I recently discovered the single most annoying switch in the entire history of the automotive industry. It’s located on my center control stack, and its mere presence infuriates me to the point where I want to murder everyone associated with my vehicle’s creation, ground up their bodies, and turn their bones into indecipherable automotive buttons.
But before I fly to Germany for my killing spree, please allow me to explain the switch in question – and my problems with it. Once I’ve done so, I believe you all will agree that my murderous rampage will legally qualify as justifiable homicide.
To begin, I should note that the switch that makes me furious is primarily limited to BMW products. In fact, I can’t recall ever seeing it in a non-BMW product, presumably because other automakers have at least some modicum of intelligence. “We may make transmissions that last as long as butterfly metamorphosis,” say Chrysler engineers. “But at least we don’t have that stupid switch.”
OK, you’re probably wondering. So what the hell is this switch?
Well, here’s the deal: in my automobile, I have dual-zone automatic climate control. This is a hallmark feature of many upscale and wanna-be upscale vehicles. You set one side to 74. You set the other side side to 69. You press “AUTO.” And then the air blows out at the perfect temperature to create a 74-degree experience on one side, and a 69-degree experience on the other side, and everyone is happy, and you can go back to fighting about normal rich people things, like what to do if you see a member of a minority group walking through your neighborhood.
But that’s not what happens when you have The Switch.
When you have the switch, what happens is, you set one side to whatever temperature you want, and the other side to the other temperature you want, and all seems to be well. But it turns out that this has no effect on the actual air temperature. In order to affect the actual air temperature, you have to change the switch to BLUE or RED, depending on what type of air you want to be released from the vents, even after you’ve already set the temperature.
Now, here’s why this pisses me off: because this DEFEATS THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF AUTOMATIC CLIMATE CONTROL. When I set my climate control in the first place, I’m telling the system exactly what temperature I want. So why is the entire climate control system at the mercy of some all-knowing switch that decides whether to blow hot air or cold air? Newsflash, climate control system: if I choose “84” for the climate control temperature, and it’s 2 degrees outside, I’m going to want HOT AIR, regardless of whether the freaking switch is on blue or red.
To further explain why it pisses me off, allow me to provide you with a real-world example to illustrate my frustration. Say it’s the middle of winter and somehow the switch accidentally gets turned to “BLUE,” which means cold. Here’s what happens: even though I have the temperature set at 75 degrees and automatic, the air that blows out isn’t warm. The air that comes out is cold, because that’s the random orientation of some STUPID SWITCH that completely overrides every single setting in my climate control system.
I should also take this opportunity to mention that the switch is unlit, which means I have no idea what air temperature is going to come out at night.
Now, if this doesn’t sound so bad, allow me to provide you with a different example that I think will drive home the point even further.
Let’s say you lived in some really nice mansion with this really nice bathroom with these really nice towels and you had a really nice tub where you could set the exact temperature of the water. You want 84? Push 84. You want 83? Push 83, and the water comes out just a hair cooler to cater to your delicate sensibilities. Well, guess what? If this tub was built by BMW, and you set it to 83, the damn water would come out ICE FREAKIN COLD unless you also moved some random dial located elsewhere on your tub control pad.
The reason this pisses me off so much is that the climate control system in this vehicle was apparently designed with complex, delicate rich people in mind, except for this switch. You can change it from 69 to 70 if you feel it’s getting too chilly. You can turn on the air, send it to your feet, turn it up, send it to the windshield, turn it down, blast it, lower it, WHATEVER. There are 10 different climate control buttons and four vents. And yet the ENTIRE COMPLEX SYSTEM is at the mercy of this random, 1970s-era temperature changing switch.
Interestingly, the point of this column is not to complain about my climate control switch. This may surprise you, considering I’ve spent the last 850 words doing exactly that, but I actually have a different purpose: my point today is to find out if anyone out there on TTAC has any freaking idea why the hell they would include this switch in the vehicle, considering they already have other buttons that control the temperature. I’ve never been able to figure it out, and I’d love an explanation, and by God I think you people might have it.
But while I’d love to hear an explanation of the switch, don’t even try to justify it. Because then you’ll end up a target for my murderous rampage.
Doug, typically enjoy your work, both here and on other sites. The Hummer and the Skyline are especially interesting.
But lately, your articles have been reading like this: “I really really really really really [insert some other non-sentence] need to make word count.”
You’re a good writer. Perhaps churning out less content is actually more?
I put that in the last column as a joke! The power of suggestion at work!
Raging about the stupid combined red turn signals was the best. The subject was totally worth it. This one, however, only affects people who buy certain BMWs.
“This one, however, only affects people who buy certain BMWs”, except that the picture above is not of a BMW.
Except that era of Range Rover (LR322 model, built ’02-’12 with a facelift along the way) is actually very much a BMW, as they designed and developed it when they owned Rover (’94-’06). It shares much of the electronics and HVAC with the 5-series of that era. Though by the time Doug’s was built, they had sold out to Ford, who moved much of the electronics in the later LR322s to be shared with Jaguar on this generation and developed the next (aluminum) generation that also had Jaguar engines. Even my ’01 Range Rover has some BMW influence in the Bosch Motronic engine management system, despite still having the old (ex-Buick) Rover V8 engine instead of a BMW engine. The diesels of my generation got BMW diesels.
Which is why the picture and Doug’s rant puzzled me – it KIND of looks like a BMW, but not any of the sedans. I thought it might be some version of the X5 or something. I completely forgot he owns a Rover. Which I have teased him about on Jalopnik, as the boy has the dealer change his lightbulbs for him, then complains about the cost even though he has a super-duper CarMax warranty to pay for it.
Seriously? Maybe the switch ensures the highly desired 50/50 weight distribution remains intact.
Hahaha.
“Maybe the switch ensures the highly desired 50/50 weight distribution remains intact.”
The best comment in weeks!
I have no idea what the actual intended purpose for this switch is either- I was always dumbfounded by it on my E39.
Thank you! Question: in what position did you put the switch? Did you use it? I generally just leave it in the middle, but sometimes I’ll look down and notice somehow it has gotten on full red or full blue, and I’ll want to kill someone.
I also agree its the dumbest climate control scheme ever. Particularly when your wife likes it cold and you like it hot, and you tend to switch whose driving the car during the week. It took me about a month of owning the car to fully grasp the importance of that switch. I did notice newer models now have two of these switches, precisely to solve this problem but I haven’t driven one to test it out.
I sed that dial all the time on my BMW. Great feature and I actually miss it now.
Which model BMW is that? And the switch has only two positions – it’s not variable?
My BMW has a roller switch there, it’s brilliant, as it allows you to adjust the relative temperature of your feet vs. your face. In the winter I want warm air on my always cold feet, but I want much cooler air on my face. Nothing I hate more than a car that can’t accomplish this. My older Saabs and VWs could do it too, though it was either heated or outside air only, not continuously variable like the BMW. Or just cooled air in the summer. On my car, if you leave the roller in the middle the upper vents will be the exact same temp as the lower ones.
I can see where this particular setup might be annoying if it is not actually adjustable beyond the extremes. But I would also think that it is like the Saab/VW setup – you either get heated air or fresh air, which is better than nothing. I would assume leaving it set to hot would just get you whatever the other vents are getting.
That’s a Range Rover dash. I dunno why he didn’t specify it.
