see how this is a non-issue or even a benefit for most, but when you've got kids in the back it's an annoyance that keeps catching me out!
 
#11 ·
JacksonGee said:
Does anyone else find it annoying that when you open your door it only unlocks that specific door? Meaning if you have to go get a kid from the back of the car you have to reach for the keys or remember to push the unlock button on the dash before you get out of the car.

I can see how this is a non-issue or even a benefit for most, but when you've got kids in the back it's an annoyance that keeps catching me out!
I guess you get out of the car without turning the engine off then? As my car unlocks all doors when turning engine off, unless I manually locked the car before starting it.
 
#12 ·
Gimbal said:
JacksonGee said:
Does anyone else find it annoying that when you open your door it only unlocks that specific door? Meaning if you have to go get a kid from the back of the car you have to reach for the keys or remember to push the unlock button on the dash before you get out of the car.

I can see how this is a non-issue or even a benefit for most, but when you've got kids in the back it's an annoyance that keeps catching me out!
I guess you get out of the car without turning the engine off then? As my car unlocks all doors when turning engine off, unless I manually locked the car before starting it.
You got me thinking now, fairly sure I always turn the engine off but I will check tomorrow!
 
#13 ·
JacksonGee said:
One more for good luck :D

I have auto lock turned on as it's quite a nice feature, I also have single click unlock (driver door) and double click (all doors).

Does anyone else find it annoying that when you open your door it only unlocks that specific door? Meaning if you have to go get a kid from the back of the car you have to reach for the keys or remember to push the unlock button on the dash before you get out of the car.

I can see how this is a non-issue or even a benefit for most, but when you've got kids in the back it's an annoyance that keeps catching me out!
It only does that because you have the key set to single press to unlock driver's door. If you change that, it'll unlock them all when you open the door.
 
#14 ·
Yep seems to be the case, one press on the start/stop and it unlocks the drivers door but none of the others. This is fine when I'm on my own (most of the time) but annoying when I've got my daughter in the back. It would be better if you had the option to unlock all doors once you've stopped.
 
#15 ·
JacksonGee said:
Yep seems to be the case, one press on the start/stop and it unlocks the drivers door but none of the others. This is fine when I'm on my own (most of the time) but annoying when I've got my daughter in the back. It would be better if you had the option to unlock all doors once you've stopped.
It only does that as that's how You have set it in the iDrive. Change it to all doors if you don't like Your current setting.
 
#16 ·
For me it's;
1. Instrument cluster (dated and ugly)
2. No digital speedo and it can be hard to know exactly how fast your going.
3. Speakers are the worst I've ever heard on any car, seems like they took them out of old barbie dolls.
4. On a long journey your back can hurt.
5. The business nav is useless, displaying a white direction line on a white background.
6. Leg room is non existent
7. Getting in and out can be tricky
8. Fuel economy sucks (for me anyway)
9. Orange lighting everywhere
10. Toy cars have better "ambient lighting"
11. Boot space isn't the best
12. Lack of standard equipment i.e cruise control
13. Stiff suspension and run craps.
14. The most useless wipers ever.
 
#17 ·
marco_polo said:
JacksonGee said:
Yep seems to be the case, one press on the start/stop and it unlocks the drivers door but none of the others. This is fine when I'm on my own (most of the time) but annoying when I've got my daughter in the back. It would be better if you had the option to unlock all doors once you've stopped.
It only does that as that's how You have set it in the iDrive. Change it to all doors if you don't like Your current setting.
I'll just have to live with it as 95% of the time I''m on my own so it would cause a bigger problem to change it to all doors.
 
#18 ·
Are people moaning about the small opening on an F20? Surely the doors are pretty big, I went for a 3 door over a 5 door as the 5 door seemed very claustrophobic when I sat in one.

I've only done 900 miles so far in my 118i Shadow Edition but here are my gripes no matter how trivial:

1) Have to slam the doors closed, is this a BMW thing?
2) When closing the drivers door from the inside there is an annoying cheap sounding rattle. Cooper Reading say it's normal but the passenger door doesn't do it. When you wobble the window it makes a noise where the passenger window is silent.
3) Auto wipers going super fast during normal rain.
4) Dimming of instrument panel, i think everyone has this.
5) When listening to BBC 6 Music it displays as "rock music" its not really rock music. I wish you could upload the 6 music logo.
 
#19 ·
The door opening is perfectly adequate. We bought this because it's a smaller car, that's what we wanted. If we wanted we have got a 3 or 5 series.

My own pet hates are (M135i):

Auto lights, good a blinding other motorists.
Auto wipers go mental, then delay too much.
Fuel tank is the size of a thimble. Feels like I'm constantly filling it up, but I'm getting good mpg on the 'puter.
Slight hesitation when pulling out, not all the time but it's there (auto).
 
