[busydrive]

Nice short travelogue there. How was the experience at JLR Kings Sanctuary? Online reviews seems to be indicating it's not at par with other JLR properties when it comes to cleanliness and maintenance.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by busydrive

Nice short travelogue there.

Thanks!

How was the experience at JLR Kings Sanctuary? Online reviews seems to be indicating it's not at par with other JLR properties when it comes to cleanliness and maintenance.

In my experience (this is my second trip there), JLR King's Sanctuary is a very nice place, and the rooms, maintenance, restaurant, food quality, and cleanliness are actually better than many other JLR properties where I have stayed at.

Check out my report (with room photos) of my previous trip to JLR King's Sanctuary, which was earlier this year, in this post.

In both the trips, we took "Maharaja Suites", which are the better types of rooms there. The Maharaja Suites are very spacious, clean, comfortable, and offer good balconies. The restaurant at the property is also cleaner and offers better food than many other JLRs.

Overall, I think King's Sanctuary is more of a "resort" than a regular lodge by JLR standards. Of course, it is nowhere comparable to other private 5-star resorts, but by JLR standards, and if you know what to expect in a JLR, this is a very nice place!

On the negative side, again compared to other JLR properties, King's Sanctuary is lesser of a jungle place (and more of a comfortable holiday resort) and is not situated in any special location with great views like some other JLRs are (for example, JLR River Tern Lodge or JLR Sharavathi Adventure Camp; those two places offer amazing views and the location itself is amazing). King's Sanctuary is located right on a main road, and other than plenty of trees and landscaped gardens around, there is no view. It is actually outside the main tiger reserve area.

Even for the Jeep Safari at King's Sanctuary, the safari vehicles has to travel some 20km on the main road (shared with all other public traffic) before it goes inside the reserved forest area.

Thus, there are few pros and few cons of King's Sanctuary compared to other JLRs. But certainly, cleanliness and maintenance is not at all a problem at least in the Maharaja Suites.

One problem with online reviews of any JLR property is that many people do not know what to expect and they compare to other properties at similar price range. JLRs are certainly expensive for the rooms or the facilities they offer, and that puts them in a wrong comparison group. For example, at King's Sanctuary, the Maharaja Suite costs around Rs. 16k per night for 2 people. In that price, one can surely get better resorts elsewhere, and if one compares to those, then the JLR facilities will appear poor. But if one knows what to expect at a JLR and understands their USPs, then they would never compare it to other private resorts.

[Dr.AD]

Service Update and a Sunday Drive with Friends!

After the monsoon drive through Chikmagalur (described in earlier posts in this thread), the oil change requirement in CBS dropped to 800km. I had one more drive planned after that, to Thanjavur, and given the nice fast roads in that drive, I wanted to take my 320d there. That was another 800km to 900km drive, and unfortunately it was way too close to remaining oil life of 800km. CBS had created similar dilemma for me in the past too, and every single time in the past, I decided to play it safe and let the servicing take priority over driving plans. I have never exceeded any CBS requirement. The car is always serviced well in time.

This time also, after some deliberation, I decided to play it safe and let service requirements take priority over my driving plans. Thus, I ended up driving my Thar to Thanjavur instead of the BMW.

Anyways, that decision turned to be wise because the 800km oil life immediately dropped to 700km the next time I started the 320d. The Thanjavur drive ended up being 850km, which would have meant I would have most certainly returned with an oil change overdue and CBS throwing warnings on the dashboard. I was happy I avoided that.

The CBS telling me that I need to change engine oil in 700km:



EGR Cooler Recall: Just about 2 weeks ago, I had received a recall letter from BMW (by speed-post! - very surprised to see this old fashioned mail and not an email notice) related to EGR Cooler checks/replacement to avoid a potential fire hazard. This is a global recall and happening since 2019 or so. I had received a similar recall in 2019 (in the first round of global recalls), and that time, they had actually changed the EGR Cooler in my car. I was surprised to see another recall on exactly the same issue now, and was keen to get this checked by BMW at the earliest!

I took an appointment at Navnit BMW and asked them to take care of oil change as well as this EGR Cooler recall.

My car the BMW Navnit BMW for servicing:



Advantages of NOT having BSI: From my experiences, I have started preferring not opting in for BSI and rather use the "pay as you service" model.
Below is the latest example of what I mean.

