F150 5.0 XLT - Harder, Stronger, Better, Faster ⭐⭐⭐

Than what? Remember than X6 I gave 2 stars to a while ago?

- 5.7s 5-60, same as X6 40i
- 103mph quarter mile, faster than X6 40i
- .87g skidpad on all terrain tires is same as X5 on better tires
- $10k supercharger for 700hp and full factory warranty available
- All of these stats are also better than IS350 F Sport and G37.
- 925 pounds lighter than the new BMW M5

and gas?
- 14.7L/100km NYC hella urban cycle
- 11.3L/100km highway, same as X6
- and that's without stop start/mild hybrid

and driving dynamics?
I swear the off center feel is better on the F150.

What about the interior?
Quieter than the X6 at highway speeds for sure.
Front seats fold completely flat for sleeping.
Shifter is awful, cheapest I've used in 15 years, burn it with fire.

Parking
It's a box, easy to park ... especially with active park assist that does the parallel parking thing.
When you're parked, whip out the grill for a lil July 4th tailgate.

Why 3 stars?
1) Just get the hybrid/EV version lol
2) The RAM has S-class ride quality, E class+ interior materials, ZF 8 speed and sweet new Turbo 6 that's begging for a tune.

Sound on:
https://i.imgur.com/YPrxAG1.mp4
https://i.imgur.com/En2hV9a.mp4

MY25 Camry Hybrid LE: If I wanted to be annoyed and figure out non sensical screens for 40k, I'd go buy a Model 3 instead. ⭐⭐⭐

https://i.redd.it/st654xy0fjdd1.jpeg

✅ Toyota City said make it fun
- Even on ecotires, quick steering and turn-in is better than Civic Si and Integra A-Spec
- Control weights and response is perfect - brakes have a little marshmellow on tip in to keep braking smooth for passengers but gets stiff quickly after.
- Damping is excellent; well controlled when you're digging deep into the tires and more stable on the brakes than A4
- 5L/100km even with feral driving.

✅ Plano said make it work for American buyers
- Throttle is finally linear and responsive; Japanese drivers never leave the "eco" part of the pedal. No more mash and wait a second for power like in the old Prius
- Way quieter & mirrors no longer shake at highway speeds
- Standard hybrid for our distances and optional AWD
- Sensical infotainment now that North American team built it

❓ but who is responsible for annoying the uncles and clais?
- C-lai is gonna plug in USB-C iPhone cable and wonder why CarPlay isn't working. (Wired carplay is USB-A only???)
- Dad thinks steering wheel buttons are 'ho ma fan' ... and I agree. Why are there two mode buttons?
- New screen is really confusing - why does lane assist disengaging beep/flash three icons but doesn't actually tell me to take control? Why are there 50 icons on the dash and why is the cruise control speed nowhere near the speedometer?
- Scared the shit out of me backing up because it distorts the far edges of camera, did anyone try backing up in this car before approving it?
- Blinding lights: turn signals, shifter, auto high beam, ready, all don't dim with the rest of the cabin lights. The blue and yellow lights are searing at night when the road is kinda dark. Did no one drive this at night during testing?
- Why does predictive driving assist (maintains safe distance with car in front of you) only work down to 10kmh? The car brakes down that speed then stops braking.

https://i.imgur.com/fo853hx.png
https://i.imgur.com/MmfVmhG.png
https://i.imgur.com/8FTRHTu.png

Instead of looking at 4 different spots to get info:
1) Orange: Ready, Hold, and Gearshift indicator should be together.
2) Blue: Coolant, Trip, Odo, and Gas should be together. No reason a this info should take up this much space
3) Red: Speed info should be together - what is my cruise set to, what speed am I going, am I exceeding the speed limit?
4) Purple: Driver assist should be descriptive and should not repeat itself. Should be LARGER than the drive mode/charge/eco/power font since this is safety cricial

Redesigned the dashboard and steering wheel:

https://i.imgur.com/QRmSwZk.png

LE has one small inner screen
https://i.imgur.com/97psPhT.png

XLE/XSE have more driving assist and such and bigger dash
https://i.imgur.com/MVlClCs.png

Those gauge icons are pretty universal at this point, cruise control, lane keep, and lane departure warning are the same on BMW.

I've done one course in UI design, and icons are much much much better than text in a glance environment like a dashboard. That's why basic gauges were around for so damn long because it works. Once you use it you know where the needles are supposed to be at and unless the speed text is GINORMOUS, the gauges will always tell you much more info when you only give it a quick glance.

But other than the Safety Sense text, your dashboard design makes sense. Too much sense, get out of here :badpokerface:

Interesting on the icons becoming universal ... we were taught icon + label in our UX course

I've also still yet to try the BMW hands free / MB / GM ones where the status is on the steering wheel

Regarding the cruise and lane centering, I think its the other way around. I toggle lane centering while I'm not using cruise sometimes and disable it, then enable it later.

