Beiträge von GermanKiwi

Bitte entschuldigt mein Englisch.....

I'd love to have some advice or thoughts about buying an F10 from 2010 - the first year of production for this generation.

I saw a video on YouTube that was reviewing the F10 generation, and the reviewer made a brief mention that he would recommend to avoid F10 cars made in the year 2010. In the comments under the video, he explained further:

"I would not recommend buying almost any car from the 1st year of production, so my recommendation is basically about early production cars. When the car makers make a brand new model, then that specific model, from the early production, usually has more problems. It's because of the new/different parts, new technologies, new production methods, maybe new parts suppliers etc. So if some issues occur, then it's mainly during the first years of production. These are usually small problems, but there can be sometimes also bigger problems for example with the engines or gearbox. But during the production time they usually improve / fix these problems."

So he's really talking more in general terms with regards to all car manufacturers, rather than making a specific claim against 2010-year F10 cars.

Nevertheless it made me wonder if there is any truth to his opinion, with regards to the F10 cars in particular?

The reason I wonder this, is because I'm considering to buy a 535i from a German car dealer, which was built in January 2010 (really the very beginning of the generation!). It has lots and lots of advanced extras (Sonderausstattungen) and seems to be in very good condition. It has 158.000 km on the clock, but the engine was replaced at 87.000 km which means the new engine only has 71.000 km.

It has a brand new HU, and the dealer offers to provide a "Zustandsbericht" (from TüV?) upon request.

Assuming that the car has been regularly maintained (which I could confirm once I see the maintenance history), and assuming that the Zustandsbericht would not reveal any problems, is there any reason I should avoid this car because it was made in 2010? Or because it's a turbo, or any other such reason?

Obviously it's always better to buy a newer car than an older car in principle. However I don't have the budget to buy a much newer F10 at this stage. I've seen a few nice-looking 2011/2012 cars that are around the same price, but they don't have all of the optional extras that this particular car has.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the tip about servotronic - I wasn't so familiar with that technology, so I just did some further reading about it.

I found this article about servotronic:
http://www.bavarianmw.com/guide-4447.html
"The Servotronic varies the steering force required to turn the wheels relative to the vehicle speed."

And this article about "regular" active steering (not IAL):
http://www.bavarianmw.com/guide-4446.html
"Active steering varies the turning angle of the front wheels in relation to steering wheel movements. It also varies the steering force required to turn the wheels depending on the speed at which you are driving."

So it seems that servotronic is a subset of active steering. Servotronic controls the force required on the steering wheel, whereas active steering controls both the force and the turning angle required on the steering wheel. Both of these are related to the front wheels, not the rear wheels.

And Integral active steering (IAL) adds the feature of turning the rear wheels, as you described.

So on the F10, you can either have servotronic (as standard), or full IAL (as an option), but not the regular active steering that previous generations had. Thanks for confirming this to me!

Bitte entschuldigt, dass ich auf Englisch schreibe......

I have a question regarding "Integral-Aktivlenkung" or Integral Active Steering, which is included as an optional extra feature (Sonderausstattung) on the F10 cars, according to the BMW Preisliste.

In the following video, a man describes Integral Active Steering:

At 0:18 seconds into the video, he says "BMW's Integral Active Steering adds speed-sensitive rear-wheel steering to BMW's Active Steering system."

He goes on to describe "regular" Active Steering as being the feature that gives a greater steering response from the car for a small turn of the steering wheel, at low speeds. So the amount you need to turn the steering wheel varies depending on the speed of the car.

And he explains that Integral Active Steering means that in addition to the above, the rear tires also turn slightly too.

It's clear that he considers "Integral" Active Steering to be a separate and additional feature compared to regular Active Steering.

My question is this: if Integral Active Steering is an optional feature on the F10 (according to the Price List), does this mean regular Active Steering is already included in the F10 as a standard factory feature by default? So even if an F10 doesn't have Integral Active Steering, it will still always have regular Active Steering?

Or does it mean that if an F10 doesn't have Integral Active Steering, then it doesn't have regular Active Steering either?

Zitat von FlorianGee

True. Only the LCI xenons have the advanced selective beam feature. Pre-LCI could only automatically switch between high and low beams without being able to cut out other cars.

