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Questions, Nits, Acclaim, and Observations after 1,500 miles

Ceramic scratches pretty easily. When they quote the 'hardness' of ceramic, that's not it's resistance to scratches, but to wear vs sealants/waxes.
Have had numerous high end cars, with indoor covers, never an issue, with and without ceramic…. High airflow as in covered outdoors i will assume your meaning
 
Yes, and I didn't mean to imply that all covers are bad. Ceramic will certainly help and like @tallsteve said, PPF will mitigate that problem completely.

Just to be aware of how/when to use them. I learned the hard way when taking care of my Dad's '93 ZR-1.
 
Yes, and I didn't mean to imply that all covers are bad. Ceramic will certainly help and like @tallsteve said, PPF will mitigate that problem completely.

Just to be aware of how/when to use them. I learned the hard way when taking care of my Dad's '93 ZR-1.
Thanks for the insight
 
So having just rolled past 1000 miles, here's my initial impressions of my 5BW, with most of the notes below based on a 400+ mile round trip ride I took with my wife for an extended Labor Day weekend getaway to upstate NY. For those familiar with the area, this was a ride from Long Island up to Walton NY with highlights of the run on the Sprainbrook Parkway and lower Taconic State Parkway which have some awesome straights, curves and twisties, plus the nice winding roads of NY-17 and NY-206. Most of the ride was spent in either Tour mode or V mode for comparison purposes. Thus my notes compare just those two but you can imagine the various settings in between Tour and V which the Vehicle settings allow you to configure.

Engine/Throttle
Touring: throttle response and torque are completely acceptable in this mode. Obviously things are well tamed here but this mode is completely livable for every day driving. Plenty of throttle response when you need it and enough acceleration at 1/2 throttle to easily get around slower cars as necessary. Main gripe here is around what seems to be a noticeable lugging when you completely pull your foot off of the accelerator. I can't really attribute this to the weight of the car as much as it seems to be the gear that the transmission is in relative to the cars speed. Definitely an odd sensation (at least to me). Need to play with the engine or transmission settings to see if that will lessen the effect.

V mode: the car is beast in this mode. Throttle position is everything. You can keep it moderately tame when below 1/4 throttle. Then up thru 3/4 throttle, you are master of your domain. Above 3/4 throttle and the nanny controls are quite apparent in keeping your a$$ out of trouble. WOT? Holy bejeezus!


Transmission (A10)
Touring: shifts are smooth though there a noticeable delay upon upshifts and downshifts, to the point where it nearly feels as if the transmission is slipping, though I know it's not.

V mode: shifts are super crisp up to 3/4 throttle but above that, and you are getting tire scratch on 1-2 and 2-3 and damn near case of whiplash to go with it


Exhaust
Touring: exhaust growl is much more than I expected given tour mode. Even listening to my wife drive away in tour, it's about as loud as the Borla on my son's Grand Cherokee. Have yet to try Stealth so not quite sure if that eliminates most or all of the growl.

V mode: The sound is loud but not obnoxious. Though I wouldn't have been upset if Cadillac went one notch louder. Don't get me wrong. You will be heard coming down the road even at moderate throttle. I did find the radio to be more heavily biased at highway speed versus the exhaust note that gets pumped into the cabin. While at lower speeds, the pumped in exhaust note seems to dominate more than your tunes. So you definitely need to turn down the tunes (or turn off speed adjusted radio volume) if you want to fully appreciate the exhaust note on the highway. Though the plus side is there's no exhaust drone to listen to for long periods of time that can be REALLY fatiguing (ask me about the Borla on my Trans Am).


Steering
Touring: It was pretty light feeling, almost effortless. At highway speeds on winding back roads, it felt pretty "sanitized". Hard to make a good connection with the road. But when you're just puttering along, it's perfectly acceptable.

V Mode: Heavier feel to it with increased effort of course but so much more feedback. When combined with the V mode suspension, I was grinning ear to ear as driving through the twisties.


