[dL.]

Hello guys,

Just borrowing this concept from my previous car forum as it worked out tremendously well and was a great tool for new buyers to research quickly and for existing owners to share and discuss what they DONT LIKE about the car.

Simply list as many as you can think of in point forms and discuss away! If possible, offer solutions if you have fixed the problem you once had.

Please also do check out the other thread of things that WE DO LIKE about the 3/4 Series to round out the perspective!

Thanks guys!

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For those of you considering to purchase the so-called best luxury sport sedan (or coupe) in the world, here is a summary of common F30
/F32 problems:

- Limp mode
- Wind noise
- Steering wheel vibration
- Steering wheel not centered
- Steering wheel clicking sound
- 2500rpm buzzing
- Horn malfunction
- High battery discharge
- Door seal creaking
- Dashboard rattle
- HUD rattle
- Center armrest rattle
- Glove box rattle
- Door rattle
- 3rd brake light rattle
- Taillight popping out (solved)
- Cheap Interior plastic trim creaking (subjective to owner)

dL

[Adybaby]

Diesel noise - huge step backwards.
Standard seats - no tilt adjustment.

[ft1330]

- Rattles
- Nonsensical logic in idrive
- Auto wipers not working well
- Minimal music control on wheel

Out of everything, idrive is the most annoying. I don't get the logic of navigating the menus, it's inconsistent across the idrive system. In one section of idrive you have to move the wheel to the left to return to the parent menu, in another section it completely closes everything and you must use the "back" button instead. It's extremely amateurish of BMW. They had so many years to perfect their interface and it's still crap.

[dL.]

I'll summarize what I don't like, which is probably going to be very similar to what many don't. I'll list out my common no-no's then I will list out some real super picky stuff that probably only my car has.

Common no-no's:

- Wind noise. Even though mines not that bad IMO, I can hear them at times and can understand why some people get annoyed by it.

- Door seal creaking. As you drive more, or as more chemical is exposed to the ugly piece of rubber door seal piece on the outside, the rubber wears out and will start creaking with the body when it flexes. Pretty much all BMW dated way back to the E90's makes this noise. If you don't hear it, embrace it and never touch the seal with anything.

- Premature leather creasing. Black Dakota leather will crease more and will crease faster than coloured ones, for some reason. The design of the leather seats are not that smart, and it creases like you have owned your car for 5+ years, but you have only drove it for 5 months. Want good leather quality? Look elsewhere.

- Cheap plastic. Enough said. Just touch the interior plastic throughout - HVAC, aluminum/fake wood trim, ventilations, center console, shifter area and you can make a symphony out of it. Look for Lexus or Audi for improved quality on this part.

- Rattles. Though to be honest, my car isn't too bad in this department compared to some other members here. They can share their thoughts on this. I only have a glove box rattle and the door seal, pretty much. The dashboard rattle fixed itself in 5000km.

Picky no-no's:

- I am not a fan of adjusting the ventilation angles. The notch is not lubed enough and often times if you are driving and adjusting, you will push it to either end and you can't make fine adjustments. The 2014 Lexus IS and Mercedes Benz does a much better job in ventilation design.

- Not a fan of the glossy door trim. And this goes for many brands. Glossy simply scratches and degrades the look of the car. I much prefer getting a Hyundai matte door trim instead if I had a choice.

- Not a fan of the aluminum/fake wood plastic trim that extends to the ventilation. Whenever there's plastic, it's going to creak over time. I much prefer Audi's interior design of minimizing crappy materials like this and just dominate it with the plain dashboard design, and maybe a Quattro badge. Nice and simple.

- Instrument panel and climate display screen will GUARANTEE be scratched before you take delivery of your car. If yours doesn't, please PM me a picture. I have not seen one yet. Solution? Go buy "Polywatch" and polish it. It removes 90% of the scratches, leaving tiny ones behind that are only visible when a bright sun shines on it.

I got a lot more but I will share later so I don't sound like a whiner. But I know I already am!

dL

[swamy]

rain sensing wipers - the sensing part is too iffy

not paying for hk. unf'ly unlike Porsche bose is not an option. bang & o costs 3k+ when it is offered while audi/merc give it out for <1k

[baw]

Run flats

[Cup o' Joe]

Originally Posted by dL.

- Wind noise. Even though mines not that bad IMO, I can hear them at times and can understand why some people get annoyed by it.

Yeah, its annoying. Could have easily been fixed for pennies with better/thicker door/window seals.

Originally Posted by dL.

- Door seal creaking. As you drive more, or as more chemical is exposed to the ugly piece of rubber door seal piece on the outside, the rubber wears out and will start creaking with the body when it flexes. Pretty much all BMW dated way back to the E90's makes this noise. If you don't hear it, embrace it and never touch the seal with anything.

See above. Could have been fixed before production for pennies more.

Originally Posted by dL.

- Premature leather creasing. Black Dakota leather will crease more and will crease faster than coloured ones, for some reason. The design of the leather seats are not that smart, and it creases like you have owned your car for 5+ years, but you have only drove it for 5 months. Want good leather quality? Look elsewhere.