CBS was showing "Brake Fluid Change" as the next service requirement (this is typically done every 2 years) due in October 2023. Thus, if I had the BSI, they would have done only the oil change now (which was due now), and asked me to come back in 2 months for the brake fluid change. During my BSI period, I had plenty of such occasions when I had to visit the service center multiple times for such CBS requirements. However, now since I was paying for the service and there was no BSI, I asked them if they could change the brake fluid now along with the engine oil. The service center happily agreed and I changed the brake fluid too now (2 months in advance of the CBS requirement), and saved myself another visit to the service center in just 2 months time.

Thus, in the end, that day I ended up doing a comprehensive service and check-up! They changed the engine oil, oil filter (this is not changed in every service, and only changed when it is really required to change based on some measurements), air filter, AC filter and the brake fluid. They also did the endoscopy check of the EGR Cooler (as per the recall campaign) and certified that the EGR Cooler is fine. They also did complete underbody check, checks of all the suspensions, and other checks (battery etc). My car passed al the tests and was certified to be in fine condition. The total bill for all of this was about Rs. 30k. The service bill is slightly higher than what one would expect from such a routine service, but at least the service experience was great and the car feels perfect again!

Overall, I had a great service experience at Navnit BMW. I am very happy with my service advisor and the overall service experience there.

All OK after the service and a comprehensive check-up:


After the service, my routine there is a test drive by my trusted test drive expert at Navnit BMW. This expert person drives my car every time after any work on the car, and he knows my car well. He took a test drive and confirmed that the car is absolutely fine and in ship shape.

The car is now at 87,400km and still runs absolutely fine and is in ship shape! I love this car for both the driving experience and the reliability! While service costs can be a bit high, what compensates for that is the great driving experience and the great service experience too. Timely and proper maintenance is the key here, and I feel that with timely maintenance, the car can still run much longer.

Sunday Drive with Friends:

I was itching to go for a nice drive after servicing the car. Thankfully, on Sunday morning, such an opportunity came. We did a nice Sunday morning drive with my close friend @robimahanta (driving his BMW M340i) and another friend (who is not a forum member yet) who was driving his BMW 330i M sports (G20).

We drove on some local roads and some small rural roads and reached a point known as "Tri-State Point", a location where the borders of three states (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh) meet. There are some nice small hills and some hill drives around this Tri-State area, and we enjoyed driving around there and taking photos of the car. This turned out to be about a 200km of Sunday morning drive with a mix of rural roads and small hilly roads in the onward journey, and fast six-lane highways in the return journey.

The three 3-ers on a Sunday morning drive:



On some rural roads in Tamil Nadu:



Close to the Tri-State point, we had such nice rural roads:



The three cars enjoying the Sunday morning:



Another group photo:



A solo shot of the mighty M340i:



The blue 330i M Sports looks just as stunning as the M340i:



And a solo shot of my humble F30, which definitely looks outdated in the company of the stunning G20s:



The three bimmers overlooking the Tri-State area below (with the F30 sandwiched between the two G20s):


A good drive must end with good food. This drive ended with a masala dosa and of course a cup of strong filter coffee!

Masala dosa to wrap up the Sunday morning:


That is all from a weekend where I took care of servicing on Saturday and enjoyed a nice drive with friends on Sunday. Thank you for reading!

[bhatmaster]

Bringing back the lighting topic again. Is there any way to upgrade halogen Fog light given in 320D, F-30?
I feel the fog light throw in just rubbish and an aftermaeket fog like Hella, if available at all, will do a much better job.
Will there be any error code coming if we replace the Fog light with an aftermaeket set?

[DRIV3R]

Originally Posted by bhatmaster

Bringing back the lighting topic again. Is there any way to upgrade halogen Fog light given in 320D, F-30?
I feel the fog light throw in just rubbish and an aftermaeket fog like Hella, if available at all, will do a much better job.
Will there be any error code coming if we replace the Fog light with an aftermaeket set?

You could use the F30 LCI foglamps which are LED, plug and play. Some coding after fitment is required.

https://youtu.be/xX1iFU0LkMc

[bhatmaster]

To be honest, I was looking for halogen only. It might be my personal preference only, but I do feel halogen gives a better penetration power in the case of a rainy/;foggy weather.
Is there any way to boost up the the fog?

[Dr.AD]

Lunch Drive to Tirupati

Since the road from Chittor to Tirupati is made a lovely 6-lane (with 2 additional service lanes on each side, making it technically a 10-lane road), we have been thinking of driving to Tirupati to experience the new road.

Further, recently a new Taj hotel ("Taj Tirupati") is opened there too, and we have been thinking for a while to drive there. Although the plan was in discussion for a long time, there was no real concrete driving plan at all.