Suspension
Touring: This was a mixed bag. Most often the ride was smooth on just about most surface except for the those with crappy or aging pave jobs. There were a few instances where I switched out of V mode (just pressing V button again) to get back to Tour after which the suspension still felt really stiff. Switching to My Mode and then back to Tour with the console toggle switch seemed to resolve the issue though. Very odd. Need to play with this a bit more but definitely happened enough times that something seems off here.

V Mode: unless you are riding on really smooth pavement/cement, you will feel most imperfections in the road. But oh so nice together with the V mode steering. Body roll was ever so slight given the weight of this car.


Brakes (CC)
Touring: the brakes are good... VERY good. In stop and go traffic I found myself seriously worrying about whoever was behind me when I had to stab the brakes for a short stop.

V mode: not a huge difference compared to Touring mode under normal braking conditions, but noticeably more responsive when braking hard especially coming up on turns. Ample track time likely necessary to fully realize the benefit of the massive brakes.

Brake dust from the CC pads is almost non existent. Love this!!!


Seats (hi performance)
The most comfortable car seats that I've been in. I barely found myself having to move around to maintain a comfortable driving position during the long drive time or having to adjust my back or my butt to reduce an ache or pain in my legs or back. After a four hour drive, I felt fine getting out of the car. Almost all other cars I've owned I definitely had some kind of ache and stiffness when getting out after a long drive like that. 18-way adjustable is the way to go here.


Stereo
The best factory stereo I've had in a car. The highs and lows are really precise for a factory unit even when up loud. Rarely ever tinny or muddy. The midrange of a few songs did sound a bit off, almost computer generated is best way I can describe it. But otherwise quite nice.


Gas mileage
On the 200+ mile drive there, I maintained a relatively conservative driving style, almost exclusively in Tour mode. Speed varied mostly between 65 and 75 mph for 3.5 hours of the 4 hours. That included a couple of stints at 80+ mph and one WOT blast to low triple digits. The other 30 minutes of the 4 hours was spent in solid stop and go traffic. At the end, the trip meter showed an 23.9 MPG. Definitely better than I expected given the EPA rating plus time spent in traffic. Pretty sure that had I set cruise control to 70 and not sat in traffic, I would have made 25 MPG easily and possibly more.

On the return trip home, it was a "much less conservative" driving style with half the ride at 75 to 85 MPH and about 20-25% of my time spent in V mode. This also included a full hour in very heavy stop and go traffic. That took me down to 20.3 MPG but still much more than was I expecting.


Miscellaneous Nits (and they are truly nits)

Tire Pressure

Left front tire pressure when heated up consistently showed 1-2 pounds lower than all other tires even though when cold, the pressure of all four is exactly the same. No idea why.

Windshield Washer Spray
Every car I have ever owned (domestic and foreign) has had a button on the end of the wiper stalk that when pushed would spray washer fluid to clean the windshield. And the end of the BW wiper stalk (and possibly every GM car now) has a button shaped tip that would have you believe that it would operate the same. Nope! Here you pull the wiper stalk towards you to spray, similar to flashing your high beams with the turn signal stalk. Did this multi-decade convention really need to change? SMH.

SC whine
I really wouldn't complain if a future software update ended up pumping some supercharger sound into the cabin to go with the exhaust note. @Mirza Grebovic , you reading this?!?!? :)
 
So having just rolled past 1000 miles, here's my initial impressions of my 5BW, with most of the notes below based on a 400+ mile round trip ride I took with my wife for an extended Labor Day weekend getaway to upstate NY. For those familiar with the area, this was a ride from Long Island up to Walton NY with highlights of the run on the Sprainbrook Parkway and lower Taconic State Parkway which have some awesome straights, curves and twisties, plus the nice winding roads of NY-17 and NY-206. Most of the ride was spent in either Tour mode or V mode for comparison purposes. Thus my notes compare just those two but you can imagine the various settings in between Tour and V which the Vehicle settings allow you to configure.

