[TurboKoo]

Originally Posted by den525

Gear lever up and down shift is the wrong way!!! Forward should be up and downward should be down!!!

I think it's just the right way. When you brake you move your weight forward so it's natural to push forward and when you accelerate you are pushed back.

[mfourn20]

Automatic transmissions should always be pull back to shift up..fwd to downshift. My wife's VW is fwd to shift up...drives me frigging nuts.

[BMWZ4]

Originally Posted by Viffermike

A larger gas tank? C'mon. It's nearly 14 gallons. We're not all driving Suburbans here. The Zweier isn't even a GT car. IMHO, the gas tank is plenty large. Context, people ...

But I concur about the lack of a temp gauge, the coat hooks, the lack of last-use memory, and the wonky daytime-nighttime dash lighting, which is WAY too sensitive and doesn't allow for sensitivity adjustment like many other makes (I'm looking at you, Lexus) do. I keep my headlight switch at "off" during the daytime just for that reason -- and because I don't want my xenons firing up and self-leveling every time I go under a bridge.

Other big peeves:
- Lack of daytime gauge backlighting
- Lack of decent tone adjustment options on the stereo
- Lack of a decent-quality sound system overall (the HK is not quality in the 2er)
- Lack of power in the Hi-Fi stereo amplifier
- Lack of LED brake lights
- Lack of illumination for the visor mirrors

Yes, a larger tank. I drive to/from work everyday for 500km a week in stop & go traffic both ways. I'm having to fill-up late mid-week. So another 8L or 10L would be nice. I bought the car knowing the tank was smaller than my other cars, but just sayin' it would be nice.

[den525]

Originally Posted by mfourn20

Automatic transmissions should always be pull back to shift up..fwd to downshift. My wife's VW is fwd to shift up...drives me frigging nuts.

All major manufacturers have "up" to be upshift and "down" to be downshift. At least bmw got rid of paddle shifters push as up and pull as down. That was stupid, they just need to get rid of the weird gear shifter now!!

Look at any proper race cars it's always up as up and down as down

[Zooks527]

Originally Posted by den525

All major manufacturers have "up" to be upshift and "down" to be downshift.

Assuming you mean "forward" when you say "up", that's a bit of a stretch.

Certainly isn't "All", as BMW isn't on that pile. Mazda uses forward to downshift. Mitsubishi is schizophrenic, using forward to downshift on the DCT models but rearward to downshift on the CVT transmissions.

There are also systems that don't go in line with the car. Dodge uses side-to-side instead of fore and aft. I believe some Mercedes are side-to-side as well.

Yes, the companies owned by VW use forward to upshift, as do some GM, but that's a far cry from "all".

[den525]

Originally Posted by Zooks527

Assuming you mean "forward" when you say "up", that's a bit of a stretch.

Certainly isn't "All", as BMW isn't on that pile. Nor is Dodge, who uses side-to-side instead of fore and aft. I believe some Mercedes are side-to-side as well.

No BMW is not in that pile. And no dodge is not a major manufacturer.

Anyways the bmw system is unnatural.

I've never driven a car with upshift and downshift being side to side that would be even worst!

[Zooks527]

Originally Posted by den525

And no dodge is not a major manufacturer.

Where's your cut line? In 2014, Dodge sold more than 500,000 cars in the US alone, whereas Porsche sold fewer than 200,000 worldwide. Fiat Chrysler, which owns Dodge, sold 4,750,000 cars in 2014, far more than Daimler's 1,740,000 cars, and a fair chunk of VW Group's 8,700,000.

Originally Posted by den525

Anyways the bmw system is unnatural.

What you have there is a sometimes difficult to understand concept called "your opinion".

Personally, I've owned both. I thought the "forward to upshift" setup in my Passat was very unnatural. Never thought it was worth getting things all up in a bunch over it. YMMV.

[den525]

Originally Posted by Zooks527

Where's your cut line? In 2014, Dodge sold more than 500,000 cars in the US alone. Porsche sold less than 200,000 worldwide.

What you have there is a sometimes difficult to understand concept called "your opinion".

Personally, I've owned both. I thought the "forward to upshift" setup in my Passat was very unnatural. Never thought it was worth getting things all up in a bunch over it. YMMV.

What I meant was dodge is not a global brand. Might have sold 500k units in USA but it's not a leading brand in car manufacturing maybe its parent company.

Anyways yes it's a matter of opinion. But when majority of the leading car manufacturers Toyota, VW, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Honda etc. have "forward" as up and "backwards" as down its obviously majority and not a matter of opinion.

[Zooks527]

Originally Posted by den525

Anyways yes it's a matter of opinion. But when majority of the leading car manufacturers Toyota, VW, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Honda etc. have "forward" as up and "backwards" as down its obviously majority and not a matter of opinion.

I've heard of people trying to have it both ways, but this is just silly. I'll probably take a pass on discussing it further until you can reach the stage where you're no longer arguing with yourself.

[den525]

Originally Posted by Zooks527

I've heard of people trying to have it both ways, but this is just silly.

You do understand I was referring to 2 different things right? Yes it's a matter of opinion which way you like the up and downshift to be.

No it's not a matter of opinion which is the preferred option, based on manufacturers preference.

Not that hard to understand or are you just trolling?

[Icy J]

Originally Posted by den525

No it's not a matter of opinion which is the preferred option, based on manufacturers preference.

Preferred by a selection of manufacturers doesn't mean preferred feel for most people...

Look at any proper race cars it's always up as up and down as down

Incorrect, as far as I'm aware. Race cars with sequential shifters use the BMW style shifting directions:

This is just a random clip I pulled off YouTube but my main memory is the Top Gear episode where they raced an Aston DBRS9 against a 911 GT3 Cup Top Gear UK v German equivalent) and there were some very clear shots of the sequential shifters, which follow the same directions.

