Ok - this is a thread for posing questions to BMW, even knowing there will never be an answer - a place to ask about the inexplicable, the why, or whatever. I'll start with this - my E92 came with a very nice, classy, leather case for holding the various info and manuals, including the owner's manual. Since BMW glovebox dimensions have shrunk substantially from prior glory days of cavernous capacity, I find that the lovely holding case doesn't fit in the glovebox or anyplace else in the passenger compartment! WHY?? Seems ridiculous on the surface that the only place for it to fit is the storage cubby in the trunk under the center panel, doesn't it? Yes, the owner's manual itself sorta fits into the glovebox, but with its squarish dimensions, it's too big to sit flat , and the edge of it rests on the catch, inevitably to get torn up with opening and closing the glovebox, never mind wasting space and bending up the manual. There are no pockets on the back of the E92 seats in which it might be stowed, and it won't fit in the door storage compartments either. This means you have to tuck it under a floor mat if you want it somewhat secured and accessible while sitting in the car, or just have it laying on a seat, in either case being a potential projectile in the event of an accident. It does make me wonder why, of all things, they wouldn't design the manual to be in a slightly more rectangular format that would at least allow it to fit and lie flat on the bottom of the glovebox, clear of the catch or latch. Hardly a major issue, yes, but - how hard is it for whoever designs the manuals to give a little consideration to sizing them to fit into the one place in the passenger compartment they might be stowed? I hope that trend was not continued into the current F8x cars, and if so, c'mon BMW, get with it!
Yes, but not with a mobility kit residing there, and the tray is too shallow to secure both from sliding around the trunk, at least not without homemade securing efforts. And why not stick the mobility kit in the cubby under the trunk floor panel? No room there due to scissor jack and other tire-changing tools for the mini-spare, even with an attempt to individually stow the mobility-kit pieces. So, easiest to let the mobility kit live in the battery-cover tray, where it's less-prone to galavant about the trunk while driving, leaving the manuals in their nifty case to reside elsewhere. Even so, the point is it's plain dumb the manual(s) aren't sized to conveniently fit in the glovebox, where they're far more easily accessed than anyplace else. Having a specific spot in the trunk is fine, but the logic of the placement is not inherently obvious - maybe BMW is just easing us towards the eventual elimination of costly and expensive glovebox stowage and manuals, with the rationale being that neither are needed since everyone's adjusted to not using the manual at all because the only place it resides is so hopelessly inconvenient that no one ever bothers. Who knows, maybe BMW will be among the first automakers to offer a direct vehicle-to-brain linking system, and we'll just use a manual by thought, or, as in "The Matrix", be brain-trained by computers or the car. I expect self-driving cars would be a reality long before that, though. "Siri - please drive onto the track, and complete the Nurburgring course two minutes faster than the current minimum completion time. Wake me when we've returned to the finish line." In the meantime, I don't expect to get an answer from BMW or the owner's manual design department, but I might find their reasoning understandable if it trumps the easy accessibility of a manual &/or case sized to fit and safely stow in the glovebox.
Marshall, you make an excellent point. I have it slightly better with the new X5 but I still have to jimmy the leather case in a certain way while closing the door, or else the door won't close and even then, I can put precious little else in what should be an otherwise usable storage compartment. I'm guessing the Germans would tell us we don't need ready access to the hard copy books because the owner's manual is available through iDrive on more recent models. But the iDrive version takes much longer to look stuff up, can only fit a little information on the screen at one time, and can't be used while the car is in motion; which could otherwise be handy, for example, to have the passenger look stuff up while the driver is driving. So yes, I cast another enthusiastic vote for bigger glove boxes. In fact, if they want to remove the passenger side Takata airbag-of-death and replace it with a bigger glove compartment, I'm fine with that since I don't allow unharnessed passengers.
On the Dear BMW line of thought. While I realize it wasn't their fault that ATT decided to drop their 2G towers which provided the BMW Connected Services to most Pre 2014 Vehicles. I really would like to know why they are just leaving those of us with these vehicles out in the cold when this is still a major selling point for them. The safety of the emergency call feature as well as others. I think it's shameful to not have a solution for this and not be keeping us in the loop. I have a good friend just purchased a 2013 X3 CPO warrantied till 2018 yet it's connected services do not work. How nice is that. The send to car feature with google maps was very nice. Now they are not the only manufacturer to have this issue, yet most of them have provided at no cost or a reduced cost technical updates to fix this issue. Please BMW get off your back side and come up with a solution. Oh and while they are at it they can come up with a better service solution for the used car buyers. Most of us BWMCCA folks are owners of older vehicles, and doing our own maintenance is how we roll. Yet the new business model of not wanting the end user to work on their own car is crazy. At the point these cars get down below the $10k range people who buy them are not going to be paying the dealerships $700 for a battery replacement. While I understand the complexity is going up not all of us are afraid of computers and working with them or the Mechanical aspects. Do they think that once a vehicle is past CPO status, they just turn to dust and vanish? I hope not as I plan to keep my 2011 535i for some time and doing all my own maintenance is what I love about it. I shouldn't have to search high and low to find the specs and guides that I need to do this. Anyway, I think they really need to rethink the business model. I understand these are complex vehicles but they need to be a little more forthcoming in the information for those that can and do their own maintenance. Just food for thought. E.
