[SkykingUSA]

As we know, the new 5 series cars have different driving modes: Personal, Sport, Efficient, Expressive and Digital Art (those are the ones I remember from my test drives and the reviews I have watched, not sure if there are more).

As I wait for my i5 to arrive, I was wondering what modes you use mostly and regularly in your car. Particularly from those who have been driving their car for a few weeks now. I would expect the newer drivers to try them all and switch back and forth a lot since it's all new, but what mode(s) do people usually settle in with after some of the "newness" wears off?

Love to hear what you folks have been using and why. Thanks!

[DG Sooner]

Great question! My favorite is the relax one. Beach by day and stars by night. The dash UI and LED lighting are awesome as well.
Second favorite is probably the Expressive because of the colors.
I wish BMW had additional ones or could allow you to customize them a little further.
Like the digital art one could be cool, but the “art” it shows does absolutely nothing for me. Maybe a gallery you could select from?

[DHDCF]

Sport and I've assigned the two finger point gesture to activate it - works perfectly.

[Scrapula]

I drive in personal most of the time but I keep the ambient lighting as a shortcut to change with my mood and time of day. At night, I found aqua to be most soothing. I believe it’s the color on relax, which I never use because it closes the shade on the sky lounge roof. I suppose I could use it at night. Maybe I will give it a whirl.

I use sport mode if I am driving for pleasure or take the twisty back roads home.

Expressive sometimes on the freeway because the sounds are so cool. That final chord doesn’t resolve until you hit 75mph.

Digital art is boring because it’s only one picture. I like lavender but I can select that color when I want. The iconic sounds aren’t great on that one either.

[RichardInCA]

Originally Posted by Scrapula

Expressive sometimes on the freeway because the sounds are so cool. That final chord doesn’t resolve until you hit 75mph.

LOL - at least it’s not a crazy amount over the limit

I drive in a very similar way to Scrapula - commuting is personal and often on the way home I use Efficient - it’s teaching me some interesting habits, but occasionally I find myself thinking “I didn’t by an M60 to drive it like this….” SF Bay Area commuter traffic is not always conducive to other modes.

Weekends, twisties etc, then yes Sport mode rules.

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by DG Sooner

Great question! My favorite is the relax one. Beach by day and stars by night. The dash UI and LED lighting are awesome as well.
Second favorite is probably the Expressive because of the colors.
I wish BMW had additional ones or could allow you to customize them a little further.
Like the digital art one could be cool, but the “art” it shows does absolutely nothing for me. Maybe a gallery you could select from?

I agree that it would be nice if you could create your own custom modes and give them names and settings. I'm surprised that BMW has not offered additional downloadable modes yet - for a fee of course.

Originally Posted by DHDCF

Sport and I've assigned the two finger point gesture to activate it - works perfectly.

This leads me to believe you have to set Sport mode every time you get into the vehicle. Is that how it works? Does the vehicle always default to Personal when you turn it on? I would hope that it remembers the last mode you left it on when you turned off the car, and then starts up in that same mode.

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by Scrapula

I drive in personal most of the time but I keep the ambient lighting as a shortcut to change with my mood and time of day. At night, I found aqua to be most soothing. I believe it’s the color on relax, which I never use because it closes the shade on the sky lounge roof. I suppose I could use it at night. Maybe I will give it a whirl.

I use sport mode if I am driving for pleasure or take the twisty back roads home.

Expressive sometimes on the freeway because the sounds are so cool. That final chord doesn’t resolve until you hit 75mph.

Digital art is boring because it’s only one picture. I like lavender but I can select that color when I want. The iconic sounds aren’t great on that one either.

I suspect that I might also be a Personal mode kind of person because I really like the ability to pick and choose the colors to fit my mood. However, I also don't want to miss out of that Expressive sound and colors.

I wonder if anyone normally drives around in Efficient mode all the time and only changes mode when they hit the freeway.

[Turfer]

Originally Posted by DHDCF

Sport and I've assigned the two finger point gesture to activate it - works perfectly.

How did you assign sport mode to a gesture command? I added sport mode to a shortcut but it didn't give the option to assign a gesture command. Did you have to go somewhere other than the driving modes menu?

[Mac545]

Originally Posted by Turfer

How did you assign sport mode to a gesture command? I added sport mode to a shortcut but it didn't give the option to assign a gesture command. Did you have to go somewhere other than the driving modes menu?

+1

[G35c6MT]

This video shows it.
Gesture Controls

[DHDCF]

Originally Posted by Turfer

How did you assign sport mode to a gesture command? I added sport mode to a shortcut but it didn't give the option to assign a gesture command. Did you have to go somewhere other than the driving modes menu?

