hey everyone we're working on a podcast about how tough it is to buy a car right now from dealers charging thousands over sticker price to used cars selling close if not over the price people paid for them brand new it's a wild time to be car shopping and we'd love to hear from you text or email a video to talking cars at icloud.com and tell us about your experience about buying a new or used car recently that's talking cars at icloud.com thanks and on with the show [Music] hey welcome back i'm keith barry i'm kelly funkhouser and i'm john linkove and this week we've got we've got kind of a kind of controversial vehicle we're talking about uh this is bmw's ix uh it's their first sort of purpose-built electric all-electric suv it looks like nothing else out there john what's the what's the deal with this with this vehicle i'm putting you on the spot here you spent the most time with it it's very seinfeld ask i mean what's the deal right um so first of all it's one of the first it's not the first because bmw came out with uh the four series which has their new grill which is a throwback to the early the early bmw um nose with the twin kidneys so they're very tall elongated narrow twin kidneys as kelly pointed out in the conversation they um they're they're not really a grill they're just kind of tacked on because there's no radiator in an electric vehicle so um they don't need to actually be functional so they're not really a grill the ix is a is much more of an suv than uh than a kind of a crossover raised hatchback or anything like that the version that we rented from bmw um is the ix xdrive50 with 21-inch wheels that's what the monroney says and it's 83 200. i will just you know we'll get right to the point this is an expensive vehicle to start um it went up to ninety six thousand with options so it's a very nice vehicle but it should really be that nice um at that price five seater you know hatchback uh all-wheel drive that that's the basics of what it is personally i i actually really like that bmw has has done something completely different with it i think what they're doing is is really uh appealing to folks who you know bmw as a car company it's not 1991 anymore you know the e30 get you know this is the 2002 is is you know this is this is the past and for better for worse bmw has to do what it has to do to stay relevant and electrification is relevant and design um here is relevant you know ours had that rose gold trim so this is kind of bmw's new like a halo car it's a car that makes people look at the brand and kind of defines it right so yeah yeah it certainly is a halo i mean right now it's their ev halo look people know in the past they had the the i3 which is a little almost like a scaled down version of this car but it had had a gasoline engine that would act as a generator if you wanted to go you know a range extender they call it they had the i8 which is a very futuristic looking sports car you know this is as mainstream so far as bmw's going with their evs i i it's a it's a weird thing we talking about talking about it for the story that we're going to write about the first drive some people said oh you know what's the next progression from an x3 i don't know it's price wise it's not a progression from an x3 size-wise it may be but you know it's like a loaded xm50 um you know x5 you know 50 fm because of the price but it is roomy it is big i mean my kids actually they often want to sit in the front seat and emily and emily matthews jen stockbroker don't listen but you know often let them do that um but they are tall kids and anyway they want us in the back of this it was very roomy it was comfortable they have plenty of plugs for their devices driving it was you know really enjoyable it's another one of those vehicles much like some of the ones we've talked about in the past the kia ev6 and the hyundai ioniq 5 that you really have to go into the manual and the systems and the controls really to understand all the different features that are available which i know kelly's going to talk about a lot of that um you know but it's a it's a it's very interesting it's not the bmw of old with knife edge handling but it certainly is quick i mean it's a lot of power there a lot of electric power a lot of instantaneous power so it was very cool to try out yeah it's definitely a statement car um and at that price point you know it kind of better be um and keith you stole my you'll stole my line but yes uh if if i am a target demographic as a millennial um then the rose gold was right right in line for that um i thought it was very pretty uh my neighbor though is bmw all day all night and uh he was unsure of what he thought about the design and look of it you know it's it's you called it kidney beans they almost look like beaver teeth to me um it's a statement that's for sure so pick your animal um but i thought that it was very you know luxurious and nicely finished the fit and finish was very nice and i loved how quiet it was that's what really made it feel luxury to me i've been in all of the evs and when there's no other noise to drown out the wind noise and the road noise you know it kind of sounds loud but man they did a really good job in this one of dampening all of those sounds there was next to no wind noise and it was you know finally almost a luxurious experience especially coming from a tesla and i had just been in the maki earlier in the day those are kind of noisy wind noise cars and so this was really nice it felt quality now kelly you also you're our expert here on on user experience and on the advanced driving systems let's walk us through the interior and then maybe we'll talk a bit about uh some of the the the steering itself and breaking and accelerating yeah so um i think most people think a few steps forward is put everything into a touch screen uh that's not necessarily always the best way to do it and unfortunately the some of the controls fell victim to everything being in a touch screen especially in this car you really have to take time and set up all of the personalization and learn this system when you first get into the car you're gonna spend a good chunk of time to do that um after you do that most tasks that you're doing frequently become easier and you'll get used to them unless it's climate um i think every single person that got in that car was just completely frustrated with the climate system um there's essentially an endless row of controls that you have to swipe the screen to get to them you can't even customize you know what is there uh there were some symbols that were like who has any idea what this is and and myself and another auto engineer were sitting in the car for probably 15 minutes to figure out that the one symbol was for the heated armrests um and so it's