[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

This is the first car I ever got ceramic coated. Previously I would have thought it was a gimmick, but after looking at reviews and others' comments online, I went for it. I'm very glad I did, because it truly makes the surface very glossy and easy to maintain. Even when I hand wash the car the soapy water doesn't even want to stay on the surface, but rather it wants to roll off and bead.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really help with rock chips or scratches but it certainly helps the paint look new and make maintenance easier.

Glad you are a believer now! There truly is science behind the chemical bonding process. I’m a little OCD when it comes to stone chips, hence the PPF. When I had it on my Acura, someone pulled out of a parking spot next to me, and cut their wheels early. Were it not for the PPF it would have sliced down the side of my rear bumper. The PPF took all the abuse.

I’m sorry but I don’t think just having the vehicle painted is a good standby option. Nothing is ever as good as the factory paint and the chemical & electrostatic bonding process. Any repaint usually involves the need to blend onto adjacent panels for a visual match. In the case I described above, I paid $400 to have the rear bumper wrap replaced and the paint was unharmed.

[AlteBMW]

Ceramic on all 3 of ours. First thing I get done after I get a car, and it makes keeping the car clean a breeze. I used to do clay bar and wax at least 2x a year. My back will no longer stand for that (no pun intended) but washing with ceramic is easy peasy..

[Blue Sky]

Ceramic is such a relief from previous paint sealant systems, I don’t have to use the random orbital machines any more. 5 years now since I switched over. It’s pretty easy to apply DIY, the main work is to clay bar prep first, that’s where most of the remaining elbow grease in the whole process is. I can understand paying someone to do it, shop or mobile detailer but suspect some shops are overcharging and claiming the product lasts way longer than is possible for cars that actually drive in the real world.

[Blue Sky]

Originally Posted by ToddRGuy

Glad you are a believer now! There truly is science behind the chemical bonding process. I’m a little OCD when it comes to stone chips, hence the PPF. When I had it on my Acura, someone pulled out of a parking spot next to me, and cut their wheels early. Were it not for the PPF it would have sliced down the side of my rear bumper. The PPF took all the abuse.

I’m sorry but I don’t think just having the vehicle painted is a good standby option. Nothing is ever as good as the factory paint and the chemical & electrostatic bonding process. Any repaint usually involves the need to blend onto adjacent panels for a visual match. In the case I described above, I paid $400 to have the rear bumper wrap replaced and the paint was unharmed.

PPF is a pretty individual choice. I still haven’t used it on any car. I should look into it since its always evolving. I have that bias though that paying $8-$9k to wrap a car is just another one of those predatory marketting things like dealers pushing service plans where you pay up front for service you may never use, and I’m generally against that practice. Also, I keep hearing that it yellows from UV exposure, so on a long term car ownership you end up having to change it all anyway, and that’s some big bucks just to keep the car looking good for the next owner. Why did you steam off the PPF if it was looking good when you wanted to sell? Because it looked better without it after 7 years?

Anyway yes I agree factory paint process is great, produces a very strong bond. I’ve had mixed results with body shops, but usually excellent. No problem reproducing factory metallic finishes I had. Blending is often a predatory upsell, I’ve had quotes for that too on cars that didn’t warrant it, went elsewhere and even asked about it and told my car didn’t actually require it. Had them shoot a new trunk lid for my green M3 without blending and it was indistinguishable from the side panels. Blending is only need if the car has faded, and of course that’s particularly prone to yellow or red cars, especially non-metallic in my experience for some reason. If you buy a new car, it isn’t going to fade for years, especially not if you garage it and/or keep your paint sealed up. Lots of cars get rock chip touch up, particularly before reselling, and particularly on lease returns.

[RichardInCA]

Originally Posted by Blue Sky

PPF is a pretty individual choice. I still haven’t used it on any car. I should look into it since its always evolving. I have that bias though that paying $8-$9k to wrap a car is just another one of those predatory marketting things like dealers pushing service plans where you pay up front for service you may never use, and I’m generally against that practice. Also, I keep hearing that it yellows from UV exposure, so on a long term car ownership you end up having to change it all anyway, and that’s some big bucks just to keep the car looking good for the next owner. Why did you steam off the PPF if it was looking good when you wanted to sell? Because it looked better without it after 7 years?

Anyway yes I agree factory paint process is great, produces a very strong bond. I’ve had mixed results with body shops, but usually excellent. No problem reproducing factory metallic finishes I had. Blending is often a predatory upsell, I’ve had quotes for that too on cars that didn’t warrant it, went elsewhere and even asked about it and told my car didn’t actually require it. Had them shoot a new trunk lid for my green M3 without blending and it was indistinguishable from the side panels. Blending is only need if the car has faded, and of course that’s particularly prone to yellow or red cars, especially non-metallic in my experience for some reason. If you buy a new car, it isn’t going to fade for years, especially not if you garage it and/or keep your paint sealed up. Lots of cars get rock chip touch up, particularly before reselling, and particularly on [...]