If haven't squared it away already, just press and hold sport and it will lead you there. I use this feature each and every time I'm in the car. Quick. Easy. Nice.

[superchuck500]

I use personal unless I need additional performance, then go to sport. I only use the others to show people.

[Trevor G]

I am leaning towards relaxed in traffic to work and efficiency on the ride home at 0130 am.

[RichardInCA]

Related - I’m completely converted to driving in B rather than D. I started off with B mode when I picked up the car and adapted to it really quickly. For a comparison I drove home from my office yesterday (~27miles, mostly highway in California traffic) in D mode with adaptive regeneration/coasting. Honestly, I didn’t like it - I’ve realized that I really like the way that B provides some instant slowing that is so much better in traffic and I have no issues with providing the bare minimum pressure on the throttle pedal.

Strangely I felt the weight of the car a lot more during the coasting setting, and I didn’t enjoy as much needing to spend more time hopping over to the brake pedal - it felt that I had to throw the anchors on a 2-ton roller skate. Funny how quickly we adapt. No efficiency benefit with coasting vs B mode either.

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by RichardInCA

Related - I’m completely converted to driving in B rather than D. I started off with B mode when I picked up the car and adapted to it really quickly. For a comparison I drove home from my office yesterday (~27miles, mostly highway in California traffic) in D mode with adaptive regeneration/coasting. Honestly, I didn’t like it - I’ve realized that I really like the way that B provides some instant slowing that is so much better in traffic and I have no issues with providing the bare minimum pressure on the throttle pedal.

Strangely I felt the weight of the car a lot more during the coasting setting, and I didn’t enjoy as much needing to spend more time hopping over to the brake pedal - it felt that I had to throw the anchors on a 2-ton roller skate. Funny how quickly we adapt. No efficiency benefit with coasting vs B mode either.

I was going to start a new post about what you folks use more: D or B. I guess we could just discuss it here. I tried both during test drives and thought D felt just like an ICE car (what I'm used to) and that it felt weird to keep my foot on the accelerator all the time when in B mode. I'm so used to taking my foot off the gas and just sitting it on the floor when I approach downgrades, or traffic lights or stop signs - I'm not sure I could get used to B mode.

[Trevor G]

Once you go B Mode you will never go back. Very easy to drive in this mode and I drove 50 miles to work and tapped the breaks maybe 3 times.

[RichardInCA]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

I was going to start a new post about what you folks use more: D or B. I guess we could just discuss it here. I tried both during test drives and thought D felt just like an ICE car (what I'm used to) and that it felt weird to keep my foot on the accelerator all the time when in B mode. I'm so used to taking my foot off the gas and just sitting it on the floor when I approach downgrades, or traffic lights or stop signs - I'm not sure I could get used to B mode.

To me, coasting in D feels like taking an ICE out of gear altogether with little to no engine braking- maybe that was the “adaptive” setting not sitting with me.

On a downhill grade, B can often let you take your foot of the gas (depending upon grade) and you keep a steady speed but with a healthy dose of regen. With the nature of evening commute traffic up here, I’ve found B to be far superior.

[DHDCF]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

This leads me to believe you have to set Sport mode every time you get into the vehicle. Is that how it works? Does the vehicle always default to Personal when you turn it on? I would hope that it remembers the last mode you left it on when you turned off the car, and then starts up in that same mode.

It allows you to set start up mode to all but sport (mostly sure all), which is main reason I've set a gesture to it. My i4 started in last mode driven but the i5 does not.

[Turfer]

Originally Posted by DHDCF

If haven't squared it away already, just press and hold sport and it will lead you there. I use this feature each and every time I'm in the car. Quick. Easy. Nice.

Apparently you can't assign modes to a gesture shortcut on ICE cars.

[Scrapula]

I love full one pedal mode, but my husband was following me and said my brake lights do not illuminate. I don’t want to get rear ended so I will be switching back to normal mode until BMW addresses this.

[RichardInCA]

Originally Posted by Scrapula

I love full one pedal mode, but my husband was following me and said my brake lights do not illuminate. I don’t want to get rear ended so I will be switching back to normal mode until BMW addresses this.

They do illuminate on mine, but only when the regenerative braking is powerful enough - if you pull up the virtual view of the car on the screen, it shows you when your brake lights are coming on in the little cartoon representation of the car. It’s very helpful.

[Scrapula]

Originally Posted by RichardInCA

They do illuminate on mine, but only when the regenerative braking is powerful enough - if you pull up the virtual view of the car on the screen, it shows you when your brake lights are coming on in the little cartoon representation of the car. It’s very helpful.

Thanks, I was doing city driving, so maybe the regen wasn’t powerful enough. I will try the virtual view and have my husband follow to see if it is the same or a software gimmick.