See 1:34 for a downshift which involves moving the gearshift forwards.

You're perfectly entitled to your opinion of favouring the reverse setup but you seem adamant that racecars follow the reverse setup with BMWs being more focused on driving feel it makes sense to follow the racecar style setup.

For more 'normal', less driver-oriented cars, it might make more sense to have the reverse, to make it clearer that to 'upshift' you move it 'up' and vice versa. Sounds very unnatural to me though

On an unrelated note, it was really pissing me off how the iDrive screen changed every time I changed driving modes until I found out that it could be disabled

[AUSf22]

The lack of oil/coolant temp!!

[den525]

Originally Posted by Icy J

Preferred by a selection of manufacturers doesn't mean preferred feel for most people...

Incorrect, as far as I'm aware. Race cars with sequential shifters use the BMW style shifting directions:

This is just a random clip I pulled off YouTube but my main memory is the Top Gear episode where they raced an Aston DBRS9 against a 911 GT3 Cup Top Gear UK v German equivalent) and there were some very clear shots of the sequential shifters, which follow the same directions.

See 1:34 for a downshift which involves moving the gearshift forwards.

You're perfectly entitled to your opinion of favouring the reverse setup but you seem adamant that racecars follow the reverse setup with BMWs being more focused on driving feel it makes sense to follow the racecar style setup.

For more 'normal', less driver-oriented cars, it might make more sense to have the reverse, to make it clearer that to 'upshift' you move it 'up' and vice versa. Sounds very unnatural to me though

On an unrelated note, it was really pissing me off how the iDrive screen changed every time I changed driving modes until I found out that it could be disabled

How do you disable the idrive thing when switching modes! I hate when people know when I'm going to be a dickhead lol

[den525]

Originally Posted by Kiwi

Turn the screen off

:

[Kiwi]

Originally Posted by den525

:

Google

[Icy J]

Originally Posted by den525

How do you disable the idrive thing when switching modes! I hate when people know when I'm going to be a dickhead lol

[den525]

Originally Posted by Icy J

Oh durr lol so simple!!

[kd0t]

Downshifts should be pushing the lever forward while up shifts should be pulling it back. ALWAYS.

[jtzako]

I'm a thin person and 6ft1in and some aspects of the car are troublesome.

Seat side bolstering on M-sport sticks out too far forward, which causes my arms to rest in a more forward position and is not comfortable.

The center armrest moves, which is nice, except it moves when I dont want it to. The armrest is also too high even with my seat raised until my head touches the ceiling of the car.

[Alpine F31]

Originally Posted by Zooks527

the gas tank needs to be a few gallons larger.

This is my only complaint. All the rest, I just embrace. It's the personality of the car. I love my car.

[jtzako]

Originally Posted by TurboKoo

I think it's just the right way. When you brake you move your weight forward so it's natural to push forward and when you accelerate you are pushed back.

Its the right way if you base it on race cars that use sequential shifting.. You push forward to down shift and pull back to up shift. It 'feels' backwards if you base it on aircraft pull back to go up, push forward to go down.

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by moldcad

There is no such thing as a perfect car (or anything created by humans, for that matter) - and so "imperfect" is the great M235i. I won't be talking about the ride and handling quality because this has been beaten to death already (like the lack of steering response etc.); instead I'll mention a couple of things that - even though not so "serious" - bug me during and after each longer trip in mine...

Well - about the "offset" driver's seat, causing my left leg to cross the left bolster rather than rest along it - I already had created a separate thread so won't be repeating myself; I will mention though that after a 7-hour drive yesterday, it made my left leg really aching

Another "small silly thing" that drives me nuts is the way BMW decided to save some $$$ (or did they just want to further differentiate the 2's interior from that of higher series, like the 5 I had and traded in for the M235) is the main 2 clocks illumination in the dash. In PL I'm obliged to use day lights, so my light switch is always in the Auto position - this way the car decides for itself when to switch from white day lights to red dash illumination. Once the head lights are on, everything seems OK - the main part of odo and tachometer are illuminated red. But when the car "thinks" daylights are still enough, the dashboard "composition" changes to white - with the caveat that only the lower (digital) portion is actually illuminated white, and even changes intensity according to the amount of ambient light. When the day is dark (overcast sky without sunshine), there are moments when I literally cannot read my speed or rpm, because - not being illuminated like they are in the 5-series, and with too little ambient light hitting them - they are simply as dark as $%^&. Why, BMW - how much did you save with this silly, ugly and dangerous design? Was it worth it?!!

The third little annoyance (still talking about the interior) is not 2-series specific; for some stupid reasons BMW moved the infotainment volume up/down buttons to the right arm of the steering wheel in all current models. This can really infuriate me sometimes...

OK, rant off - the M235i is such a pleasure to drive that I forgive the about. I'm curious what other users' opinions are, though.

My 335i Msport "auto" lights is the WORST implementation of this I have ever experienced.
On bright sunny winter mornings the lights will come on.
But on cloudy and darker, when raining, conditions the "auto" doesn't turn the lights on.
It's as if the system isn't actually sensing the light conditions but relying on which season it is and the angle of the sun.

On darker rainy days the "auto" will turn the lights on if I have the wipers activated. But I use Liquid Glass on the windshield and the water just rolls right off so I don't need to use my wipers at all unless it's a huge down pour.

I hope the "auto" lights system works better in the M235i.
It worked great in my 135i, just as I would do if I turned them on/off manually. I could do that, but then why have an "auto" function?