Heading out of Modena on the Autostrada we turned north towards Como. I have now had some driving time in the car in a variety of conditions (highway, city, local streets, traffic) and I am very pleased with the car. Here are some critiques and/or things I need to learn more about
:
- The shifter is a little notchy. Not bad, any maybe will improve with time.
- The A/C seemed weak, until I realized that the automatic recirculation was switching between fresh and recirc. Leaving it on recirc made a big improvement.
- At a steady cruise at 80mph, switching the drive mode from Comfort to Sport increases the sound of the engine noise through the speakers.
- There is some SLIGHT turbo lag at lower speeds. This is a non-issue to me.
- Black cars get very dirty (I have owned black cars before).
- I am still trying to find a comfortable seating position. This will take a little more time playing with adjustments.
- The nav system does not remember previous destinations (not the issue I mentioned earlier). More education for the driver is in order.
- I like the cruise control marker on the speedometer.
When I was planning this trip, I noticed that Monza was relatively close to our destination. After two hours, we had arrived. Monza is an old racetrack whose facilities are old and in disrepair in some places. The track is a national park as well and visitors can walk around the track and grandstands. We found our way to the tunnels that went under the track. Not sure we were supposed to be there, but no one stopped us.
Back on the road again, we drove a half hour north to Lake Como. Specifically, the town of Como. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
Black cars do get dirty.
Now for my navigation problem. When we got back into the car to enter our next destination, the screen was asking for the verification code. One problem, I don't have one. They entered in for us at the Welt when they installed the European maps on the flash drive in the car. I tried removing and reinstalling the drive, cycling the key, and changing screens. No luck. Also, I could not find any phone numbers for European Delivery customer service, only roadside assistance. Good thing we had enough reception for Google Maps to work on my phone. We stopped into a BMW dealer just over the Italy/Switzerland border to see if they could help, but they had closed three hours earlier. When I arrived at the hotel, I e-mailed the US European Delivery contact in the US to see if they could arrange for a dealer to reactivate the system.