I am in the same boat - I leased my i5 and so didn’t feel the need to drop 4 figures on PPF - even if I’m dinged because of a couple of chips when I turn it in, there’s a pretty big margin for me to be up on the deal. It’s all good whatever one chooses.

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by Blue Sky

PPF is a pretty individual choice. I still haven’t used it on any car. I should look into it since its always evolving. I have that bias though that paying $8-$9k to wrap a car is just another one of those predatory marketting things like dealers pushing service plans where you pay up front for service you may never use, and I’m generally against that practice. Also, I keep hearing that it yellows from UV exposure, so on a long term car ownership you end up having to change it all anyway, and that’s some big bucks just to keep the car looking good for the next owner. Why did you steam off the PPF if it was looking good when you wanted to sell? Because it looked better without it after 7 years?

Anyway yes I agree factory paint process is great, produces a very strong bond. I’ve had mixed results with body shops, but usually excellent. No problem reproducing factory metallic finishes I had. Blending is often a predatory upsell, I’ve had quotes for that too on cars that didn’t warrant it, went elsewhere and even asked about it and told my car didn’t actually require it. Had them shoot a new trunk lid for my green M3 without blending and it was indistinguishable from the side panels. Blending is only need if the car has faded, and of course that’s particularly prone to yellow or red cars, especially non-metallic in my experience for some reason. If you buy a new car, it isn’t going to fade for years, especially not if you garage it and/or keep your paint sealed up. Lots of cars get rock chip touch up, particularly before reselling, and particularly on [...]

I’d definitely never consider it on a leased vehicle, but I purchased my G60 and will keep it for several years. I can only speak from my personal experience, but it was on my Audi for nearly 7 years and did not yellow. This may be due to the fact that it was always garaged; I can’t say for sure.

In regards to the cost, I realize their are some market variations, but most of the quotes I’ve gotten or jobs I’ve had done ranged between $2200-3500 for PPF. The only time I’ve seen quotes for 5-6k are when people elect to have the entire vehicle wrapped and not just the high impact areas.

Add another $800-1200 for ceramic coating with a 5-7 year warranty.

[RichardInCA]

Back to question no.1….I commuted home on efficiency mode yesterday and tried to pay attention to how the graphics related to my behavior. I took a quick snapshot when I was rolling at low speed on surface streets below - for some reason, it’s very hard for phones to take pictures of the HUD. I was able to confirm that the strange “wings” - you can see half of the graphic in this shot - narrow as you approach what I think is an ideal speed, again on the freeway this was sometimes faster than the speed limit. I added an arrow in red to that part.

On the central triangle, there’s a line that moves up and down (colored green here) which tracks up for acceleration - and drops below the baseline when in recuperation mode - it seems to track pretty much exactly with the power line on the dash, but not sure if it would track the rev counter in an ICE car?

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by RichardInCA

Back to question no.1….I commuted home on efficiency mode yesterday and tried to pay attention to how the graphics related to my behavior. I took a quick snapshot when I was rolling at low speed on surface streets below - for some reason, it’s very hard for phones to take pictures of the HUD. I was able to confirm that the strange “wings” - you can see half of the graphic in this shot - narrow as you approach what I think is an ideal speed, again on the freeway this was sometimes faster than the speed limit. I added an arrow in red to that part.

On the central triangle, there’s a line that moves up and down (colored green here) which tracks up for acceleration - and drops below the baseline when in recuperation mode - it seems to track pretty much exactly with the power line on the dash, but not sure if it would track the rev counter in an ICE car?

Okay, that looks somewhat different than the ICE version Richard. Let me try to get the group a photo.

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by RichardInCA

Back to question no.1….I commuted home on efficiency mode yesterday and tried to pay attention to how the graphics related to my behavior. I took a quick snapshot when I was rolling at low speed on surface streets below - for some reason, it’s very hard for phones to take pictures of the HUD. I was able to confirm that the strange “wings” - you can see half of the graphic in this shot - narrow as you approach what I think is an ideal speed, again on the freeway this was sometimes faster than the speed limit. I added an arrow in red to that part.

On the central triangle, there’s a line that moves up and down (colored green here) which tracks up for acceleration - and drops below the baseline when in recuperation mode - it seems to track pretty much exactly with the power line on the dash, but not sure if it would track the rev counter in an ICE car?