Finally, all of a sudden, at the very last minute, we decided to do an impromptu drive to Tirupati to check out the new roads and and the new hotel. Like most of our plans, the general idea was in the mind for long, but the execution was totally impromptu and decided absolutely at the last minute.

As usual, the two most likely candidates from our friends group who usually sign up for such impromptu plans signed up for this; myself and @robimahanta. As usual, it was I and my wife in our BMW 320d, and @robimahanta and his wife in their BMW M340i.

At the last minute of this last minute plan, we threw in another idea: Why not drive to Taj Bangalore (at Bangalore Airport) for breakfast, and why not start from there? That would make it a Taj Bangalore to Taj Tirupati drive, which gave a nice theme to this otherwise random and pointless drive. In addition to the Taj theme, the idea was to explore one more new road - the brand new and just very recently opened portion of the otherwise still in construction Satellite Ring Road from Devanahalli to Hoskote. This road is still work in progress, but some stretch of this road is open to public, and we decided to try that out.

Now this Taj Airport and Satellite Ring Road added a long detour to our drive to Tirupati, and maybe added another 1.5 hours or so. But since the idea was just to explore the roads and enjoy driving, and the shortest and fastest route was never the objective, we immediately jumped on to this idea of Taj to Taj drive via Satellite Ring Road.

A refueling before the night of the drive ensured that I did not have to worry about fuel in the 560km driving in the day (I get about 800km real-world range on my 320d on a full tank):



Next day, arrived at Taj Bangalore (at the airport) for an early morning breakfast (@robimahanta joined just a few minute later, in his M340i):


After enjoying the usual sumptuous Taj breakfast buffet (which was a great spread for sure), and some fantastic black coffee (Americano), we started driving towards the newly opened Satellite Ring Road, just to check that out.

On the brand new Satellite Ring Road:



Solo shot of my car:


This ring road is amazing in the portions that are completed. We enjoyed driving here. This road is still not in Google Maps, and Google Maps Navigation was giving all sorts of random directions thinking we are lost. But we kept on driving since we just wanted to check out the new road. We drove till the end of the completed section, and at one point, we literally reached a dead end where the lovely six-lane tarmac just ended in a huge pile of mud and soil. At that point, we took a U-turn, and then started following Google Maps directions to reach the Hoskote-Chittor highway.

For about 5km, we had to travel on narrow village roads to join the Hoskote-Chittor highway.

On some tiny village roads before we joined the highway again:


While the road from Chittor to Tirupati was the highlight of the drive, and that was indeed an amazing 6-lane highway (10-lane including two service lanes on each side), we just did not get an opportunity to take a photo there. There was no safe place to stop, and instead, we just enjoyed driving our cars on that lovely tarmac! So unfortunately, no photos of that section which was the best road in this drive!

After a quick drive on that fast highway stretch, we arrived at Taj Tirupati, much earlier than we anticipated.

Arrived at Taj Tirupati:



Taj Tirupati, a relatively new hotel that was quite nice:



The two bimmers parked under hot sun in Taj Tirupati:



The restaurant there where we hand lunch and spent some leisurely time:


The return drive was uneventful till Kolar, where we stopped for a quick coffee break.

Coffee break near Kolar (you can see the storm brewing in the sky):


After that coffee break, the rhythm of the drive changed for the worse. Till then, we had fast, enjoyable, and fun drive. But now, first we encountered heavy rain from Kolar till Hoskote, and after Hoskote, even worse: unbelievably bad peak evening hour traffic in Bangalore.

We got stuck in a major traffic jam at KR Puram, and from there till home we had to drive through absolutely terrible traffic and had to cross many jams where we were stationary for a long time. Unfortunately the last 30km of the drive took 90 minutes, in total contrast to otherwise fast and fun drive through the day.

Anyways, keeping aside those last 90 minutes of the drive, we had a fun drive and fun day. We enjoyed driving on the new roads, and enjoyed some great food and Taj hospitality at our two stops in the day.

Thanks to our good friends Mr. and Mrs. @robimahanta for their company!

That is all for now. Thank you for reading!

[robimahanta]

Lovely report of a nice impromptu drive, AD. It was good to push the car on those brilliant roads. Thanks for the company. Looking forward to many more drives.