Oh interesting, so your car keeps lane centering enabled even if/when cruise is off?
I remember Hyunda/Kia/Honda did this, wasn't aware of others

BMW had it on as default all the time for a bit. Had it on a G20 330 loaner. Holy fuck it was a shit show and that was with me expecting it to do something cause I was trying it out deliberately. I was on Kingsway and let the car drift out of it's lane, it self corrected and over corrected and did not correct the second time as it crossed out on the other side. It was poor. It also did not like that I occasionally would change lanes without signalling because I was the only car on the road. The steering wheel would fight back and stay centered. It was a shit show.

It's no longer on in the X5 unless you are in smart cruise or whatever BMW calls it.

Did this one have the lights on the steering wheel and the infrared camera?

I shopped for a G20 and had a really hard time finding one with Driving Assistant Pro (hands free under 70kmh on highways only).

The rest only have the useless lane departure warning best case scenario ping pongs you around in a lane, and worst case scenario does'nt even beep at you when you've left the lane entirely

Yes, my Lexus UX will warn me if I'm going over the lane and try and correct itself. I flip back and forth between wanting it on or off.

Our X5 has it, the G20 didn't, just lane correction and nothing else. It would at best pingpong you down the road when it works, and you would hit something if it doesn't.

The X5 I tried on the S2S. Not a great place to try lol. It doesn't know to drive smoothly through the corners, and can't handle the merge lanes. Best left on the middle lane on the I5.

Yeah the autonomous driving stuff really needs maps awareness to be able to do curvey roads (Porsche Innodrive, Super Cruise, Blue Cruise)

They’ll know where the merge lanes are, how much to slow down for a corner coming up, etc

My Supra was pretty aggressive about bumping the steering back if you touched any lines.. I was okay with it until some spirited driving and cutting the apex of corners involved going over some solid white lines... nothing like going into a bend at like 140kmh and having the steering wheel push you away from the apex and fight you from taking the turn at those speeds... like holy shit fuck the hell right off stupid car.

Turned that feature off next stop and have not missed it since lol

YEah tbh I usually turn lane departure warning off.

If I'm driving, I'm driving.

If I'm in traffic / sleepy / distracted, I expect the car's Lane Keep Assist (if so equipped) to automatically steer and center itself in stop and go (which they can do now)

I had a lovely little 1987 BMW 325e that I bought during the pandemic, the original owner was living in Brazil at that point and hadn't been back to Canada for quite a few years and his Mom was selling it on his behalf. The power steering rack was leaking quite a bit and the fuel gauge only worked when you tapped on the instrument cluster plastic above it (??) but I thought it was quite charming.

It came on some awful 17" chrome wheels which I immediately set upon ditching, picking up a set of 14" bottlecaps from another E30 enthusiast which he had just put new tires on for a fantastic price. It ended up parked at my friend's shop while I got distracted with a myriad of other projects and languished for a few years.

Fast forward to about 4-5 months ago and I got around to replacing the power steering pump and doing some other maintenance on it and started driving it again... around this time of course decided to move to Calgary and this car became expendable. I really did feel like this car has a certain amount of statehood to it. Yes the 2.7 eta motor revs out to only 4,500rpm and it's generally slow, but dammit if it isn't the most charming thing to drive. You can cruise along on the highway take your hands off the wheel and even at nearly 40 years old with 250,000kms+ on the odometer it just tracks straight sipping away at 5L/100km according to the built in fuel usage gauge. The hand crank windows and hand crank sunroof just add to the charm as does the incredibly sloppy shifter that somehow just goes into the right gear no matter how vague it might feel.

I enjoyed this car and I understand why some people call the E30 "God's chariot" it just gives you a feeling of genuine purpose to operate it. My original intentions when I got the car were to do a weird swap, throwing a 3SGE Toyota BEAMS motor into it, there's even a mount kit I got for it and everything... turn it into a race/drift car... but somehow I just couldn't bear to tear apart this cohesively functioning and smooth running little guy.

I sold it today to a kid from the USA, came up with his Dad who very well could have been my age or slightly older and his friend, both of them probably about 22 years old and that kid told me he has an E30 318i already. I was pretty happy to know that these kids even at this age have such an interest in cars this old. Gave me some satisfaction in that "the kids are alright" sense of things. He had his friend drive it for him because he doesn't know manual yet and the kid with the 318 even commented how much he loves the gold colour more than his blue... which was odd because most everyone I know hates BMW gold lol! Maybe I'll see it at Radwood this weekend, who knows! Adios little E30, may you roll forth stately for many years to come.

https://i.imgur.com/1sUpb4H.jpeg

2023? 2024?? BMW 228xi Gran Coupe: Honey I brought a Kia home.

https://i.imgur.com/zpaoeyx.jpg

Welcome to your entry level BMW, which is actually a Mini underneath. I got the pleasure of having this in my hands for 3 days because the X5 was in for service and warranty work and we need a car for school bus duty. I asked for a BMW SUV or 3 series, and they gave me a 2GC.