This is a Range Rover, but the switch is on a huge number of modern BMWs, so it’s not hugely important what particular vehicle it is.
Ok, I don’t do BMW era Range Rovers – too much bling for me. My old P38 makes do with just side to side temp adjustment, unfortunately. Then again, the heater kind of sucks anyway. :-)
But does it now make sense based on the rest of my comment? I don’t understand why this baffles so many people, but it is a very common question on the BMW Forums. And is it off/on or continuously variable, you were not clear on that.
Oh wow. I used to own an e90 and never figured this out. It actually might fix climate control for me. I generally don’t like the fact that I can’t control the vent temp directly and much prefer manual controls.
“My BMW has a roller switch there, it’s brilliant, as it allows you to adjust the relative temperature of your feet vs. your face”
I’ve always had this roller switch on my BMW’s as well. I loved it and found it very useful too.
Um, our lowly Dodge does this and they have been able to for years. In the 70s and 80s though it was not adjustable but if you set the airflow to vent and floor the floor air was heated proportionally leaving cooler air for your upper body that is in the sun and warm air for your feet. Read that in the owners manual of dad’s 1978 Dodge Maxi-Van.
wah wah wah
Doug, you misunderstand the switch. It’s my favorite feature of my BMW. It allows you to do something wonderful, as it will bring in fresh outside air through the vents whenever it is on blue. Even in winter. Set the heat and mode to your feet, and in order to keep them warm, with heat rising, it will be stifling by your face…not with the switch. Ahhh….cool outside air up top where you breath, warm air down below. It only affects the dash vents. If on red and you have heat mode to the floor….it does nothing at all.
Oh, that’s what it does? Awesome. A friend had that in his ’89 Acura Legend, and I thought it was brilliant. I didn’t know it was still around in other cars.
Ha! Yes I had it on my ’88 Legend and loved it. Never saw it again until I got my E90 BMW. I’m switching cars soon, and that’s the thing I will miss the most.
Wait what? If I set the heat mode to my FEET, and switch the dial to blue… it will send in cold outside air? Even if the heat is on?
Even if that were the switch’s purpose — to which I would ask why the hell is it horizontal and not vertical, and why the hell is it a switch with varying settings and not merely a button that says “Outside Air” or something — then how do you explain it when I have the dial set to “AUTO” as I do 99% of the time in a car with automatic climate control? What the hell am I supposed to do with it then?! ALL I WANT IS THE AUTO TEMPERATURE I SELECTED DAMMIT
Oh god I’ve gone crazy.
@Doug Demuro
I think you are being a bit deliberately thick to get clicks at this point (and obviously it is working). If you just want to have the set temp, just leave it in the middle. The whole reason to pay the money for a nicer car is the little thoughtful details like these.
This is not a new thing – as I mentioned, many European cars have had this capability back to at least the 70’s. Hot air to the feet, cold air to the face, keeps you awake and warm at the same time.
As to why the door unlock button in the center console? Also perfectly logical. Either passenger can reach it, you only need one button, and in the days before bus-based electronics, fewer wires going through the hinge in the doors. I have never understood why you would not want the window switches in the console too – neatly logical to my mind. The less crap on the door panel the better. My old Rover goes several better with the mirror switch in the center console too, and the lock buttons on the front doors doubling as the lock/unlock for all the doors. Why do you need a separate switch at all? Same with the modern BMW turn signal lever – no mechanical cancel to break, you can cancel in either direction, and the lever is always in the right position.
I’m not being deliberately thick — I truly believe the feature has no function on a vehicle with automatic climate control. The purpose of automatic climate control being to AUTOMATICALLY regulate the temperature. Right?
“If you just want to have the set temp, just leave it in the middle.”
My point is — why do I have to leave it ANYWHERE? I want the set temp because I already signed up for the set temp when I set the damn temp!!!!!!!!
I now understand the purpose of this switch, though — it controls the temperature of the vents alone, so you can have warmer air coming out of other vents and cooler air coming out the top ones. I personally don’t see a purpose for this but I understand why some would, if you had MANUAL climate control. But automatic… ergh…
Evidently you like air of the same temperature at your face and your feet. Many of us do not, hence the purpose of this switch. It’s STILL automatic, the system regulates the temperature of both sets of vents. It just allows you to alter the balance between them. Would it make you happier if they put in a third digital display so you could pick a number for the vent temp? Would that make it seem more “automatic” for you? This is essentially a 3-zone automatic HVAC system.
Similarly, the fan speed control is automatic as well, but it allows you to alter the relative speed of the fan.
BTW – on the Rover is it actually unlit or is the bulb burned out? I have never seen this unlit on any other BMW product that I can remember. You might be able to get CarMax to pay to fix it!
As krhodes1 explained, not all of us live in Cali where the temps are moderate to warm all year round.
Here in Ottawa, Canada, the temp outside in the winter could be -25C or colder, and once the engine is warmed up the automatic climate controls is pumping out superheated air to get it up to +20C in the cabin. Having this HOT air blasting at you isn’t always very pleasant, so this awesome rotary control allows you to mix colder outside air into the mix for the dash vents only… so instead of the 35C air that is coming out of the windshield defrost vents and the floor vents, I can have pleasant 20C air coming out of the dash vents.
I take your point that this is not adjustable to a specific temperature, but rather is set to the driver’s comfort. But have we really gotten THAT lazy? IMHO, the people who don’t want to futz with this can just leave it in the middle; those of us can do can customize our heating (or cooling) experience.
This has got to be my favorite feature of my BMWs save for the actual drive!
Almost forgot – why is it variable? Because up here in God’s Country sometimes the outside air is too cold when it is -10F outside. I prefer to have cooler air on my face, not a frostbitten nose.
Works great in the summer too – sometimes I want really cold air on my hot feet, without getting frostbite on my hands on the wheel.
Might it be in the owners manual somewhere? Couldn’t one of your servants read it for you before they drive you around?
Ditto. Great feature on BMWs. So much so that I really miss it when it’s not there.
I don’t know what the big mystery is. First, RTFM. I’ve owned exactly one BMW – a wonderful E39 528i. As others have noted, this switch allows fresh air to be directed at your face while the climate control does its thing. It was one of my favorite features of the car. And it took me approximately 10 minutes to figure out how it worked, and the logic behind it.
My Volvo has an adjustment to let more or less fresh air in the two center dash vents. It’s much simpler, and less likely to go on the fritz and cost a grand or so to repair.
+1! I love having toasty feet, but a cool breeze on your face helps keep you alert. This is a reason to get a BMW again.
Doug, at the risk of becoming a target of your murderous rampage, I’ll offer an explanation.
My E46 with automatic climate control has this “switch”. Only it’s not a simple switch but a complicated dial that sits between the upper center vents. The dial ranges from 3 red dots to 3 blue dots and is adjustable in increments of 1 dot with a “neutral” position in the middle, for a total of 7 different positions.
I believe this dial is meant to fine-tune the temperature coming out of the center vents. Why anyone would need to do this, I’m not quite sure. Maybe it’s for those days when the A/C is blasting but your face is just too cold? Or those winter days when the heat is blasting but your face is too hot?
Mine permanently sits in the “neutral” position.
“Why anyone would need to do this, I’m not quite sure.”
