[275BHP]

Originally Posted by Baddychat

Well written review 275BHP. Congratulations on your new ride.Wishing you thousands of happy miles on this car.

I had a small question regarding the interior shade. Is it beige or saddle brown. Somehow I could not make out from any of the pictures. The door panel was beige as shown in one of the pictures.

Also what is the approximate difference in the projected tank range between the Eco Pro/Comfort and Sport Modes.

Cheers

Thank you very much. The interior shade is beige even though it looks a bit saddle brown-ish. I guess its because of the interior lighting or the flash.

I'm not sure of the difference in the projected tank range between Comfort and Eco Pro Modes. Frankly, I haven't bothered to check this since normal driving in comfort mode easily gives me around 11 kmpl. Anyway, even I'm pretty curious to know this now, will let you know the approximate figures soon.
Cheers

[naveen.raju]

Congrats buddy. Just saw the thread now. Hope you are loving the car every bit. A very nice choice. I hope this will be the car when you come for the next meet.

[275BHP]

Time for an Update...

A quick recap :

So, Freude has been in hibernate mode for more than ten days at a stretch now, since both her drivers haven't been in town. Obviously, my most important agenda this weekend was to awaken the beast after her long break. Now, what better way to do this other than to introduce her to whom I call the "grand" daddy of all cars..

Yep, a Merc it is:




To be precise, a W124 E250D:





Back to the present :

The first thing I did as soon as I got home was, ring up my friend who owns the W124. Fixed up a convenient time and off I went with Freude.

About the W124:

Man, what a car the W124 is! Drove her around for awhile and I loved the way she handled. Modern day cars seriously feel over engineered. The backseats were something out of this world. Comfort is not the word to be used, heck they were even more comfortable than the sofas in my house! This is one car every automobile enthusiast must drive, IMO.

Anyway, off we went, yet again to Athirapally but this time was even more fun since Freude had completed her break in period of 2000 kms. Drove her in Sport mode for most of the journey. Really enjoyed driving through the small roads along the forest and realized how wonderfully she corners. However, I had to drive pretty slowly this time so that "Her Majesty - W124" wouldn't go out of sight. Despite the limitation on speed, it was an awesome trip overall.

Would I do this again? Hmm I doubt it, next time I want to introduce Freude to one among her own breed. Watch this space for more....

Attaching some more pictures from the trip.

[vivriti]

Nice to see the E250D and the 520D side by side.

I had the feeling the 520D was bigger than the E250D and this pic changes that !.

How do these two cars feel in crowded city roads and which one is easier to handle ?.

[androdev]

Hey congrats 275BHP! It's a beautiful looking car. Nice ownership review. I hope your observation about increased ground clearance is true. Drive safe!

[275BHP]

Originally Posted by vivriti

I had the feeling the 520D was bigger than the E250D and this pic changes that !
How do these two cars feel in crowded city roads and which one is easier to handle ?.

Even I had the same feeling initially, it was only when we parked them next to each other that I realized they are of almost the same length.
Attaching a picture which should give you a better perspective in this regard:



When it comes to city drive-ability, the 520d takes the cake, hands down. This is because of the extremely poor pick up in the W124.
However, if the E250D had better pick up, I guess it would've been easier to drive in the city because of its very light steering.
Hope this answers your question.
Cheers!

[Chirag911]

Hi. Great review and congratulations on your car.
The car looks great. I really like the alloy wheels on offer. I have a question though. How does the "speed limiter" work? Do you put in a limit and the car doesn't cross that speed no mater how much you step on the gas? If so, is it password protected? Considering the number of accidents by teenagers driving such cars, it's a great feature that the parents can enable to restrict their children from driving fast.
Thanks in advance. Congrats once again.

[275BHP]

Originally Posted by Chirag911

Hi. Great review and congratulations on your car.
The car looks great. I really like the alloy wheels on offer. I have a question though. How does the "speed limiter" work? Do you put in a limit and the car doesn't cross that speed no mater how much you step on the gas? If so, is it password protected? Considering the number of accidents by teenagers driving such cars, it's a great feature that the parents can enable to restrict their children from driving fast.