Richard, that blue section you have marked with the red arrows: I think that is the recommended range for the power. Basically, the car is telling you not to put the power above that range for efficiency. If you keep the power level within that blue area, you're satisfying the car's recommended power range for efficiency. At least, that's my guess based on the few times I have used Efficiency mode.

Plus, I have a large diamond shape in my HUD, not what you have. Perhaps it's just a different HUD view that I have selected than you do. I usually use the Directional view I think it's called for the HUD.

I'll try to do some more testing as well in my eDrive40 and get a picture or two.

[RichardInCA]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

Richard, that blue section you have marked with the red arrows: I think that is the recommended range for the power. Basically, the car is telling you not to put the power above that range for efficiency. If you keep the power level within that blue area, you're satisfying the car's recommended power range for efficiency. At least, that's my guess based on the few times I have used Efficiency mode.

Plus, I have a large diamond shape in my HUD, not what you have. Perhaps it's just a different HUD view that I have selected than you do. I usually use the Directional view I think it's called for the HUD.

I'll try to do some more testing as well in my eDrive40 and get a picture or two.

I think it’s just the inability of my phone to capture the HUD correctly - it was a diamond shape - the green part was the middle line that responds to power, the red line is highlighting the band that appears on either side of the diamond. That narrows down as you approach some sort of predetermined speed from what I’ve been able to tell over the months

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by RichardInCA

I think it’s just the inability of my phone to capture the HUD correctly - it was a diamond shape - the green part was the middle line that responds to power, the red line is highlighting the band that appears on either side of the diamond. That narrows down as you approach some sort of predetermined speed from what I’ve been able to tell over the months

Here’s the one from the 540.

[RichardInCA]

Originally Posted by ToddRGuy

Here’s the one from the 540.

That’s the same - my picture is capturing just the left hand portion for some reason

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by RichardInCA

That’s the same - my picture is capturing just the left hand portion for some reason

Okay, at least we all know we’re talking apples to apples now! 😋

[SkykingUSA]

That's the same as the one I have too.

I think it's funny that Todd's garage has a speed limit of 25 mph.

[Blue Sky]

I actually don’t remember this display from test driving. Probably I skipped it.

The inside of the “crystal” looks to be the usual BMW Efficient Dynamics display.

Way back when, BMW E30 clusters had a MPG meter at the bottom of the RPM gauge, a needle that moved as you changed the engine load via throttle, so as you step on the gas, your indicate mileage immediately goes down, and as you let off it improves or goes off the end of the scale on overrun.

Efficient Dynamics showed up for the first time I’ve seen with the F10. It is the same old instantaneous consumption meter inset in the bottom of RPM guage, except no needle and it’s really a LED bar graph that crawls around the inside of the guage. It indicates MPG or consumption again but also adds a battery symbol and the line turns blue on coasting/overrun when the alternator is engaged to charge the battery. The F10’s seem to disengage the alternator in the interest of more power and efficiency during acceleraton and apparently steady driving, and try to only add the load of the alternator to the engine on overrun. Doesn’t sound like a good idea.

Anyway, I think the inside display shows the same thing, the horizontal line going up as you demand more power, going down for less, and below the kink when getting regen. No idea about the wings or ideal speed, but ideal speed seems like something that might require a destination set (and SoC at destination maybe) in order to be meaningful maybe.

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

That's the same as the one I have too.

I think it's funny that Todd's garage has a speed limit of 25 mph.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! lol.

[AiredaleDad]

Originally Posted by ToddRGuy

Here’s the one from the 540.

Yah, that's the same view I got when testing it yesterday. Minus the 25 mph speed limit. Lol.

[nacs]

I tried recording the parking path into my garage, but there is no option to record the waypoint. Is this part of the additional parking assistant professional I need to buy?

[rgw]

Regarding PPF:

Since I'm leasing, I figured I'd just buy a touch up kit and very delicately, precisely dab to cover chips. If I do it right, they may not even notice on turn in.

[ToddRGuy]

Originally Posted by rgw

Regarding PPF:

Since I'm leasing, I figured I'd just buy a touch up kit and very delicately, precisely dab to cover chips. If I do it right, they may not even notice on turn in.

I think that’s a good idea, and honestly stone chips are probably considered normal wear and tear, I’d imagine?

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by nacs

I tried recording the parking path into my garage, but there is no option to record the waypoint. Is this part of the additional parking assistant professional I need to buy?

I don't think there is anything you have to do for it to re-activate at that spot. The system should just know where you are, and activate the parking screen anytime you are at the starting point of any recorded path.

[nacs]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

I don't think there is anything you have to do for it to re-activate at that spot. The system should just know where you are, and activate the parking screen anytime you are at the starting point of any recorded path.

I don’t even get an option to record. I have to press the parking button manually each time I enter the driveway then I just manually set the camera to car wash view and pull in.