PRECISELY!!!!! I already have “AUTO” pushed, so shouldn’t the damn car be fine tuning the temperature for me?! Why do I need some cheap rubber switch when I have 20 million buttons and settings that carry out the switch’s exact purpose?!
Mine permanently sits in the neutral position too, FYI.
Have this in my E46 – it’s a great feature; cool air on my face with warm air on my feet… (at least, that’s my usual setting!)
Many cars do the same thing without that button.
I think best way to explain its usefulness is to take horizontal and vertical axis. On horiz. axis you have 2 temp zones as you have 2-zone system. Thanks to this button you can have 2 zones also on vertical axis.
If you always like same temp to face and feet then you don’t need it, but some people like to have choice of different temp’s and they can.
I think that is exactly the point. If you don’t want to use it, you just leave it at neutral. For all practical purpose, it’s now disabled. Easy.
Yeah, I just read the Owner’s Manual (that BMW conveniently has online).
It describes it as “thumbwheel to vary the temperature”.
So, as other posters say, for things like “warm feet, cold body”.
Which … makes sense, more or less.
“Why anyone would need to do this, I’m not quite sure”. Let’s face it, there are numerous items on a car that are not needed. I personeally think it’s a great feature and I wish my car had it.
What does the owner’s manual say about the switch?
Achtung! Das fruernarghrennfauer nicht der oder abusen der furrenfedenein. Nie wehr afabgehen der graf und zu von ritterkanner.
The “manual” consists of 100 pages of “Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetreibswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft” printed over and over.
Yes, I typed that all from memory. Except the “ä.”
It has to be explained at an authorized LR dealer for only $125.00 per billable hour.
“What does the owner’s manual say about the switch?” Bingo. FYI, the owner’s manual does address the function and features of this button/dial.
Why?
Because apparently, car companies can’t sell cars that aren’t “luxury” cars these days, but we’re way past the point where “luxury” meant things that made sense, like leather seats and power windows.
Today, you have to have a vast array of gadgets of questionable value to be considered “luxury.”
“Now, Count Homer, if you’ll notice the heated gas pedal…”
+1
What advantages does this motorcar have over, say, a train? Which I could also afford.
Ford has a patent on those nearly invisible windscreen heating lines. Smart car makers pay Ford for using this technology.
Less smart Asian luxury car makers make their own button which turns on a heater in the lower part of the windscreen. With the uneven distribution of heat caused by this, all this button does is to create a fog in the lower part of the windscreen after being on for a couple of minutes. Does it remove snow? Nope. Does it turn off automatically? Nope. Does it belong in a luxury car on sale right now? Apparently.
>>Ford has a patent on those nearly invisible windscreen heating lines. Smart car makers pay Ford for using this technology.<<
Smart car companies avoid the Ford tech, including Ford.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickclear
As a complex, delicate rich person, I can only raise an eyebrow ever-so-slightly. Rants are for the bourgeoisie.
Rants are for the proles. They do make such a racket when things don’t go their way.
Indubitably. Smithers, release the hounds.
Not BMW-unique. My 2002 Audi A8L goes one better. (Worse?) Instead of a switch to override the entire concept of automatic climate control, The A8L has a dial, so you can select whatever non-automatic blend of hot and cold air you want to override your automatic, thermostatically controlled multi-zone system with.
It makes sense to me in there. When you’re on cold, but you want less cold air at your face, use that towards the red. I can’t say I messed with it much in my entire A8 ownership of two years.
The *current* BMW one is actually a dial, per their Owner’s Manual.
I can’t recall what year and model Mr. DeMuro’s BMW is, or if he’s just being a little free in his descriptions of it as a “switch” in the implied binary sense.
I thought this was going to be about putting the door (window? wallet?) lock button up in the dash.
DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE FACT THAT IT IS JUST ONE BUTTON AND NOT TWO SEPARATE “LOCK” AND “UNLOCK” BUTTONS
I think all car builders should consult me before the build process begins.
Doug, if they read TTAC they’re probably too scared to consult you. I think you should change your byline to “Mr. Furious”.
In a just world, whoever decided the Ford Fiesta would get the singular lock/unlock button, with no physical locks on the door, would find themselves in a Fiesta, in a dark and stormy forest at night, while a hook-wielding maniac is trying to break in.
This. WHY THE FUDGE IS THE DOOR LOCK/UNLOCK BUTTON NOT ON THE DOOR????
Ah!! That’s where Tesla got the idea.
I test drove the P85D yesterday and had problems finding the door lock/unlock button on the door. “No, its here Sir, on the central control panel” the kind test drive adviser told me.
Apparently putting the door lock/unlock button on the door is sooooooo 20th Century. Luxury cars have it in the center where rich people expect to find it.
Putting the door lock switch in the center console seems more of a European thing, and it goes with the idea of “central locking”, which is the term for “power locks” in other countries. If anything, it’s a cost saving measure, since you have just the one switch instead of one on each door. GM and Ford began doing it on their global cars, like the 2012-present Focus and Cruze.
Even more interesting is when automakers put the window switches in the center console, like the Pontiac G8 and the 2nd-generation Lincoln Navigator….and the P38 Range Rover, I think.
Jeep (Liberty) and Saab did this as well.
Oh yes…and the PT Loser as well…
Americans are far more accepting of European features than Europeans are of American features.
And why is the door lock button a picture of a CAR WINDOW? Ford gets this right, most others fail: Lock buttons need to feature either a padlock or a picture of a key, full stop. The tiny transaxle or featureless key or whatever that little image is below the window on the subject button definitely doesn’t count.
That’s not a window. It’s a door with a lock hole on it. Since that one button both locks and unlocks the doors, the icon makes perfect sense to me.
And nevertheless, it’s pretty much a BMW Group thing. Every other automaker I’ve seen uses padlock symbols…except Audi (and therefore certain Lamborghini and Bentley models), which use different iconography: a car with an open door for unlock, and a red key for lock.
I’m confused, that’s a picture of a door. Yes a door that contains a window, but it looks like a door to me.
IS it the door lock button?
Other people suggested it was the power window override, which also makes sense.
No, it’s definitely the door lock button.
I get this is really a matter of personal preference, but I have always preferred a central lock button on the center stack. I find it far easier to use this button than a little button behind my knee near the door handle.
When I’m leaving my car, I lock the doors with the “all lock” button on the driver’s door. If I had to bend down into the interior, around the steering wheel to use one on the center stack, I would write a blog post about it, and boy, would I be P!$$ed.
@Shaker
I’m pretty confident that like most European cars, you can’t lock the doors with the door open, but I have never tried. So that would be irrelevant. I’ll have to try it with my car. Mine has Comfort Access, you lock it by touching a spot on the outside door handle. Otherwise, using the fob. I don’t think I have touched that central lock button in the 3.5 years I have owned the car.
I can’t on my Volvo.
But it both has a lock button on the fob *and* a button on the doors themselves for locking all the doors.
(I think it will auto-lock after two minutes if left unlocked and closed, too, but I’ve never tested the claim from the manual.)
No you wouldn’t, you’d just use the lock button on the key fob remote as you walk away like a normal person.
(Or just hit it before you leave the car at which point the doors will lock automatically when you close them. Just make sure you didn’t leave your keys inside – though some cars are smart enough today to know if the fob is inside the car, not all of them are.)