Engine/Throttle
Touring: throttle response and torque are completely acceptable in this mode. Obviously things are well tamed here but this mode is completely livable for every day driving. Plenty of throttle response when you need it and enough acceleration at 1/2 throttle to easily get around slower cars as necessary. Main gripe here is around what seems to be a noticeable lugging when you completely pull your foot off of the accelerator. I can't really attribute this to the weight of the car as much as it seems to be the gear that the transmission is in relative to the cars speed. Definitely an odd sensation (at least to me). Need to play with the engine or transmission settings to see if that will lessen the effect.

V mode: the car is beast in this mode. Throttle position is everything. You can keep it moderately tame when below 1/4 throttle. Then up thru 3/4 throttle, you are master of your domain. Above 3/4 throttle and the nanny controls are quite apparent in keeping your a$$ out of trouble. WOT? Holy bejeezus!


Transmission (A10)
Touring: shifts are smooth though there a noticeable delay upon upshifts and downshifts, to the point where it nearly feels as if the transmission is slipping, though I know it's not.

V mode: shifts are super crisp up to 3/4 throttle but above that, and you are getting tire scratch on 1-2 and 2-3 and damn near case of whiplash to go with it


Exhaust
Touring: exhaust growl is much more than I expected given tour mode. Even listening to my wife drive away in tour, it's about as loud as the Borla on my son's Grand Cherokee. Have yet to try Stealth so not quite sure if that eliminates most or all of the growl.

V mode: The sound is loud but not obnoxious. Though I wouldn't have been upset if Cadillac went one notch louder. Don't get me wrong. You will be heard coming down the road even at moderate throttle. I did find the radio to be more heavily biased at highway speed versus the exhaust note that gets pumped into the cabin. While at lower speeds, the pumped in exhaust note seems to dominate more than your tunes. So you definitely need to turn down the tunes (or turn off speed adjusted radio volume) if you want to fully appreciate the exhaust note on the highway. Though the plus side is there's no exhaust drone to listen to for long periods of time that can be REALLY fatiguing (ask me about the Borla on my Trans Am).


Steering
Touring: It was pretty light feeling, almost effortless. At highway speeds on winding back roads, it felt pretty "sanitized". Hard to make a good connection with the road. But when you're just puttering along, it's perfectly acceptable.

V Mode: Heavier feel to it with increased effort of course but so much more feedback. When combined with the V mode suspension, I was grinning ear to ear as driving through the twisties.


Suspension
Touring: This was a mixed bag. Most often the ride was smooth on just about most surface except for the those with crappy or aging pave jobs. There were a few instances where I switched out of V mode (just pressing V button again) to get back to Tour after which the suspension still felt really stiff. Switching to My Mode and then back to Tour with the console toggle switch seemed to resolve the issue though. Very odd. Need to play with this a bit more but definitely happened enough times that something seems off here.

V Mode: unless you are riding on really smooth pavement/cement, you will feel most imperfections in the road. But oh so nice together with the V mode steering. Body roll was ever so slight given the weight of this car.


Brakes (CC)
Touring: the brakes are good... VERY good. In stop and go traffic I found myself seriously worrying about whoever was behind me when I had to stab the brakes for a short stop.

V mode: not a huge difference compared to Touring mode under normal braking conditions, but noticeably more responsive when braking hard especially coming up on turns. Ample track time likely necessary to fully realize the benefit of the massive brakes.

Brake dust from the CC pads is almost non existent. Love this!!!


Seats (hi performance)
The most comfortable car seats that I've been in. I barely found myself having to move around to maintain a comfortable driving position during the long drive time or having to adjust my back or my butt to reduce an ache or pain in my legs or back. After a four hour drive, I felt fine getting out of the car. Almost all other cars I've owned I definitely had some kind of ache and stiffness when getting out after a long drive like that. 18-way adjustable is the way to go here.


Stereo
The best factory stereo I've had in a car. The highs and lows are really precise for a factory unit even when up loud. Rarely ever tinny or muddy. The midrange of a few songs did sound a bit off, almost computer generated is best way I can describe it. But otherwise quite nice.