Thank you very much

With regard to your question, yes you can set the speed limit on the car but this isn't password protected or anything like that (though, like you had mentioned, it would be a really good feature to have). Once you have set the speed limit, no matter how much ever you step on the throttle, the car won't cross this speed. However, the moment you step on the brakes the speed limit is gone and you have to reset it again, if required.

[Chirag911]

. However, the moment you step on the brakes the speed limit is gone and you have to reset it again, if required.[/quote]

Okay thank you but in that case what remains the difference in terms of practicality between cruise control and speed limiter? I think it's a good concept, good technology, it's just BMW that needs to make it much better by password protection.

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by Chirag911

Hi. Great review and congratulations on your car.
The car looks great. I really like the alloy wheels on offer. I have a question though. How does the "speed limiter" work? Do you put in a limit and the car doesn't cross that speed no mater how much you step on the gas? If so, is it password protected? Considering the number of accidents by teenagers driving such cars, it's a great feature that the parents can enable to restrict their children from driving fast.
Thanks in advance. Congrats once again.

The speed limit is a button on the steering wheel, which when you press sets the speed you are going at as your limit. Now there are buttons to adjust this too, and you get to know where the limit is by a little green dot next to the selected speed. The car will not cross the speed limit unless you press the kickdown button. And it does not get deactivated if you press the brake (at least it hasn't in whatever cars I've seen till date).

[Chirag911]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

The speed limit is a button on the steering wheel, which when you press sets the speed you are going at as your limit. Now there are buttons to adjust this too, and you get to know where the limit is by a little green dot next to the selected speed. The car will not cross the speed limit unless you press the kickdown button. And it does not get deactivated if you press the brake (at least it hasn't in whatever cars I've seen till date).

Yes exactly. If it gets deactivated by pressing the brake, then it's useless. Otherwise I'll give it a 9/10. 1 mark cut for not having password protection. I'm sure it's not something BMW would even think of outside India but its a must look at for them within India. What say?

[275BHP]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

The car will not cross the speed limit unless you press the kickdown button. And it does not get deactivated if you press the brake (at least it hasn't in whatever cars I've seen till date).

Originally Posted by Chirag911

Yes exactly. If it gets deactivated by pressing the brake, then it's useless. Otherwise I'll give it a 9/10. 1 mark cut for not having password protection. I'm sure it's not something BMW would even think of outside India but its a must look at for them within India. What say?

Sorry, my bad. Thanks for correcting, Akshay1234. Frankly, I don't use this feature much so guess I got confused .

[Chirag911]

So from what I've heard. The Auto H button is pretty effective. But if you use it too much it costs you a bomb on your mileage. Is that true? Technically if you press the brakes too often you increase fuel intake so is the same principle applied here?
How often do BMW owners use this feature? Only on hills or even in everyday traffic driving?
Thanks.

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by Chirag911

So from what I've heard. The Auto H button is pretty effective. But if you use it too much it costs you a bomb on your mileage. Is that true? Technically if you press the brakes too often you increase fuel intake so is the same principle applied here?
How often do BMW owners use this feature? Only on hills or even in everyday traffic driving?
Thanks.

It can't increase the fuel consumption. Braking increases the fuel consumption only because the accelerator has to be used to get back upto speed. Auto hold comes into use only when the car comes to a stop, it lets the driver take his foot off the brake and keeps the brakes on without letting the car move. This is quite useful in everyday traffic.

[275BHP]

Guys, need some help. My car is due for its first service and I'm confused whether to take BSI or not. Post July, BMW have discontinued the BSI Ultimate option, and have started offering a separate extended warranty option. So I have the option of either taking only BSI Plus or extended warranty or opting for both BSI Plus and extended warranty. BSI plus costs around 2.5 L and extended warranty comes to 90k approx. What do you guys suggest? These rates are for the 5 years/60k Kms scheme. I'm only looking at this scheme for now. Thanks in advance.