Bumpy ii, Yes that is a way more annoying button…
DeMuro, I can’t think of many topics that require that level of violence to described your frustration with an HVAC system. I wouldn’t let you finish that first paragraph around me if you spoke that way in person.
Anyway, my home system is even more detailed in settings but vague in direction. If people change anything it ends up a mess. Room temp, radiant temp, temp for each level, in floor heating, humidity variations, fresh or recirculated, fan or auto, different cycles???? If you want to use a certain area of the house and the settings have been changed it can be freezing or boiling. You can correct it but it can take a while to alter the temp for a large room. Way more annoying than a blue or red dash dial…
What’s even worse about the first para is that this guy, who presumably makes his living from writing, apparently doesn’t know the correct tense of a verb (i.e, “to grind”) to use in that sentence.
It’s manually controlled automatic climate control. This way the manufacturer can charge you and say that it’s automatic and not have to actually give you automatic climate control. Brilliant!
Buy a Land Cruiser.
I know this is a blog, and not a true journalistic media outfit, but the quality here is usually top-notch. TTAC blurs the line between the professional journalism and amateur enthusiast blogs, and that’s a terrific thing for both.
That said… Slow News Day? This would be far more at home on Reddit or BlogSpot.
It’s called a “fluff piece” and even the most serious news outlets have them. It’s OK, you don’t have to read them
It’s funny you say that because I’ve literally been waiting all week for this column to go up so I could see how people responded.
One man’s trash is another man’s confusing switch.
I seriously enjoy these articles, Doug. Keep up the good work.
I like my body and feet to be warm when I drive but prefer colder air blown towards my neck and face. Only BMW’s A/C can do this.
It’s a feature I didn’t know I’ll miss until I sold my BMW.
I guess that’s german engineering for ya.
Sorry can’t give you a reason, but I do see another mystery.
So the switch has blue and red dots on the switch.
However the red and blue dots on the dash are the reverse of the red and blue dots on the switch.
So my question is, if the blue dot on the switch is located next to the red dot on the dash (as in your photograph). What is that meant to convey to the driver, hot or cold? Or was it simply installed upside down on the assembly line, you know, just to screw with your mind!
Not only is the presence of the switch pointless, but its color coding makes no sense.
I think the purpose here is that if you push it right (towards blue) then the blue dots on the switch show up, whereas if you turn it left (towards red) then the opposite occurs.
Doug, please try driving a Mazda that has the max ac setting at the extreme cold end of the temp dial. Then write a similar article. There is no excuse for not having a seperate button for this mode. People need to know.
Thank you.
Hehe I hear ya. Twist the dial hard to the stop for all-max setting, I suppose it makes sense. Now explain to me the behavior of the auto A/C in the Touring and Mazdaspeed trims. I need to go RTFM.
I’ve seen this on a few cars these days including my company car ’12 Focus and my personal car ’13 GTI. I hate it. In nice weather I often want the vent air at full cold (ie fresh outside air not heated) but without a/c. This requires me to be extra careful about twisting the knob to max cold so that I don’t go past the (too weak) detent and accidentally engage max a/c. It makes the simple unnecessarily complicated. I’m perfectly capable of hitting the a/c and recirculate buttons at the same time for max a/c on those rare times I want it.
It’s almost as if there are two modulating air damper motors, one for air over the heat coil and one for air over the evaporator coil, but only one control output from the from the climate controller. I worked with less-than top shelf building HVAC units at one time which had a “summer-winter” switch for this reason – it eliminated the need for a more up-to-date (and costly) environment controller.
“I worked with less-than top shelf building HVAC units at one time which had a “summer-winter” switch for this reason – it eliminated the need for a more up-to-date (and costly) environment controller.”
Yep, that’s how my home thermostat works. It has a switch for heat and cool, and a separate dial for temperature. I was searching for the Roundel on my unit and was just a little disappointed to learn BMW did not make my thermostat.
I think I’ll upgrade to a NEST, but that’s the luxury thread. :)
Indeed. It bothers me that my home thermostat has to be manually changed from AC to furnace.
I don’t need a fixed temperature at all times. I only need to set high and low limits. That’s generally fine during summer/winter, but during the transition, it’s a nuisance.
I got a 2014 328i last August, and I am equally perplexed as to why this switch exists. It seems so very unnecessary.
I’ve always liked the “switch” that Doug’s talking about, even though it’s really a variable control, at least in the BMWs I’ve had. It allows the driver to set the overall heat so that your feat stay warm, while allowing a bit of cooler air on the face. I’ve found I get less sleepy on long drives that way.
I thought the article was going to be about the lock button too. I would prefer it on the drivers side door.
Anyway, I think the rotating dial is for my wife. She is either too hot or too cold. Never happy. This way she can crank both the heat and the cold at the same time.
Or is this button like the thermostat offset option at my house? I always have the display temperature hotter than actual temperature. Wife needs it to say 74F all winter, so that is what she “gets”.
It is obvious that it is the “Ultimate Climate Control” switch.
For me, without question the most annoying thing about BMW is the chime that goes off when the outside temperature goes above 32 degrees. From the sound it makes, you’d think the world is about to end. The snowflake image that simultaneously appears is enough in itself to make the loud chime superfluous.
Lots of cars seem to do that these days. My Jetta SportWagen chimes once if the temperature dips below 40 degrees, and then puts a snowflake icon on the IP LCD next to the temp reading. I think our Sonata does this too. And I remember renting a Nissan Rogue back in 2012 or so that chimed once when the temperature went below forty degrees and also put a snowflake icon on the IP…except that the *orange* snowflake icon continued to flash, which really irritated me.
Now, BMW’s current chime—which originated in the 2002 E65 7-Series and 2003 Rolls-Royce Phantom—might annoy you because of that doomy computer-generated “goonnnng” sound.
Great isn’t it?
The LEAF dings when it gets down to 38F and puts up a snowflake as well.
The best part about it is if you are driving in the sun and the temperature creeps above 38F, then you go along a stretch of road in the shade the ding goes off again because its 38 in the shade. Back in the sun gets warm again. Another shady spot, Ding again. Rinse and repeat, over and over and over.
The gift that keeps on giving.
Yes. I’ve had the SportWagen chime on and off as the temperature oscillated between 38 and 41 degrees. It’s really annoying because when you drive a European car, chimes are worrying.
The asshattery that is automotive software development is astonishing at times. It’s not like keeping track of the last alert and not creating a new one for the same event within X minutes would be difficult. It wouldn’t even need to be fancy and save the state between restarts.
My Mustang has an awesome example of this, for which I would truly love to cockpunch whichever product manager approved the “fix” to a reported problem. My car has SYNC (not MFT), and I listen to Bluetooth streaming audio 99% of the time. I have to select Bluetooth audio *every single farking time* I start my car. Either Menu->Right->Right->OK->Right->OK, or talk to my car like a douche. Apparently it used to work the way you expect in a previous software build, but they got some complaints that _some_ people’s devices weren’t connecting in time. So instead of doing the sensible thing and adding a few lines of code to wait a few seconds before initiating the connection (or retrying), some mother$%#@*& signed off on just setting it back to Line-In audio if Bluetooth was the last input. As Kelly Bundy would say, the mind wobbles.