Gas mileage
On the 200+ mile drive there, I maintained a relatively conservative driving style, almost exclusively in Tour mode. Speed varied mostly between 65 and 75 mph for 3.5 hours of the 4 hours. That included a couple of stints at 80+ mph and one WOT blast to low triple digits. The other 30 minutes of the 4 hours was spent in solid stop and go traffic. At the end, the trip meter showed an 23.9 MPG. Definitely better than I expected given the EPA rating plus time spent in traffic. Pretty sure that had I set cruise control to 70 and not sat in traffic, I would have made 25 MPG easily and possibly more.

On the return trip home, it was a "much less conservative" driving style with half the ride at 75 to 85 MPH and about 20-25% of my time spent in V mode. This also included a full hour in very heavy stop and go traffic. That took me down to 20.3 MPG but still much more than was I expecting.


Miscellaneous Nits (and they are truly nits)

Tire Pressure

Left front tire pressure when heated up consistently showed 1-2 pounds lower than all other tires even though when cold, the pressure of all four is exactly the same. No idea why.

Windshield Washer Spray
Every car I have ever owned (domestic and foreign) has had a button on the end of the wiper stalk that when pushed would spray washer fluid to clean the windshield. And the end of the BW wiper stalk (and possibly every GM car now) has a button shaped tip that would have you believe that it would operate the same. Nope! Here you pull the wiper stalk towards you to spray, similar to flashing your high beams with the turn signal stalk. Did this multi-decade convention really need to change? SMH.

SC whine
I really wouldn't complain if a future software update ended up pumping some supercharger sound into the cabin to go with the exhaust note. @Mirza Grebovic , you reading this?!?!? :)
Awesome review and thanks…. I will always be in v mode with nannies on for the bulk of my driving.as i was in my 2019 z06 There’s a touring mode?
 
Thanks for the great review! Question - does the oil need to be upto temp before you put it in V mode?
I don't believe so. I've never not been able to switch to V mode, and have done so quite often in the 6 weeks I've had the car.
 
Just so we're clear, there is no difference between track mode and V mode with everything dialed up to 11....until you adjust the PTM. V mode just let's you adjust all the parameters to your liking.
 
Just got my 4BW manual yesterday and here are my general impressions on receiving it and my commute to work today. My vehicle it just replaced is a 2020 X3M with stage 1 93 and e30 tunes(550whp and 600whp).

I'll start with the negatives.

- The interior is OK. You can definitely tell it starts off a cheaper vehicle. The interior in my X3M and the M3 is a step above this. It's everything from the leather to the seat belts. I'm curious what the interior of the 5BW looks like considering people are specing those out to 100k plus.

- There is a 1" gap between the bumper and the trunk where the weather stripping meets on the left side. I'm not sure if the bumper isn't clipped in right but it was VERY obvious when I opened the trunk. The fact that the dealer didn't fix this is baffling.

- There were 2 2.5" diameter hazy circles in the clear that were also very obvious in the sun with the car washed. I think they'll buff out but I didn't think GM was Tesla.

- The bottom trim on the left side passengers window looks like it was sprayed lightly and looks a bit off in color.

- This is minor but the car sounds like a 4cyc when it starts up. It's kind of odd.

- Keyless entry with a push button looks like a 20k car. My Jag, BMW and Porsche were all touch based.

- When you open the door if it's been raining or you washed the car...water from the seal literally drops on the edge of the seat bolster. It's very WTF were they thinking.


Time for some positives.

- The ride is great in this car. Much better than my X3M. That car was like DDing a ZL1. Didn't bother me much for driving to work but the roads around my town are pretty crap and it was terrible there. It may even be better than my Supra, not sure.

- The seats are fantastic. The X3M M seats didn't really do it for me or my wife even though a lot of people like them. We both really like the upgraded seats in this car.

- The digital dash is nicer than the one in the M and the configurations you can do is great.

- The manual in this is very good. I'm use to my 987.2 and that thing had a terrible manual, super mushy. You had to drop $1.3k on a new shifter and cable to get it to feel great. This is perfect out of the box.

