Congrats on the new baby! Storm Bay... suits you sir! Definitely my pick of the colours.
The one area Sootchucker has focussed on, the gadgets and tech, are a step up from the mk7 but only marginally so. There is only so much information you can play with before you realise quickly you don’t need it or use it very often and in fact it’s the most simple display that is actually the most useful one - the HUD.
A bit like moving from an Android to iOS or vice versa, you quickly learn what you need to and most of the rest of it becomes white noise unless you spend ages sat in stationary cars fiddling with buttons and screens.
Oh, yes, it has plenty of buttons to press!
But how many buttons do we need to press once our ideal settings are found day to day? How many programs do we actually use on our washing machines? Maybe the mk8 designers weren’t so wide of the mark after all. I still think the mk7.5 is a happy medium.
A gadget freak like Sootchucker will love the buttons, sub-menus and random features in a 135i but once I’ve played around with them once or twice I find it all a bit meh and tend to leave it in a convenient setting and not fiddle around again.
I think a lot of the focus of reviewers is on such things these days, because thats where things are "new". Nobody ever mentions how air vents or cup holders are in crap places.... or my particular Mk7 gripe, that the MIB buttons and the function buttons around the gearstick are not swapped round for RHD cars. Why didn't someone ever moan about that?
No, much of the reviewers noise is just noise, they have to write something and short of saying what its 0-60 time is, what else can you truly say after everyone has written about a car?
I'm thinking about what tech I use in my Mk7 vs some of the sh1tbuckets my kids drive. Most of it you only notice when you don't have it but I suppose that is the sign of a good bit of tech, that it seemlessly integrates with you.
Things I like on my Mk7 - auto lights, auto windscreen wipers, auto climate control, digital dash, dipping lefthand mirror, powerful LED headlights, AndroidAuto, ACC... and a comfortable seat!
Things I wish I had and I know will be on pretty much whatever I choose next - HUD, wireless Android Auto and an auto box (with ACC and trafficjam assist)
Do my kids sh1tbuckets get me from A to B? Well of course they do, well most of the time.
Would I choose to drop 35k+ on a car without the bits I am used to and like from a Mk7? I don't think I would.