I had that exact issue when I bought my VW, which has an RCD-510 radio. But then the service advisor showed me how to make the car default to Bluetooth input upon startup, and I haven’t had any complaints since then. And yes, it does take a few seconds to initialize…
In my Chevy a little menu pops up that says ice possible, drive carefully…no ding but it pops up which I think is nice.
MyLink allows to continue off where you last had the system (i.e. Bluetooth) but sometimes it gets caught up and reverts back to fm…
>> The LEAF dings when it gets down to 38F and puts up a snowflake as well.
The only annoying part of the snowflake display is waiting for it to go away on startup when you want to reset the stats like miles/kW in the computer before driving. It drives me crazy waiting. I suppose I could solve the problem by resetting before I turn the car off.
Even my E30 does that. I thought something broke when I heard the chime.
On newer BMWs, you can use a programming cable and turn off various warning chimes via software interface.
Yep. In the BMW community, they call it “coding”, and there is an entire industry surrounding it. BMW has lots of cool things you can enable/disable while coding.
Using the BMWWhat Android app, I’ve been able to do the following to my car:
Windows and sunroof close from the keyfob, and fold the mirrors too.
3 headlight wash cycles instead of the default 2 (will set to none for the summer), and reduced the interval between headlight washings. Great here in the salt slop.
Enabled hazard flash with ABS activation
Lowered the threshold for the extra brake lights to come on
Changed the ALL function on the HVAC to the original Rest Heat function for winter – runs the heater with the car off to keep the cabin warmer longer. Will change that back for summer too. ALL syncs the temps side-to-side.
Allowed the fog lights to stay on with the high beams
Enabled the digital speed display on the dash, and display uncorrected speed on it.
Turned off the seatbelt warning chime and light.
Probably a couple more things I am forgetting. Very cool to be able to customize the car so easily. This app also does battery registration when the time comes. VW has quite a bit that is software settable with a VAG-COM too.
I’ve actually changed some of the coding on my E46! Used PASoft to turn off automatic locking, re-enable DRLs, disabled automatic locking when in motion, changed the oil change interval to 10k (down from 15, still using an LL01 synthetic), and attempted to code in reverse memory tilt for the rear view mirror, although that didn’t work.
Interesting to know others do that too I’ve rented several Nissans and never noticed it. Wonder who came up with this brilliantly dumb invention! I guess BMW…
I’ve never had a European car with an outside temp display that didn’t ding when the temp was nearing freezing. Living in ever variable Maine, I actually appreciate it. Just today it was 55F during the day, but will drop to the teens overnight. Which means ALL SORTS of glare ice where the snowbanks have melted and then frozen.
My BMW is does seem to be smart enough to not do it repeatedly on the same trip. That would be annoying. It can also be turned off through coding I believe.
This is a great feature in theory, but ought to compensate for rapid temperature changes. I park in a heated garage, and drove a car with the feature for a few weeks recently. Every day in a different place I got a random, ominous-sounding chime when the temperature sensor dropped below freezing. Really annoying.
I loathe the automatic climate control in my ’08 MKZ. By far my least favorite feature of an otherwise very decent automobile. Press auto, and the fan will come on a max, regardless of settings, regardless of outside temperature. Gale force winds in my face. HATE! I’ve had to learn to “trick” it to get it to do what I want. I far prefer the three dials in my ’95 Sable — that car does what I want, when I want, and will freeze your face off in summer or burn your feet off in the winter. Good stuff.
YMMV. I’m a nut that also likes to drive around in the winter with hot air blowing on my legs and the windows down.
Im still salty about the PT Cruiser…
That poor little PT Cruiser, never did anything but take grandma to Church on Sunday, massacred!
PT Cruisers are a grandmothers best friend. My sisters PT was a life saver for me since it was so easy for my sick grandmother to enter and exit. After my year or so driving around in the thing taking my grandmother to doctors appointments and adult daycare I really had nothing but admiration for the underpowered gas guzzler.
Man, I just got the meanest e-mail from someone on it today.
Definitely not from me. I read your follow up article about actually buying the thing. It was heading to the scrap yard soon anyway, just not a fan of you perpetuating hate for a car that doesn’t deserve it. It was quite a send off though.
Man I thought you were talking about the window switch lock out button. I was going to tell you that you would be an idiot to complain about that.
I used that switch to annoy my ex-wife.
I thought the same thing, though I thought it was a “lock all the doors” button, from the icon.
Still not sure why it’d be in the center console under the hazard lights, not by the window controls like on sane cars, though…
I hate those damn buttons! I guess they make sense for people with kids, but I hate riding with some control freak who likes to make his passengers beg for the privilege of rolling down the damn window (Dan!).
I am a control freak and I know it will come in handy with the kids.
The effed up thing about my Toyota is that the window kill-switch also kills the drivers door master panel with all the window switches on it. WTF? I want to lock my passengers out, not lock myself out.
If, as people say, it’s for things like ‘hot feet, cool body’ – which is an interesting and possibly awesome feature – the problem is then that it’s completely unintuitive.
And I guess proves that nobody reads the damned Owner’s Manual.
(Except me?)
No doubt in my mind that the 3-knob rotary climate control is the best manual system ever invented and can’t be topped. Also include the switches for a/c, recirc (max a/c), and rear def in the center of each knob, so no hunting around is needed.
But there are some dual-zone auto systems that also work quite well. Plus, if the fan speed is too high, these systems allow you to turn down the speed with a separate switch.
What I hate are switches for power door locks or windows on the center console, or worse, on the center stack. (OK, an exception is fine for the Jeep Wrangler, because the doors are removable.)
My non-automatic climate control system (since they decided to stop offering that for some reason) annoys me because it has five fan speeds: off, baby’s whisper, not powerful enough, *still* not powerful enough, and KANSAS TORNADO.
This.
When Ford first introduced the dash eyeball vent on the Cortina some 52 years ago, and which others immediately copied, you could always get cold air on your face and warm air on your feet.
Pretty soon, this was found to be highly inconvenient to manufacture, so we ended up with the homogenized systems of the past 30 years. Always pined for the Norwegian fjords and cool air on the face with warm tootsies.
Unfortunately, I have had three Subarus in a row, where the foot vent points at the knee or just a bit lower
Had no idea BMW or Land Rover still allowed you to do that, and must say Bravo! It’s a very worthwhile feature on a long highway drive in winter.
RTFM.
Reminds me of my w115 Mercedes.
Where it was literally impossible to make hot air come out of the center dash vent.
By design.
Outside air or A/C.
That would be most annoying in a climate with freezing mornings and hot afternoons.
“You know you’re a Coloradan if you use heat and a/c the same day.” Or more likely heat and open windows, sometimes at the same time.
I love driving my old-man edition ’97 2wd Tacoma with the a/c or heat on and the windows open, that’s good livin’.
Personally is miss the quarter-light windows of yesteryear.
You could open the window a crack to let fresh air in without blowing your hair off or getting wet.
More like yesterdecade. I think Bentley and Rolls-Royce were among the last to jettison those windows, in the late eighties or early nineties. Some cars still had the tall, windowlettes well into the late nineties and the 2000’s…like the GM H-bodies, the Audi TT and the last Mitsubishi Eclipse, but they were of course fixed.
Correction: even the Bentley and Rolls-Royce windows were fixed…so they must have stopped doing that in the seventies…wow!
My Toyota pickup had them, and it was a ’94.
Of course, I think both times someone broke into my truck, it was by breaking those and reaching in to the lock pull.