Attaching two more similar photos

[mystiikmonk]

A quick fun and informative travelogue .Do you usually ride with a BMW group? If you do, I'd really like to be part of it. I've been itching for some rides outside Bangalore ever since I got my hands on my BMW.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Lunch Drive to Tirupati

Since the road from Chittor to Tirupati is made a lovely 6-lane (with 2 additional service lanes on each side, making it technically a 10-lane road), we have been thinking of driving to Tirupati to experience the new road. ......


That is all for now. Thank you for reading!

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by mystiikmonk

A quick fun and informative travelogue.

Thank you!

Do you usually ride with a BMW group? If you do, I'd really like to be part of it. I've been itching for some rides outside Bangalore ever since I got my hands on my BMW.

Not really with a BMW group as such. I usually drive with my close friends. This friendship has developed over last 10 years, and we have been driving together and meeting together for 10 years. This group is like an extended family now, and we drive together with this group. Over last 10 years, we have been driving all sorts of cars (I have done many road trips with these guys in my Maruti SX4, for example). So no, this is not about a car brand or a brand specific group at all. This is all about driving together with friends who are passionate about driving and share common passions and thoughts.

It just so happens that many in our close friend circle drive BMWs today and there are many BMW drives. But this is just coincidental and not systematic. You will see plenty of past travelogues from me where we had a mix of cars and not only BMWs.

The best way to get started on finding such friends is to attend Team-BHP meets and events and get to know people. For example, one such meet is happening this coming weekend where many of us will be there: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-...er-2023-a.html (Team-BHP Meet @ Wayanad | 2nd - 4th September 2023)

Hope to see you soon in one of these meetings. And oh, congratulations on your new BMW! Hope to see you and your BMW soon.

[ssjr0498]

Hello Robi,

would it be possible to mark this point of entry to the newly made road on gmaps, so that we could also go there and "yenjai"

Originally Posted by robimahanta

Lovely report of a nice impromptu drive, AD. It was good to push the car on those brilliant roads. Thanks for the company. Looking forward to many more drives.

[100Kmphormore]

Nice updates, is the tri state point Mallappa Konda by any chance?

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

Nice updates, is the tri state point Mallappa Konda by any chance?

Thanks! Yes, you are correct. It is the same point.

[Dr.AD]

TeamBHP Drive and Meet at Wayanad (10th Anniversary Meet)

Last weekend, I attended the TeamBHP drive and meet at Wayanad. It was a great meet and loved meeting my old friends and making new friends. I also enjoyed taking car photos, and had many beautiful cars in the group for photography.

This was the 10th anniversary meet of the overnight drives and meets started by @RSUDARSANAN back in 2013. I am very happy to say that I was one of those who joined the very first overnight drive with this group in 2013, and since then, I have done countless drives with this group. Most of this group have now become close friends and driving buddies, and I cherish all the memories I have driving together with this group. This 10th anniversary drive was special to me for that reason: it marks 10 years of my friendship with my driving buddies!

I have already posted my pictorial report on that drive in that thread. However, please allow me to post a few selected pictures here since such driving trips are very much the part of car ownership experiences.

My car in Mysore, on the way to Wayanad:



Photoshoot with other 3ers from the group at Mysore:



Parked next to @RSUDARSANAN's Blue 320d at the Wayanad Resort (this was an amazing parking lot location, and I could see breathtaking views of the lake from my windshield):



With others bimmers from the group, all parked there in the resort:



The beautiful resort:



Fantastic views of the lake from all corners of the resort:



Pool with a view:



Bench with a view:



My car in the resort premises:



I got to test drive and take photos of Maruti Jimny of @Jkrishnakj (thanks for him for letting me drive the car, and I loved the driving experience):



The stunning Sunset Orange M340i of @robimahanta:



Another photo of the Orange M340i:



The M340i twins (the grey one is of @RakishRam):



BMW 330i MSports of @praveenbalan:



The three G20s together (one of my favorite photos from this meet):



And finally, my car parked among the 7 BMWs we had in the group there:


It was a great drive and a memorable meet for sure. It was nice meeting the old buddies and the new members too. I surely made new friends in this meet.

Thanks to the "Chief", @RSUDARSANAN for organizing this amazing drive, and for his painstaking efforts and meticulous planning that made this drive as much as fun as any of his previous drives and it stood true to all expectations. And thanks a ton to everyone who made it to the drive for their company and the great times together!

See you all in the next drive and meet!

[Dr.AD]

Drives to Hampi, Goa, and 90,000km up!

Since the last update, I did a couple of long drives (apart from some short breakfast drives), and also reached 90,000km on the odo.