just a lot of learning not everything is better in a touch screen but i understand that you know for this aesthetic that they're really going for in this car like i said the rose gold and the you know everything new luxury the touch screen makes sense um but you're gonna have to put in the time this is i'm gonna sound like a luddite here but i i something that's kind of annoyed me in bmw's in general and it's a default setting i know you can change it but it's that um the radio and a lot of the the things in the interior of the vehicle stay on the the the hvac the radio stay on even after you are getting out of the car so most newer cars either everything will shut off when you press the power button um some cars don't even have a power button but everything will shut off when you open the door uh this car you know i've got hauling oats blasted and i'm halfway to the grocery store and you know and hey and your bmw neighborhood he still loves his e30 i'm sure i'm sure he's a 50 year old everyone has a hard time turning off bmws whether they're electric or not um it's just like a thing that's still annoying um i know actually several times um with the you know start stop of the engine some people have gone out to the parking lot and you know someone will have parked a bmw and then all of a sudden it's running and it's because they thought that it was off and you can't ever turn them off so yeah it's it's almost a joke but uh even it's not just an electric right going into park yeah it's not just an electric thing this one is is weird too um so the shifter itself is like this little um lever which is fine except that there's not a park gear per se there's a button next to it that is traditionally the emergency parking brake or you know the electronic parking brake and that is what you push to put it into park and it's kind of confusing and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense and then also you know do you turn the car off and all that stuff so yeah there's a a a huge design change um hopefully some of these things will be addressed in future iterations of this design but um yeah there was a there's a a lot of quirks about this car uh john something i noticed was that the tailgate is deceptively large compared to the actual opening too uh that was just something i noticed yeah yeah so i took it skiing uh with my daughter so glue tarp again a rented rented vehicle so blue tarp throughout you know if you're listening bmw we took we did the same thing with the tile took care of it yeah took care of it um but yeah it's a huge clam shell looking not now not a two-piece not not the the drop-down gate like on some x5s and such like that but it just is a big door that opens but it's a very much smaller space for ski is not a problem for tile probably not a problem you know bringing a tv home wouldn't not sure how that would fit um but the seats fold down flat you know plenty of room there i found it a little odd with the folded seats there was a warning in the in the instrument cluster that kept telling me that the seats weren't secured and again i will say i had it for a couple days i wasn't going through the online and the paper manual i was i didn't dig super deep and some of it's because this warning pops up as you start driving that the seats aren't secured and i couldn't figure out a way of canceling that out in the instrument cluster so that all the new controls on the steering wheel and and and the and around the column and on the da you know the center stack definitely it's it's a new it's really new i drive it or or lack of controls or lack of control or lag the lights for example adjusting the cabin lighting or adjusting the dash lighting is it's a single button that brings up a new screen a new um a section of the infotainment system you know on that screen and that's where you adjust lights the seats you press a button on the door and then seat controls come up it's sleek and it's modern but it's a little bit of the just because we can and i think we've said it people said another podcast just because you can doesn't mean it should be in the screen the screen has infinite number of selections but that means there's an infinite number of selections to figure out how to adjust something and yeah exactly the challenge there's buttons that you have to push to open a menu like hard buttons that you push to open a menu on the screen because there are no other you know buttons but those don't do anything other than open a menu on the screen and it's it's a little um you know frustrating in a way to have to do everything through the screen and particularly of note is the adaptive cruise control there is no button on the steering wheel to change the following distance so if you're familiar with adaptive cruise control and you're behind a car um yours will automatically you know speed up and brake depending on the the car you're following in their speed but bmw has made this decision to you can read about it in the screen but essentially it says it's going to automatically adapt your following distance based on where you're at and what you're doing but i i didn't find that the gaps uh that bmw decided to choose for me weren't necessarily comfortable um i like to be able to you know make that change quickly on the steering wheel if i see traffic coming up ahead i want to give myself some distance you know so that my car will start to you know all of those things and so it was a little obnoxious in a way and you know intrusive to only have this automatic bmw chooses your following distance otherwise you have to go into the menu and manually change it through the screen it's it's just a little you know like you said just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should sometimes buttons are good i was going to say much like the um the keys talk about stop starting in that a lot of times i found bmws where you're trying to make sure it's locked because and such and you end up double clicking the lock which of course is the auto start so we have a problem with bmws yeah always running in the parking lot yeah yeah or even remember when they first came out with the electronic turn signals on the on the bmws that people would you would turn it on and you would try and try to cancel it you'd turn it on again i there's something there's something about on or off like this very basic thing that it's just they think of it differently than i want to say the driving experience of it while not again like i i mentioned earlier not razor sharp hand you know handling and ride is great the ride is it's got 21 inch wheels so and it's and it's a heavy vehicle but it doesn't have that that it bmw shows you don't have to be stiff and uncomfortable to be an eevee and there's there's some manufacturers out there uh