Got it.

This BMW video describes the High-Beam Assistant feature. At 0:40 seconds it shows that the lights can swivel "by a few degrees" to help avoid shining into the oncoming car. But what the video is describing doesn't appear to be as advanced as how I would understand the advanced Selective Beam feature. Do you think this video is describing the pre-LCI or after-LCI version of High-Beam Assistant?

Zitat von FlorianGee

You're on the right track
Read the description of the "Fernlichtassistent" and you should be "enlightened"

FLA.JPG

I see what you did there...

So it looks like the name of the feature is the same ("Fernlichtassistent") but the description changed. In the 2010 Preisliste, it says:
Fernlichtassistent
automatisches Auf- und Abblenden

In 2014, the word "blendfrei" is added to the title:
Fernlichtassistent, blendfrei
Im Umfang Adaptiver LED-Scheinwerfer und Innovationspaket enthalten

And in 2015, "blendfrei" is removed from the title and is included in the description:
Fernlichtassistent
BMW Selective Beam (blendfreier Fernlichtassistent)
Im Umfang Adaptiver LED-Scheinwerfer und Innovationspaket enthalten

Presumably there is no actual difference between 2014 and 2015 - they would both be this more advanced version of the high beam assistant, because they're both the LCI model, I guess.

Guys, thanks for all the helpful info and opinions on this topic! And I'm sure much of it comes down to personal opinions or preferences at the end of the day.

I found a very long discussion on the topic of LED vs. Xenon brightness in a forum for the F30 here:
https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1230507
I read through all the comments there, and although some people claimed that LED was brighter, more people seemed to think that Xenon was brighter (for the F30). But it was clear that it's very subjective. However, I reached the conclusion from the comments there, that the LEDs put out more light in the foreground, close to the car, compared to Xenon, but did a worse job of throwing light further away in the distance (with the highbeams) compared to Xenon. Several people made comments along those lines. I wonder if that is a reason why some people see LEDs as being brighter, because the area directly in front of the car is brighter. Of course, the F10 could be different to the F30 in this regard.

In any case, I agree with your comments above that LED vs. Xenon should not be a deciding factor when buying a used F10. Either way, the light output will be quite good, and the High Beam Assistant feature does a good job to prevent the light from shining into the eyes of the other drivers.

Zitat von AltinB1306

With the "selective Highbeam" adaptive Xenon headlights do exactly the same.
Pre LCI didn't have that feature, only LCI.

Zitat von Florian

As previous speakers have already said, the LCI has adaptive high beam assist. It masks the oncoming traffic and works like a charme, i am very impressed.

I'm intrigued about these two comments comparing LCI Xenons with pre-LCI Xenons. I assume that @AltinB1306 and @Florian are both referring to the same thing, in the two quotes above? I've never heard of "adaptive high beam assist" though. I have a copy of the BMW Preisliste (in German) for each year from 2010 to 2015, and they only refer to "Fernlichtassistent". The Preisliste for 2014/2015 (ie. LCI) does not mention anything special like "Adaptive Fernlichtassistent" or anything that sounds like something more advanced than regular Fernlichtassistent. I wonder if you can give more details about that?

I also found this video, where a guy gives a demo of adaptive headlights with highbeam assistant. It looks like he has Xenon lights. It's not clear what kind of BMW he has, though:

Okay great, thanks again guys, much appreciated!

Okay, so (with new bulbs) Xenons will be brighter - that's really good to know! Brightness at night is my main concern, so I think I'll go for a car with Xenons, and buy new bulbs for it, as you advised.

I guess a brand like Philips or Osram would be suitable? Or ss there any particular brand or type of bulb that is usually recommended to use for replacement?

Thank you for confirming this, FlorianGee!

Thanks, that's very helpful!

Both of you have stated that if I "get a good Xenon bulb" then it will be just as bright as the LED lights. Do you mean that the factory Xenon bulbs are not as bright as some aftermarket bulbs? So if I bought a car with Xenon lights, you would recommend that I replace them with aftermarket Xenon bulbs (eg. Osram or Philips?) to get some extra brightness from them?