This is one of the reasons I got Sensatec again. At the end of my last least it still looked like new. No maintenance required.

Originally Posted by dL.

- Cheap plastic. Enough said. Just touch the interior plastic throughout - HVAC, aluminum/fake wood trim, ventilations, center console, shifter area and you can make a symphony out of it. Look for Lexus or Audi for improved quality on this part.

- Rattles. Though to be honest, my car isn't too bad in this department compared to some other members here. They can share their thoughts on this. I only have a glove box rattle and the door seal, pretty much. The dashboard rattle fixed itself in 5000km.

Pretty sure these are in direct relation to each other. Plastic rattles and squeaks when the body flexes. I don't agree with the switch to more plastic, but I guess it won't change since it doesn't appear to be hurting sales.


Also want to add run flat tires to the list: not as good for performance as regular tires, more expensive to fix/replace, more easily damaged, and doesn't help ride quality.

[Steven1077]

Paint finish, but I'm sure thats not just the 3 and 4 series

[AzureAce]

The door unlock button in the middle of the dash

[Steven1077]

Originally Posted by Adybaby

Diesel noise - huge step backwards.
Standard seats - no tilt adjustment.

My standard seats tilt

[cwolf521]

storage bin at the bottom of the drivers door protrudes way to far into the leg space.

No option for ventilated seats

[euro-r]

only 1 cigarette plug available in my 335 which i attached it with my escort passport 9500ix all the time. Wish i have an extra plug to charge my phones.

[TurboSpecC]

After spending some time in an F30 and F32, I overall like them more than the E90 and E92 they replace, however there are some changes (and lack thereof) that I only realized after spending some time in each:

-The scroll wheel replacing the << and >> buttons on the steering wheel is pretty awful. It's less bad if you have the HUD, but it's slow and frustrating to use with the display on the IP. If you want to scroll, you have the iDrive wheel - having next and previous buttons would be (was) infinitely more useful.

-The F32 got rid of the E92's great driver's side door pull. It's incredible awkward to stretch and reach all the way forward to the new (now symmetric) door pull at the very front of the long coupe door.

-The side of the turn signals on the side-view mirrors are visible from the driver's seat, and are nearly blinding at night. Luckily a small piece of electrical tape fixes this.

-Interior glossy trim is very reflective at night and annoying.

-The F32 kept the E92's awful seatbelt arms that break and start to fail after a few years.

-If you don't get nav, you cannot have a list of radio presets up AND see what song is playing at the same time. Oddly, you can have the list of sat radio stations and see it. iDrive shortcoming.

-removing the out-of-the-way cruise control stalk and sticking cruise control buttons on the left side of the steering wheel.

[fecurtis]

The fact that my F30 is not yet in my possession is something I don't like about it.

[dL.]

Originally Posted by AzureAce

The door unlock button in the middle of the dash

I actually like that. It is easy to understand. There aren't two buttons where you have to figure out if the top is lock or unlock. And it's a safety measure in case you left your windows open by mistake.

dL

[Nick the Greek]

I must have got a good one. I haven't had any of the problems you guys refer to above.

[ardyer]

Three things I don't like about my 3-series:

-No "next" button when controlling the music from the steering wheel. You have the roller, but that only lets you scroll through songs and won't go to the next random song (if you playlist is set to random, which I do).

-The dual climate control is always on. On my wife's honda, the driver's side always controls until the passenger side is activated. On my bmw, if you want to the car to be a uniform temperature, you have to adjust both knobs.

-The display screen doesn't default to the last display at startup. It gets close, but not quite there. For example, if I was listening to MP3s, it will default to the top of the list, not the "current playback" that I had it set on.

Other than that, I'm quite happy with mine.

[Customize81]

Originally Posted by euro-r

only 1 cigarette plug available in my 335 which i attached it with my escort passport 9500ix all the time. Wish i have an extra plug to charge my phones.

don`t u have a cigarette plug in between the ventilator in the backseat?

[ThaiBruin]

That there isn't an "ALL" button for the dual-zone climate. Absolutely mind-boggling that I have to set each temperature individually which to me is a huge distraction when driving.

Oh, and my steering wheel creaks when I turn it. I've never owned a car that had a creaking steering wheel.

Other than that. Love my car.

[Tuce]

Steering, steering, steering.

[bucawke]

Originally Posted by ardyer

Three things I don't like about my 3-series:

-No "next" button when controlling the music from the steering wheel. You have the roller, but that only lets you scroll through songs and won't go to the next random song (if you playlist is set to random, which I do).

I found it easiest to not use my Nav hard drive and just leave an iPod in the center USB. The iPod stays on random even though I scroll through songs.

Originally Posted by Customize81

don`t u have a cigarette plug in between the ventilator in the backseat?

+1, I have one in the center under the HVAC controls, one under the dash for the passenger, one for the rear passengers, and one in the trunk.

[adel335i]

-No 'ALL' or 'SYNC' buttons in the AC
-AC always starts when starting the car, which is really annoying especially in good weather
-Very rough idle, the entire car (even the seats!) vibrates when the car is in standstill
-Several rattle sounds inside the car when accelerating hard (pedal to the metal), which is one of the main reasons I bought the car.