I'm not a fan of "auto" climate control. It doesn't put the air where I want it. It pushes out either too much air at the vents or too little.
Then there's the idea of "zoned" climate control. It boggles the mind to think that one zone in the car will actually be 76F and the other side will be at 70F when the driver and passenger want different settings. There is no imaginary "screen" that keeps your 76F air from mixing with my 70F air, especially when there is only one temp sensor. Even if there were 2 or more temp sensors, cabin air will still mix. The only thing onc can achieve with "zoned" cabin temps is the air flow and temp at the vents closest to the person.
Air inside a car will mix, and the overall ambient temp will be some average of the individual settings.
I prefer a manual system where I can control air flow and air flow temp.
If I could do this on both sides manually, that would be an improvement instead of a computer deciding how to give me what I want.
I hope that BMW didn't screw up manual control of the HVAC.
Wait, they already have. My 135i even in manual mode, doesn't allow certain things that a full manual mode would allow.
Example: If I set my side at 70F on a cold day and manually adjust where the air flows along with the flow speed/volume, the air coming out of the vents still varies in temperature. It will start cold as the engine warms. That's obvious and acceptable. Then it will get warm as it's heating up, but then as the cabin air approaches 70F the air coming from the vents starts to cool off to maintain 70F at the sensor. That's partial auto control, not manual. In a manual mode I set the vent air temp.
If you want constant warm/hot air blowing at you, the only way to get that is to set the temp to maximum. Then, it will blow constant warm/hot air, but only at that temp setting. If you want a constant warm not hot vent air, you can't have that. Many BMW owners on the forums have complained about this.
The system wants to be operated "auto" mode, even if I don't want it to.
That ain't cool with me.
I hope the new system works better. But, I suspect it will perform the way it was programmed for "auto" mode, and not how I like it. Thus, I hope there is still a good degree of manual control.
Oh, and with the auto engine stop/start set to ON by default, I suspect that a lot of people will be hitting the "OFF" setting once they get stuck at a train crossing on a hot sunny day with 100F temps and 80% humidity. How long will those frozen thingys provide cool air?
And that cool air wont' do anything for the humidity that will flood the air cabin as you're sitting there for a few minutes waiting for that slooooow train to go by.