What is it?
B48 2.0t AWD that puts out ~230hp, 4 door coupe thing.

Driving
It actually drives decently well. BMW still does have the whole driving dynamic thing more figured out than MB/Audi/Lexus imo. All the entry level luxury things are FWD based now so you can no longer get away. Being in my 30s and coming off of a slew of hot hatches or named performance/icon cars (MS3, DC5S, F56 Mini, NC1 Miata, F80 M3), this actually slots right in. The suspension is firm but not too firm. There's a big lane wide pothole that is extremely harsh in the M3 but this soaked it up no problem.

https://i.imgur.com/tAlCk09.jpg

Around town, what used to be a low profile 225/40/18 tire is now a standard tire, it never showed any poor behaviour and did what I asked of it..... until I pushed it around a right turn rather quickly and while the car did what it was asked, it understeered through the whole thing. It's drives well, just don't ask it to do anything crazy.

While I liked the suspension tuning, I can see how some one who's less inclined on a sport ride may find it a little busy around town. The steering is typical of most BMWs nowadays, heavier and not much feel.

Day-to-day
Most of the car was fine, what you'd expect from an entry BMW, much nicer than a Corolla and really no complaints in the driver's seat.
With that said, the trunk is really dumb.

https://i.imgur.com/kfFtRve.jpg

With the stubby rear end, the trunk isn't so much a trunk but rather a door that swings upward. It's actually decently deep but if your groceries are loose and rolls all the way in, you are going to have to bend and reach.

The other major complaint was the audio. The car I had was decently loaded with options with a "premium" audio system by HK. When I received the car I was wondering why bass was turned up to max and treble was turned all the way to minimum. As I played with the audio I quickly learned why. This is hands down the WORST upgraded audio system I've ever had the misfortune of using. Most cars I have driven with the base system would sound better than this. On a song that I quite enjoy normally, the vocals came out so shrill on this system I went and turned the treble all the way down as well.

Will it baby?
If push comes to shove, which in our case, shoved.

https://i.imgur.com/t0qIyS8.jpg

My 20 month old didn't want to get in. It was tight and challenging to put her in and to retrieve her after.

Conclusion
I'm not the target buyer, I can see it being a great car for a single bachelor guy who wants the badge. But at the 50k price you are a stones throw away from a 330i, which is an infinitely better car. It explains why there are so little on the road despite being on sale for almost 4 years.

Edge case but the 235i I autocrossed was reallllly bad.
Kinda feels like running in ultra boosts.
Had like 0 front end feel, alternated between understeering, catching a bit of grip and even more undeesteer.

Low key the F20 M235/40i also had 0 clutch and steering feel even on the PS4S.

I do like the 330i/340i tho, super easy to place although the static M sport suspension is insanely unforgiving

My hilter box is wayyy better than this for practicality reasons. Not to mention you can put a big wing on it and look euro trash. That’s such an excellent perk

My F80 has zero clutch feel as well, it too understeers like a bitch stock. PS4S is known to have poor steering and road feel though.

I really like how the G20 330 drives. It drives very similarly to my F80 on the street, more so than the F30 and it feels like they put a lot of the lessons learned in the F80 setup into the G20.

Writing one of these long form reviews is so much work

^ the sound of shit tossing around in the trunk will drive me crazy

My pending reviews that may never come out... includes a courtesy car Nissan Sentra? Altima? It wasn't bad.

The fact that he has them loose and not bagged is criminal. :heckno:

Courtesy car, we didn't have our shopping bags in the trunk. We didn't buy that much it's fine.

This sounds terrible.

This, and much of the rest of what you said, sounds like engineers blindly designing to requirements documentation.

"Oh it says right here that the system only needs to work down to 10kph. Let's not use our brains. Let's not think for ourselves what the full story would be. Let's not even at least bother bubbling up our assessment of the consequences, let's not iterate with the people writing the requirements. Let's not collaborate with any of the other development silos working on this program."

The fact that the controls & instrumentation are a completely disjointed incoherent mess speaks volumes to that.

I got to drive my brothers F20 M235i briefly and yeah there's not a lot of feedback there. The low end power, especially with a tune, was really nice but overall it felt a bit too refined for my tastes. I was expecting it to be more of a sports car but I think it's more of a grand tourer. I'd have to drive it way too fast for it to feel exciting on the street which is no bueno.