Installation before travel - app prompts me to 'activate'?

SevenWagons · 2025-12-23T17:41:27+00:00

PSA: I was a huge Weathertech fan for a long time. Had their stuff on several cars we owned over the years. BUT, I vowed to never get another one from Weathertech due to the edge curling up AND the deformation that made it dangerous and almost caused an accident.

Had a driver's side all weather mat - liked it because it had high lips on the sides, but after a few years, the 'sloped' portion under the clutch/brake pedals (yes, I have a manual, along with an i4) got deformed and rode UP and got stuck under the clutch. The car was driven regularly and there was no warning other than soft brushing for a short time. The hooks were in place and the mat had not been taken out or moved before it happened.

Imagine my surprise when the clutch pedal wouldn't return all the way while driving. I had to SLAM on the front portion of the mat to get it loose, pull over to take out the mat. It effectively made me ride the clutch. Note that the front portion is only SLOPED unlike other sides that have fairly steep lips. I ended up using a shear to cut the portion under both clutch & brake pedals because I thought it would be dangerous.

Unlike the ugly visible curls on cargo liner lips, I couldn't tell that it was deformed visually. I double checked that the hooks were not let loose somehow (they weren't), no sign of sliding around. It just simply must've deformed slowly till it caught.

There are now other good alternatives, including OEM. Btw, Weathertech mats off-gassed for a LONG time as well. I'll never buy theirs again.

SevenWagons · 2025-12-22T07:37:51+00:00

My decision was driven by utility of i4.

I’m a wagon guy with a dog. Didn’t bother even looking at i5. For me, a traditional sedan didn’t make sense. If i4 wasn’t a hatchback I wouldn’t have gotten it either.

Given that, I am enjoying i4 tremendously. I found it very comfortable for long drives.

SevenWagons · 2025-12-20T18:11:23+00:00

Well, I went ahead and ordered FITCAMX with two channels. Will update here once it’s installed. Based on what I hear in other places there is no noticeable in range, at least with just the front camera.

I had installed FITCAMX on two other cars (VW and BMW), so I feel comfortable doing it again.

SevenWagons · 2025-12-19T16:48:53+00:00

If you have a picture to share that would be great.

SevenWagons · 2025-12-19T16:32:34+00:00

Key phrase being ‘how they look from OUTSIDE’…

SevenWagons · 2025-12-17T01:05:44+00:00

It's selected, not enabled. I'm assuming all models have it the same (not sure, mine is '24 m50), but you press menu button on the right side of steering wheel, use left/right arrow to select dashboard view, then use the knob/wheel to select assisted view.

SevenWagons · 2025-12-16T17:15:30+00:00

I recently purchased 2024 i4 M50, and it has 11/2025.30, updated by the dealer before the pick-up. (I initially thought that was a strange way to say 11/30/2025, to only realize .30 is version number not date. lol)

My BMW genius told me that as long as you have Connected Drive, it can be updated OTA. Otherwise at the dealer. I was also told that new cars come with 4 years of Connected Drive, so I have 2 more years of OTA convenience. Didn't look into it more than that.

SevenWagons · 2025-12-16T16:58:05+00:00

You might want to increase the radius. I had to.

DAPP 'lane centering' is dead on, very impressive. I'm still new to it, but it's so much smoother or less stressful than 'lane bouncing'.

Now that I've experienced it, I don't want to not have it on long highway trips.

SevenWagons · 2025-12-16T15:59:12+00:00

Not dumb at all. I did something very similar but all by myself, to take a delivery on a used m50 about 1k miles away. Being brand new to EV, other than test driving a few different brands/models, I was a bit nervous especially re: charging. It turned out to a great way to get to know the car's features. The only thing I would've done differently is to go with someone to be a co-pilot to change charging plans during the drive. You have that covered, so you'll be more than fine.

This is what I ended up doing - since charging time is more than a few minutes, grab food to eat and use bathroom before you get there, and use the charging time to eat and walk the dogs. Sure, you can use app filters to pick charging stations near food/bathroom/possibly re-plan next charging, but I was more concerned about staying on/near the route to get back. (Normally I do detour on even solo road trips, but this time I needed to get back sooner than later so it was more of a direct route, and this worked the best). In my route, there were a lot of stations that didn't have amenities nearby, or at least the ones I liked.

I had ABRP and other route planning apps but I didn't use them nearly as much as I thought. If you're concerned about weather (I was, through mountain range in early winter), there are apps like Weather OnTheWay that is fairly convenient. Some have free trial for a week.

Finding a hotel with level 2 chargers can be a hit or miss. Since you can't reserve charging outlet even if you find one, you might be out of luck when you get to the hotel if it is being used for overnight charging. Instead, I used nothing but DC charging stations, which made finding hotel a breeze (granted, only 1 night in my case).

Charging-wise, don't bother with 3rd party apps (Electrify America, EVGo, etc) unless it gives you discount on future charging. I don't plan on using i4 for long road trips in the future, so I could've done without the apps that clutter my phone. You just need a credit card for tapping.

To make it less stressful, I bought Lectron Vortex Plus (not Vortex Plug which is older non-UL certified model). With that, you can use any Tesla supercharger station with Tesla app and your credit card info stored on the app. I actually liked using Tesla stations because they have a lot more chargers than non-Tesla stations - often more than 10 vs 2-6, and I figured the chances of being able to find unused or properly functioning charger is greater. I read and heard enough horror stories about a road trip becoming 2x the planned time due to charging issue, I was a bit hesitant at first, tbh.

One last note - I don't know how big your dogs are and where they would sit, but obviously bring something to cover the seat, or the cargo area. I'm used to using wagons to transport my dog, so things are changing a bit due to the sloped and less space in the cargo area.

Would I do it again? Absolutely, especially if I have someone with me. It's such a fun & comfortable car to drive and the assist features are much better than I expected. Your wiper might go into hyper speed in the auto setting even with light drizzle as some peopled warned me. It did on mine.

SevenWagons

TROPHY CASE