So, er, maybe for the best that they’re gone.
The warm feet/cool face control has been around for many decades on various European cars. (Less historically my 96 M3 has it, as does my wife’s 03 5-series.) The benefits of the control are simple for most people to understand, as is its method of use. It was designed by Germans who think it’s as important that the driver stay awake and alert as it is to leave that 64-oz Big Gulp at home and quit your bitching about the cupholders.
If you can’t master the intricacies of this concept then I suggest that you look around for an early model original Mini. On these a cabin heater was a £5 option, and with a bit of luck you may find one thus unequipped and avoid this whole perplexing problem.
Indeed, I used it for this very purpose recently. Driving home late at night, was tired, it was very cold out. Heat cranking, heated seat, but the warm air made me more sleepy. Reached for the dial (yes, with heat set at AUTO Doug!) and presto, cold outside air hit my face without having to open a window. Perfectly refreshing, and the rest of me didn’t need to freeze.
As always, the superior functionality of this switch is well ahead of it’s time. In due course, the sheer genius of it’s purpose and implementation will become obvious to the masses. Japanese automakers will rush to copy it. General Motors will make a touchscreen version with pale blue illumination. Ford will retrofit it to My Ford Touch and bury it deep in one of the settings menus. Chrysler will add one that boost your Hellcat’s power output even further by supplementing the supercharger cooling.
BMW engineers and marketing are, at this time, shaking their heads gently and tutting. They are victims of their own success.
It’s not the switch that sucks, the switch is actually genius.
It’s automatic climate control that sucks.
The switch allows you to put hot air on your feet and cold air up top, like say after a hike where your boots got wet but you’ve worked up a sweat.
Or, alternately, you could do cold downstairs and warm upstairs, like I do so I can run my vents hot on a cold winter mornings without causing my feet to sweat and give me wet socks for the day.
And, obviously, many practical, non-extreme points between.
Automatic climate control is bullshit. My wife’s newish Volvo has it, and it’s always doing the opposite of what I think it ought to be.
I have an old BMW with 3 knobs and a button: fan speed, temp, where-at. The button is compressor on/off. No nanny anything, it’s perfect. Especially with that mixing valve for the upper registers.
The climate control in all my BMWs is absolutely fantastic. Basically set it and forget it. I never touch mine at all, especially in my 5er. In the 5-series I can adjust the aggressiveness of the climate control, so it does not blast at the highest fan speed. It is truly wonderful!
Same with my 3-series (makes sense, it’s pretty much the same system in both cars). This switch is the only thing I ever touch, with very rare exception. Temp on 70F summer and winter. Adjust face temp a bit as needed, usually in the winter. Once in a great while adjust relative fan speed, say if my face or feet are really hot and I want to cool them off quickly. This isn’t rocket surgery.
Auto HVAC usually drives me bonkers, the setup in my Abarth is just plain retarded (I use it in manual mode 99% of the time), but BMW got this pretty much perfect.
When I was borrowing a 2004 CTSV, I noticed it’s climate control was always dead-on, and never uncomfortable. Left it on 68 or 72 and it always blew just right. In my E46, I had to force myself to stop messing with the switch and just set the temperature I wanted.
Sometimes it’s a little recalcitrant to blow cold, though. When I first got the car, I would set it on the first blue dot, and it’d usually blow exactly the temperature I wanted.
This almost reminds me of when I was introduced to Microsoft Windows 3.1. I was using MS DOS 3.2 and IBM DOS at the time, and I was thinking “why do I have to log off or exit a program before I turn off the computer? Why can’t I just turn it off whenever I want?”
I think this will go over the heads of anyone under 40.
Maybe that’s why I like Chrome OS so much. Close the lid when done, no need to switch off.
And any recent version of Windows or MacOS works exactly the same way. About the only time either of my laptops get rebooted is for updates. Close the lid and it hibernates, open it and it comes back where you left it. In my experience with several flavors of Linux, they have not gotten hibernation to work reliably yet. But it’s Linux, some distros on some hardware probably work just fine.
I wished I could hibernate my Acer/Win8 laptop, but when I wake it up, there’s a 50% chance I’ll get a blank black screen. All my drivers seem up to date, and I’m not crazy about pulling the battery all the time to hard reboot the system.
As many others have pointed out, this is actually a brilliant feature, especially the way it is executed in BMWs. The switch set in the middle position will follow the settings of the climate control. So Doug, if you are so offended — set it there and forget it! However, since you are now in Philly area and given the local climate (-3’F last week) — this should be your favorite feature, too. In the winter I can set it to cold and have fresh air in my face while heating my feet and the windshield. Helps me stay alert big time.
My old SAABs had this feature, too but were not as well executed as on my BMWs.
My E46 has this switch on the center vent assembly.
To add insult to injury…On a hot day, if you set the climate control to LO, it doesn’t blow as cold as possible, unless you use The Switch. If you keep it in the middle, you still missing out on a noticeable amount of cold air, as it’s blending a little bit of warm air.
I’ve read somewhere that Europeans generally prefer not to have cold air drafting against their faces, which is the opposite of what most Americans prefer. That may explain why The Switch exists in the first place.
There’s one positive thing about The Switch–when the ambient temperature sensor fails, as mine did at one point, the car defaults to either +122F or -40F, depending on failure mode. Since the BMW auto climate system does not have a true manual mode for setting temperature, you can use The Switch for rudimentary control.
However, if it’s trying to blow full hot, and you set The Switch to all-blue, nothing comes out of the vents, and vice versa.
I had considered deleting the switch entirely upon discovering the existence of switch-free center vents, but it wasn’t worth the expense.
This is so you can have cold air to your feet and not freeze your hands to the steering wheel. Something that drives me nuts in cars that don’t have this. My feet are always cold in the winter and hot in the summer.
If you don’t want the added flexibility, just buy a cheaper car. Win-win! Though I have occasionally come across Japanese cars with this feature, at least on the letting cooler air in side. I can’t think of an American car with it. I can’t think of anyone but BMW who lets you have warmer OR cooler at the dash.
I’m surprised Doug isn’t ranting about the existence of a similar control for the BACK seat passengers. BMWs have that too, though no idea if his Rover does. So it is really a FOUR zone system.
another explanation is if you have you climate on the off position, this will control whether hot vane is open or not, therefore picture a 90 degree day where you want to ride with the windows open but no A/C, most other systems remember the previous setting requiring a powercycle of the A/C system to close said hot vane
Doug,
The purpose of this switch is so BMW can sell cars.
Let me explain.
Let’s say you’re a dupe that is shopping for a new BMW. You look at the controls, and HOLY F&CK, some has placed CAVEMAN manual controls for your climates. Well, you’re not gonna buy that car. BMW knows this, and they also want you to be subconsciously pleased with their product. Enter the “switch” (engineer in lab coat grins with satisfaction).
They know that your first month in that new BMW will consist of you fuddling with baffling automatic controls just so you don’t get your shirt pitted out when it’s 73*. Since all the engineers that were around in 1990 are deceased, intuitive processes in everything from cell phones to printers are now a thing of the past. They’ve also figured out that what consumers want isn’t “78*” when you’re sitting six inches from a furnace, it’s “hot air now”, or “it’s a bit stuffy, blow cool air from outside lightly upon my face”. So then, there is the switch for it. Can’t label it. Think of it as a sort of easter egg. Once you learn how to use it, it’s bliss. Now look out the window at the other bimmer driver, and give him a nod along with the secret “switching” gesture.