The car has been great to drive, as always, but was also parked for a while in the last two months because of our other travels. We did a long vacation to Ladakh, but we flew there, and then we did a few weekend trips in Thar. In all that, I did not get a chance to update this thread much. But recently, I managed two good drives in the 320d to make up for all that lost time, and this is a story of those drives.

Solo Drive Around Hampi:

I love solo drives, and it had been a long time since I did a nice solo drive in my 320d. Therefore, on one recent weekend, when my wife was busy with her work events and I was all alone, I decided to use that weekend for a quick solo drive.

The idea was to just enjoy the car on some fast highways, and not spend a lot of time at any destination as such. I had done a few Thar drives recently, on some bad roads and forest trails, and I wanted this solo drive to be the opposite of that (just for the sake of variety!). So I chose to stay on fast 4-lane highways and just drove around randomly on highways all day.

By driving around the highways from Bangalore to Hospet (via Chitradurga), and then exploring some newly built highways around Hospet, in the afternoon I reached my favorite place, Hampi!

I have been to Hampi so many times recently, and therefore, this time the plan was not to visit any sites in Hampi, but just to drive around enjoying my car.

Somewhere on the lovely fast roads to Hampi:



At Kamalapur Lake, Hampi:


Since the agenda was just to drive around, I did exactly and only that. Drove around the beautiful countryside roads in Hampi:

On the countryside roads:



Evening light is always wonderful in Hampi:



Sunset time on those countryside roads:


Since I have visited the popular sunset points in Hampi multiple times recently, this time I decided to skip all that and just watched the sunset from the road, while still driving around.

A different kind of Hampi Sunset, from a rural road:



The sky just after sunset over Tungabhadra river:


In the end it was just a nice and enjoyable solo drive in and around Hampi, got to stretch the legs of my 320d, and also got a good quality solo time which is like a meditation for me. Loved that weekend.

Goa Drive and Vacation:

On a recent long weekend, we (I and my wife) spent 4 days in Goa. Goa is a special place for us. We used to drive to Goa very often in the past. There was a period of a few years when we went to Goa every year (and sometimes twice a year), and then over time got bored of Goa. Our Goa vacations stopped due to that boredom. And now, we visited Goa again after a gap. That gap seemed to have done the trick. We loved Goa all over again. We had a great time and a great vacation in Goa.

We stayed at "Lalit Golf and Spa Resort" in South Goa. We have stayed here in the past too, and we like this place. This place is almost at the border of Karnataka and Goa, and very easy to access (good highway connectivity) from Karnataka. Plus, this is located at a very quiet and remote location, compared to the busy and touristy areas of Goa. We like this peaceful location. The property is very big and spacious, and usually quite peaceful and not crowded too. The rooms are quite big, nice and luxurious! Overall, this property is quite different from the usual busy resorts in Goa, and we like it for all these reasons. So usually when we drive to Goa from Karnataka, this is our preferred location to stay in South Goa. (Earlier when we used to drive to Goa from Pune, we usually stayed in some resorts in North Goa).

At "Lalit Golf and Spa Resort" at the extreme South of Goa:


We spent time relaxing in the resort and on the so called "private beach" at the resort. And then in the mornings and evenings, we drove around to other parts of Goa visiting a few scenic locations, restaurants, and a few other beaches.

I love the forest roads in Goa. Driving around those narrow, winding roads with thick tress all around, enjoying the turns and intermittent sea views, is a great experience in itself. As much as I like the beaches of Goa, I enjoy these Goan drives too!

On a lovely Goan road, on a nice morning:


In one of these morning drives, we visited the "Cabo de Rama Fort", which is an ancient fort on a seaside hill. Quite a nice place. Drive up to this place is beautiful, and the place itself offers great views from all around.

Goa is known for beautiful churches, and this one, inside Cabo de Rama Fort, is very pretty too:



View from Cabo de Rama Fort:


I also did what I love the most - took my car to a scenic spot and spent some time in car photoshoot. Thanks to friendly moderator @Vid6639 for recommending a few locations and areas for car photoshoot! Many of these locations are around Cabo de Rama Fort. That area offers great views of the sea from top of a cliff.

Reaching some of those locations required such mild off-roading:



But when I reached there, it was all worth it:



Red car and blue sea:



One more photo at that location:



A parting shot from that location:


We also visited beach shacks and had some nice lunch there on the beach. For example, we loved the clean and uncrowded Agonda beach, and found a very nice beach shack there that was peaceful and served great food.