- This is silly but the auto wipers on this have different levels where as the BMW just tried to adjust itself. I like this way a lot better.

- The M had very sensitive steering so you'd find yourself correcting your lane position a lot. This car turns in just as well but without that issue.


Neutral points.

- Car feels slow coming from the tuned M but the engagement of the manual offsets that
- Driving position was good in both cars
- The infotainment general features are about the same in both but BMW's just looks nicer. I don't really care about that
- Both cars are fairly stealth, no one knows what a X3M or a Blackwing is around here
- Brakes are both good for DD. Brake feel is a bit better in the M but reviews tell me overall performance is better in the BW
- You don't hear as much from the engine compared to the M but the exhaust is better than the M
 
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I don't believe so. I've never not been able to switch to V mode, and have done so quite often in the 6 weeks I've had the car.
Yeah I assumed you will be able to put it in V mode but does V mode mean 'max attack" mode like Sport plus in Porsches. Porsche requires oil and trans fluid are upto temp before putting it in Sport Plus mode.
 
Yeah I assumed you will be able to put it in V mode but does V mode mean 'max attack" mode like Sport plus in Porsches. Porsche requires oil and trans fluid are upto temp before putting it in Sport Plus mode.

The V button is exactly the same the M1 and M2 buttons BMW uses in their M products. It's just a custom user configuration that gets loaded and has adjustment for x number of settings. It's just worse because it's at the bottom of the steering wheel compared to the top and there is only 1 button instead of 2. The button you're referring to for Porsches is their Sport Response button which gives you max settings for 20 seconds.
 
The V button is exactly the same the M1 and M2 buttons BMW uses in their M products. It's just a custom user configuration that gets loaded and has adjustment for x number of settings. It's just worse because it's at the bottom of the steering wheel compared to the top and there is only 1 button instead of 2. The button you're referring to for Porsches is their Sport Response button which gives you max settings for 20 seconds.
I guess I misunderstood V mode or was not clear. Sport plus mode in the 911 changes transmission shift pattern on pdk to higher up in the rpm range and also changes throttle response. Oil and trans temp need to be up to operating range in Sport Plus mode. It won't matter as much when you are shifting manually, but I was curious about shift pattern on the 10 speed auto in V mode. Anyway it's best practice not to wind it out unless oil is up to operating temp.
 
I guess I misunderstood V mode or was not clear. Sport plus mode in the 911 changes transmission shift pattern on pdk to higher up in the rpm range and also changes throttle response. Oil and trans temp need to be up to operating range in Sport Plus mode. It won't matter as much when you are shifting manually, but I was curious about shift pattern on the 10 speed auto in V mode. Anyway it's best practice not to wind it out unless oil is up to operating temp.

Sorry, I thought you were talking about the Sport Response button. You can adjust to max throttle response/transmission aggressiveness right away. Porsche does that in an odd way. Most manufactures would just limit red line on true cold start and dynamically raise red line as the engine warms....not lock you out of a mode until it's fully warmed. For example, in -20F temps the S58 engine in the X3M and M3 limits red line to about 4.5krpm and raises it as the engine warms up. That's how a variety of manufacturers handle it.
 
Yeah I assumed you will be able to put it in V mode but does V mode mean 'max attack" mode like Sport plus in Porsches. Porsche requires oil and trans fluid are upto temp before putting it in Sport Plus mode.
Just looked thru the manual and it doesn't say anything about getting oil or trans fluid up to temp. I have not tried V mode in all out ("max attack") when the engine is completely cold as I try to avoid that regardless of whether the car's electronics limit things or not. Might have to wait for @Mirza Grebovic to weigh in.
 
Just looked thru the manual and it doesn't say anything about getting oil or trans fluid up to temp. I have not tried V mode in all out ("max attack") when the engine is completely cold as I try to avoid that regardless of whether the car's electronics limit things or not. Might have to wait for @Mirza Grebovic to weigh in.
I always warn up my cars before I drive off, and I don't know if it help or hurt, but I let them come up to temp before I thrash on them..
 

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