I hear they’re also working on some other nice features.
-Radio faceplates with “cut here for 2DIN” already marked on the back for when it’s obsolete in a few years.
-A holder for your Bluetooth headset for when pairing is too troublesome and/or can’t pick up your voice and/or sometimes needs to be re-paired because(?). A phone holder may also be available for those who choose to just put it on speaker.
BMW, The 21st century driving machine.
“Since all the engineers that were around in 1990 are deceased, intuitive processes in everything from cell phones to printers are now a thing of the past.”
Amen. However I think they retired and didn’t necessarily all die off yet.
If they were alive we would be begging them to mercifully come out of retirement.
So basically, BMW brought back the “Bi-level” feature last seen in the 80’s? Not a bad idea but you would think they could have made the control electronic and have “Auto” put it back to the neutral setting. Although I’m sure some people would complain about that too.
GM had the “bilevel” setting on its A/C systems back in the 70s. The idea was to have warmer air at your feet and cooler air at the dash vents. You couldn’t reverse the pattern, though. I recall that Consumer Reports liked the feature for driving on cool sunny days so that your face and upper body wouldn’t get too warm.
“This Is the Most Annoying Button in the History of Time”
First off, it’s not a “button” or even a “switch.” It’s a dial, or knob.
Commenters above have illustrated the utility of this feature, which I’ve experienced in past and present BMWs.
If you want to complain about something, how about not being able to sync the left and right side dials to the same temperature? This in a loaded X5 that sold new for $72K.
In general, automatic climate control is a luxury “feature” that isn’t worth the trouble.
Doug – I’ve got this on my ’99 E39 528 and never figured it out either.
Figured it was just something for the Germans, and not meant to be understood and used by Americans.
Like that big red knob for the switching the rear-view mirror from day/night, or the empty space for a safety triangle in the tool kit.
Some things just weren’t meant for us to know.
The most “annoying” buttons are the ones that break, sooner or later you’ll be taking your whole dash a part to install that one new button.
And then a few years later it’ll break, again.
(btw Doug if you’re really struggling for word count you can always simply write shorter posts, some of these feel too much like you’re typing them as you talk)
This is what triggers the author to go on a killing spree? Doug DeMuro seriously needs to get laid! A more useless button is the passenger side window lock that’s positioned on the driver’s door of every Toyota. Why? So you can keep a kidnap victim from lowering their window to call for help? If your kid lowers his window after being told not to, he gets a backhand to the head. Problem solved. $10 per/unit cheaper.
As many people mention before this is just so you don´t get hot air blown to your face.
Indeed rich people are sophisticated people in Europe, except footballist and some…
Any way, too complicated for the colonials, for wich luxury is just bigger.
;-) take it with a pinch of salt please.
Which part of Europe are you from? The part who’s ass America kicked? Or the part who’s ass America saved?
America, f*** yeah.
“Which part of Europe are you from? The part whose ass America kicked? Or the part whose ass America saved?”
This is the best thing I’ve read on the internet today.
It’s what I do Chris.
jajaja
very good
I guess SAVED, Marshal plan was big in Spain.
No WWII around here
There was no WWII in Spain because it was already bleeding to death from it’s own civil war. At least Spaniards can be proud and hold their heads high to this very day remembering how Franco & Hitler were BFF. You’re welcome.
Boo-yah!
I can’t believe the number of people in this thread that have owned BMWs and never figured out what this dial does.
Obligatory – most BMW owners don’t know which wheels the engine drives so how can they be expected to understand all of the switches/buttons/wheels on the inside comment – LOL.
I think I might be the only person that actually reads a car’s owner’s manual when acquiring it.
(I bought one for my F250 when I got it used, since it didn’t have one, and is a bit too old to have a free one for download from Ford.)
Having hung out on BMW forums for more than a decade, I sure can. Baffles me, it is such a simple concept. And hardly unique to BMW, though they perfected it to be useful in all seasons vs. just winter on most cars that have it.
Was this written by Dough or BTSR?
I think the most annoying switch in the picture is the one above it.
WHY THE HELL ARE THE DOOR LOCKS CONTROLLED FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE DASHBOARD?
I don’t think it is unreasonable to get out of the car, open the back door to get my stuff, then lock and close the door without climbing back into said car; and/or reaching in and starting the emergency flashers as I lock the door. I would rather not use the remote to lock the car as there are recorders that enable anyone with $30 in electronics to open my “locked” car after I walk away. If there are locks on the door there is no need for one more button on the dash, perhaps freeing up space for a sign explaining the climate control system.
You can always use the key. Which is always a good idea, since that way you will never lock it in. I hate buttons on doors. They should all be near the shifter.
Vehicles with intelligence built in will prevent the driver from locking the keys in the car.
If I leave the key fob inside my car and try and lock the door using the door mounted button, the car chirps and does not lock the car. The chip lets me know I’ve made an error.
If I take the keys with me but forget to turn the car off, if I lock the doors with the fob it will lock the doors but chirps to let me know the car is still turned on.
Intelligent cars prevent us from doing dumb things.
Makes it easier to design cars for worldwide distro. Doesn’t matter if it’s a left or right drive car.
If nothing else it was worth reading for this alone although I think you gave them too much credit:
“We may make transmissions that last as long as butterfly metamorphosis,” say Chrysler engineers.
The Mid-90’s MX-6 has one of these things. It was an easy fix the day my girlfriend complained that her heater wasn’t working one early winter day.
Are gauges in the instrument cluster as bad as in ATS? If not I could live with that. You can remove this button and set it permanently to the middle position. Nothing that soldering iron cannot fix.
The First-Worldliest of First-World Problems.
Are you kidding me? I’d love to have that switch. Cheaper cars have a dial that allows you to control the temp of the air you want to come out of the vents. Expensive cars make you set a temperature. That would be ok, but you can’t se below, say 60 (on an Audi) — otherwise it goes into some crazy air-con overdrive mode. But here’s the thing — I don’t want the car to blow hot air in my face — if you don’t have something cool to blow, don’t blow anything. A Porsche 993 is even worse, starting with the fact that the temp is in f—ing celsius. But, the temp drops below whatever you’ve got set on the dial — or you merely try to turn the a/c down a smidgen, it flips into aggressive heat mixed with a little oil smoke due to the location of the heat exchangers.
Yeah, I’d much rather like to be able to say keep it at 70, but don’t f—ing spazz and turn on the heat if it happens to drop to 69.
Hi Doug,
I own a 2015 BMW 320i. I love driving this car and highly recommend it. HOWEVER, your issue with it is one of those features of the car that really tax the understanding of the BMW engineers.
First, let me say when I bought the car and the salesman was trying to check me out on it, he pointed out the switch, which I had not noticed. He just shook his head when he tried to explain the use of it, was embarassed by it and volunteered that customers had complained when BMW deleted it or tried to delete it. If that story is true, I would have to imagine that they must have been European (German) customers or some of the engineers at BMW. After owning the car for a year, I cannot really control the air/heating system with any repeatablilty.