Peaceful times at Agonda beach:


And of course, evenings on the beaches are always wonderful. Our resort was located directly on a beach and had a private access to the beach. We spent some time walking around there and enjoying evening in the beach next to our resort.

Views from our resort's beach access:



Evening on a beach:

Dinner at "Cape Goa" Restaurant:

On one of the evenings, we drove to the famous Cape Goa restaurant, and had a dinner there. This is a very beautiful place, and is one of the most "happening and sought after" restaurants in Goa. It gets quite crowded in the evening. Table reservation is strongly recommended. We went there without a reservation, but thankfully got a table albeit after some wait.

This restaurant is located on a cliff, and requires going down a few rough steps built into the cliff. The location is breathtaking! The views from the restaurant as well as from the top of the cliff (and also from the stairs) are all amazing. The restaurant was very crowded and service was painfully slow. But all those things were fine due to the amazing views we enjoyed. And yes, the food was great too. Overall, we had a great time there.

Restaurant with a view (Cape Goa restaurant on the side of a cliff):



Sunset views from the stairs to the restaurant:



More sunset views from the top of the cliff:



"Dinner with a View" (My attempt at some abstract photography there):



And finally, allow me to wrap this Goa report with this another abstract photograph which I like for some reasons:

90,000km Up!

While on our way to Goa, we hit this milestone:


As I type this, the car is at 91,000km and still feels nice to drive. The car has proved to be extremely reliable, and a great car for my type of driving. It is fast enough for my needs, and the ride and handling balance is just perfect for my tastes. My wife loves this car too, and she appreciates the lovely ride quality and "relative" lack of body roll even in the ghats (when we talk of cars, "relative" is always the key word; nothing is absolute, it is all relative to your expectations and benchmarks). This car has proven to be a great companion for our travels, and 90,000km without breaking a sweat is a great testimony to this car's abilities!

CBS Strikes Again!

While the car is very reliable and I have no complaints on that front even at 91,000km now, one things that I am not a big fan of is the "Condition Based Servicing" (CBS). CBS can catch you by surprise and can potentially ruin road trip plans, as I have documented previously in this thread.

This time, when I started the drive, the next service requirement was engine oil change at 10,000km. The front and rear brake pads both had more than 15,000km of life left, according to CBS. So I did not even think of these things when I started my drive. It was all fine.

However, when I reached Ankola and stopped for a coffee break, and then restarted the car, the message popped up that next service due was in 2,100km! Surprised and alarmed by this, I checked the details, and it was the rear brake pads!

The life of rear brake pads had dropped from more than 15,000km (I did not even care to remember the exact number because that was so far ahead in future, or so I thought) to 2,100km in a short drive of around 550km when I reached Ankola. This is the crazy part of CBS. While it was still all OK, this sudden non-linear drop was worrisome! If this dropped further sharply while I was driving in Goa, I would have been in a spot of bother.

After that, I drove around for another 200km in and around Goa, and in that, the brake pads life dropped linearly to around 1,900km. When I started my return journey to Bangalore, I started with that 1,900km of rear brake pads life. And in the 620km of drive back to Bangalore, it dropped down to 1,100km when I parked my car at home.

So in the end it is all fine and now I have ample time at my hands now to book a service appointment and change the brake pads. The drive itself was uneventful and the brakes lasted long enough for me to finish the drive. However, this sudden drops in brake pads life can catch one by surprise, and renders the whole CBS pointless. In reality, there was just no meaning to that 15,000km of brake pads life shown earlier. At any point, that 15,000km can drop to 2,000km (exactly what happened to me; and this was not even the first time - it has happened many times in the past), and if you are on a long drive, this can catch be a nasty surprise in the middle of the drive. This makes the whole CBS useless to me because you can't trust its numbers anyway, and you have to be prepared for such surprises during a long drive.

I have documents by issues against CBS many times before in this ownership thread. It would be an understatement to say I do not like CBS.

By the way, the rear brake pads were changed at about 73,700km mark, and this means that I got about 18,000km of life on those brake pads. Not a great life at all, but somehow par for the course with BMWs. The problem is not the short life of brake pads by itself, but the sudden end of that life with a huge unreliable number shown by CBS just before than sudden end of life, that is the problem. It can mislead you, and you never know when that sudden end of brake pad life can occur.

But other than the idiosyncrasies of CBS, the car has been really great and my ownership experience so far has been full of joy and great memories. We did so many memorable road tips in this car. Now looking forward to reaching 100,000km mark, which should happen in next six months!

Well that is all for now. Thank you very much for reading!