that that really seem to not have a dampening um and just just you have this thumping of over over all sir all uh imperfect surfaces i liked the shifter the gear selector in that you could quickly engage battery mode for downhills or or just following um that was that was that was nice because when i started out on a 20 degree-ish morning the 292 mile range quickly plummeted and i ended up going 40-ish miles and using up almost 100 miles of range it was i was kind of worried and i was using the battery as much as possible battery mode but when it warmed up after sitting in the sun i gained back a lot of that range so was there range anxiety no i knew i had plenty to get home but it it it definitely was surprising at first to see it just the cold weather really affected that much um but but one thing i want to ask kelly with did you if you use the the in-car navigation and how it how it addressed corners and such like that because i found that a little disconcerting what they did with the uh when you approach a turn when you're driving with navigation from the native system and not something like waze for example it's like augmented right yeah this well so it actually basically uses where your gps location and if your gps says there's a curve coming up on the road the highway or something that you're on it'll start to slow down and this is really becoming a a market-wide trend we're seeing this not just in bmw where you're seeing it in you know the the ev6 had this and and all cars are starting to get it and it is jarring if you're not used to it in some cars you can turn it off in some cars you can't uh and you know the performance of it varies of course across the the market too in terms of how much it slows down and how much in advance and everything um so yeah it's it's becoming more prevalent i think that as it becomes more and more prevalent then i think it'll get fine-tuned a little bit to be less jarring as well i've got one last question uh before we move on from this vehicle for kelly um i know bmw in the past hasn't done great in some of our advanced driving um assistance uh surveys um around you know the systems that can control uh steering and braking and acceleration i actually really liked it has it actually gotten better or have they improved this or is this a new generation or or am i just yeah no no you're you're spot on i think they've definitely improved almost every aspect of the system and i would say the one that was the uh worst or you know our survey and members and everyone would would comment on would be the lane departure uh aggressive steering right so if you're driving in a neighborhood but you're going you know above 25 or 35 miles per hour um and you want to steer to avoid a pedestrian or a mom and a their child and their dog that's on the side of the road yeah um anything yeah exactly and you go over that line um the bmw in the past did not want to let you do that and so you'd almost in a way have to kind of white knuckle the steering wheel if you see that type of situation approaching um so that you don't run into them um and man i played with the the lane departure warning in the lane keeping because of that and it has not only caught up to the pack but i think it's now top of the pack for that specific feature it is so pleasant it doesn't have that resistance and you know opposite steering that we experienced in the past um it's very much that it almost looks to the driver to see what the the intent is and if the driver is intentionally steering um you know kind of with a grip on it then it doesn't fight you again this is a car i i i doubt we're going to get the most expensive version but we're definitely going to buy this vehicle put it through testing spend a lot more time with it figure out what all those buttons do i hope we get them with a heated armrest because it's real good for carpal tunnel honestly uh and if you want to learn more uh head over to cr.org we have pictures we have a first drive all kinds of information on this new vehicle the bmw ix which we rented from bmw to explore now uh a little break from us we're going to you with your questions that you've sent to talking cars at icloud.com here's a video question from toronto uh here's peter hi i just finished listening to your 2022 top picks episode and heard you're referring to electric vehicles as being ecologically friendly i believe you understand as well as anybody else that it's the electricity that is ecologically friendly and not all electricity is made equal because in some places a modern gasoline-powered vehicle actually is more ecologically friendly than some types of electricity so keep your listeners informed it's always good to have informed consumers and let's give them that information as well all right so this is uh this is a common question peter's not the only one uh to kind of say uh what he's saying here and there is a lot of i've noticed a lot of kind of what about ism with electric cars saying well you know electric cars are so great but what about this well gas cars do this but electric cars do this and luckily there is some actual hard data on this uh at least for the united states uh and kelly i believe you've done the research so take it away i'll take credit for doing the research but i actually asked our uh advocacy team in dc and they gave me um some numbers so i will say them like i came up with them but uh their their numbers so what they told me is that on average evs generate far less emissions than gasoline cars and on average they are over 60 percent less emissions than the gasoline vehicles and even on the the dirtiest grids of electric um so in states like kentucky west virginia um other states like that and ev still is likely to reduce emissions by at least 20 percent and you can go online and see all of these statistics for your individual state um but also just know that renewable energy is on the rise and so the electricity is likely to get that much cleaner over time as we move away from the fossil fuels yeah i mean we know evs are not a panacea they're still cars they're still energy intensive to build you still have to mine to get things but even you know there are a ton of studies out there that even show you know it not just the tailpipe emissions but the cradle the grave that an eevee it's less bad than the other options out there it's kind of the the least worst option it's not riding a bicycle to work but you know one for one for a gas car it's it's a better choice so thanks for that question if you're in the united states you can go to afdc.energy.gov to the alternative fuels
data center uh so thank you so much for joining us and sending your questions to talking cars at icloud.com it's about all the time we have but we'll talk cars again soon [Music]
2022-03-20