#21 ·
Here's my top "5"... :D :D :D

1. Poor FM radio reception
2. Poor speakers
3. I don't understand the lighting of the instrument cluster. It changes all the time and it's never right.
4. The grey digital screen in the black instrument cluster. Looks awfull.
5. Prof nav is useless. The completely free google maps is way better.
6. Idrive looks interesting, but in the end it's just a bunch of useless options. The things you would like to change, cannot be changed.
7. Useless windshield wipers
8. RFT's ... after the car stood still for a few hours, the tires are square.
9. Sun visor has massive gaps. Why not make the black area around the middle a little bigger so that the sun can't come true ?
10. Connected drive... i don't understand why i would pay a lot of money for things that should be standard on a car, or are free on my phone.
11. Suspension is too high en too soft, especially when you take a bump in a corner, it's wobbling all over the place.
12. OCD temperature settings :p
13. Why can't this car remember to put on the seat heating when the ambient temperature is below X ?
14. Why do i have to put the car in sports mode everytime i start it ? Let the car remember this setting.
15. Automatic lighting doesn't include backside lights. I need coding to get this done. Make it a standard idrive option.
16. Talking about coding options.... they should all be in the idrive menu since they're allready in the car. For example: automatic turning mirrors.
17. USB should be in the place of the sigaretlighter

Etc. etc.
 
#22 ·
Adamchase said:
For me it's;
1. Instrument cluster (dated and ugly)
2. No digital speedo and it can be hard to know exactly how fast your going.
3. Speakers are the worst I've ever heard on any car, seems like they took them out of old barbie dolls.
4. On a long journey your back can hurt.
5. The business nav is useless, displaying a white direction line on a white background.
6. Leg room is non existent
7. Getting in and out can be tricky
8. Fuel economy sucks (for me anyway)
9. Orange lighting everywhere
10. Toy cars have better "ambient lighting"
11. Boot space isn't the best
12. Lack of standard equipment i.e cruise control
13. Stiff suspension and run craps.
14. The most useless wipers ever.
Why did you buy it then :lol2:
 
#24 ·
Octavius said:
Adamchase said:
For me it's;
1. Instrument cluster (dated and ugly)
2. No digital speedo and it can be hard to know exactly how fast your going.
3. Speakers are the worst I've ever heard on any car, seems like they took them out of old barbie dolls.
4. On a long journey your back can hurt.
5. The business nav is useless, displaying a white direction line on a white background.
6. Leg room is non existent
7. Getting in and out can be tricky
8. Fuel economy sucks (for me anyway)
9. Orange lighting everywhere
10. Toy cars have better "ambient lighting"
11. Boot space isn't the best
12. Lack of standard equipment i.e cruise control
13. Stiff suspension and run craps.
14. The most useless wipers ever.
Why did you buy it then :lol2:
I like the drive, torquey diesel pull, Looks and perhaps the BMW badge other than that it's got nothing going for it.
 
#25 ·
These are nitpicks, but here goes:

1) Lack of a spare wheel. I know this is a BMW standard, but that didn't make it any less aggravating when I threw a front tyre on a pothole. BMW assist were great, but I'd rather not use them at all if possible!

2) The wheels themselves. Not the looks (which I like), but rather the incredibly fragile paint finish (I swear it scuffs if you so much as sneeze at it) and those infuriating troughs which are a royal PITA to clean.

3) The stock exhaust tips. Again not the looks, but apparently these are made out of painted cardboard since I've had the car for two Winters now, and the tips have never managed to last through without corroding. About to have a 3rd pair fitted.

4) Headlamps. The LEDS look great, but their actual ability to illuminate a road is pretty poor. Dipped headlamps offer pretty pathetic visibility at times.

5) Restricted view at junctions. The A pillars are very obstructive and can be a pain at certain turnings.

All in all though, I love the car. Like I've said, these are nitpicks.
 
#26 ·
Adamchase said:
Octavius said:
Adamchase said:
For me it's;
1. Instrument cluster (dated and ugly)
2. No digital speedo and it can be hard to know exactly how fast your going.
3. Speakers are the worst I've ever heard on any car, seems like they took them out of old barbie dolls.
4. On a long journey your back can hurt.
5. The business nav is useless, displaying a white direction line on a white background.
6. Leg room is non existent
7. Getting in and out can be tricky
8. Fuel economy sucks (for me anyway)
9. Orange lighting everywhere
10. Toy cars have better "ambient lighting"
11. Boot space isn't the best
12. Lack of standard equipment i.e cruise control
13. Stiff suspension and run craps.
14. The most useless wipers ever.
Why did you buy it then :lol2:
I like the drive, torquey diesel pull, Looks and perhaps the BMW badge other than that it's got nothing going for it.
Do you still own the RS3 or is that a previously owned chariot?
 
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