I agree with you about strongly disliking the unknowable switch except, that believe it or not, that switch is number two on my list of stupid engineering. Number one has to be the method of putting the car in park. Unlike any car that I know of, to put this car in park you leave the car in D drive and then have to press the P button on top of the gear selector instead of pushing the selector to the Park position which is usually foreward. Since I drive several different cars, I cannot tell you how many times when I am thinking of something else I have pushed the lever forward with the result that the car started backing up since the forward gear position is Reverse!! That could be dangerous. It is totally inexplicabe to me!!!
Your switch is number two on my list after the gear selector craziness. Number three on my list of goofieness is the location of the door unlock switch in the center of the car instead of the easier to reach position in the door. This is especially annoying when you are already outside of the car.
My next gripe, is the position of the starter button. It’s location cannot be seen by the driver when he is sitting in the car. By now, I do know where it is.
The last thing I hate about the switches is the crazy start/stop button. I don’t mind it for starting or stopping the car, but when you shut the car off by pusing the button, you also have to press it a second time to turn off the electronics. If you fail to do that, you end up with a dead battery, a call to AAA and a visit to the dealer. Ask me how I know that.
Thank you for bringing the switch issue up. I cannot understand the thinking behind any of those that I mentioned.
Again, I love the way the car drives and highly recommend it. Besides being “fun to drive” it is amazinly fuel efficient. I have gotten over 40 mph on the freeway on cruise control a couple of times.
Surely one , cannot possibly understand the strange, goofy, dangerous switches in the car.
Thanks again so much for bringing it up. I thought I was the only one.
All the things you hate are the things I love about my BMWs. Except for the gear selector, since I hate any and all automatics, so I agree that the automatic shifter, any automatic shifter, is craziness.
Obviously people who are used to Asian/American cars complain because they are used to a certain way. It is like people complaining about parking light switch on top of the steering column in Subarus. My first car was a Subaru and I owned several, so that switch is perfectly natural to me but a lot of people complain about it, people who used to own Hondas and Toyotas especially. Same with Euro cars. It is perfectly natural for me to hit the power button on my radio before shutting off the engine. I ALWAYS do it, without thinking. Apparently, there are some crazy people who do not…?!
“It is perfectly natural for me to hit the power button on my radio before shutting off the engine”
Well, in my cars it turns off when I leave the car, or with the engine.
If it stays on forever unless you manually turn it off, that sounds like a bad design choice, really.
@GST – Haha! Did you really mean to buy a BMW?
The only thing I will say in your defense is that the “switch” in question is not as user-friendly (not really that easy to find the mid-point) in the F30 as it is in other BMWs.
Doug I’m with you in being confused by it. My e46 had it and my dad’s e36 had it with their ACC. I myself prefer manual to automatic climate control, but if it’s going to be automatic, I want it to be fully automatic. I tell it the temp I want, and the car figures out the most effective way to do it. If I want to manually adjust the temp, do what my Infiniti I30 did or now my Fiat 500 Abarth does – let the ACC temp function as the old blue to red transition dial on a manual climate control.
I think BMW actually has a *more* annoying climate control on some models: “Soft.”
I rented an X5 a while back, and as per usual, I set my desired temperature and put the system in “auto” mode, and went on my way. After fifteen or twenty minutes, I noticed that despite my temperature setting, the car was getting uncomfortably warm.
After puzzling at the display for a while, I realized it said “Soft” in tiny letters under the fan speed. “Oh,” I thought, “this must be the culprit. There must be a button for intensity somewhere.” But I couldn’t find anything, and had to swelter until I could pull off the highway and Google it.
The intensity is in fact configurable; when set to “soft,” the system limits the system to minimal efficacy. I think it must be some kind of nostalgia feature for people who used to drive Trabants.
But there is no button for it — it’s a sub-feature on the “Auto” switch. So, if you hit “Auto” when it’s already on — a useful trick on many cars to cancel any overrides — it will randomly change your intensity.
Most infuriatingly of all, though, BMW indicates this functionality with a logo that looks like a stack of index cards. Because clearly that has something to do with the intensity of the climate control. Huh?
Idiotic.
Are you kidding? This feature is brilliant! I don’t like to be blasted with air and I don’t like the fan noise. I love it that I can adjust the aggressiveness of the climate control! Also, the adjustment is very easy — just press auto and rotate the iDrive knob. It is clearly animated on the iDrive screen, very quick and easy.
I can get down with the fan intensity setting as I don’t care to be blown away by the HVAC, but that iDrive has a similar setting to the hot/cold switch with the vent temperature settings drives me bonkers. It’s that dumb pictograph of the driver and a hot/cold setting that you can dial in. It, as the switch appears to do, overrides whatever temperature that you dial in at the dash. My AC appears to work just fine, but the car is NEVER cool enough unless you push the MAX AC button periodically. In the winter, same thing, the car turns into an oven unless you fiddle with the hot/cold settings. Why can 72 just be 72 like it was in my Nissan, Volvo, Mazda, etc.? I’m still not sure if there’s a problem with the cabin thermostat or if I’ve just set the HVAC wrong.
The switch is dumb, the iDrive setting is worse.
Nothing wrong with the feature, just with how it’s controlled. Just put in an “intensity” button.
At least on the car I was driving, pressing the auto button didn’t pop anything up on the iDrive screen.
> At least on the car I was driving, pressing the auto button didn’t pop anything up on the iDrive screen.
You have to start rotating the iDrive controller to get the adjustment display pop up on iDrive.
So, to be clear — the “very easy” interface involves pushing inadequately labeled button A, which changes display A, and then telepathically understanding that you need to reach for unrelated control B, and rotate it unprompted to activate unrelated display B?
“Read the owner’s manual”, not telepathy or intuition.
Not every subtle thing can be completely intuitive – and I personally prefer having some subtle touches around for people that bother.
You paid $35k+ for that car (if you bought it, that is – different in a rental, sure).
Spend 20 minutes glancing at the documentation, for best long-term enjoyment.
BMW indicators wind me up no end. You have to learn how to use them.
Oh, you mean that they’re not mechanical and immediately snap back into position? Yes, that is a bit different. I noticed when I drove the latest Lincoln MKZ that it also did this…
Is that the same setup as the F-150? That confused me in a rental – it makes no difference if you’re turning, but I often found myself turning the signal on to signal a lane change (lets say “left”), change lanes, signal is still on. Push the lever up right signal comes on. Think I’ve pushed it too far, try to turn off right signal, left comes on again.
Apparently to cancel the signal, you push the lever again.
At least it didn’t have the GM signal stalk of doom.
I just got a new Ford with this setup and it’s driving me crazy. I see absolutely no advantage to having a non-mechanical signal stalk; it removes useful tactile feedback. That the cancellation behavior is non-intuitive just makes it worse.
I feel similarly about the doofy gear selector on the Prius.
On the Fords, do you have to push in the opposite direction to cancel? In the BMW, you can push EITHER way to cancel, and I find pushing in the same direction to work better. Once I got used to it, I much, much prefer this to the mechanical setup.
I do completely agree with the guy who was ranting about BMW’s stupid automatic gear selector though – that thing sucks. One more reason to not buy an automatic, as if I needed any more!
To reliably cancel, you have to push it in the same direction. If you push it in the opposite direction, half the time you end up deploying the opposite signal by accident. For someone whose muscle memory is accustomed to a mechanical lever, it’s counterintuitive.
I see no real (operational) advantage to the non-mechanical lever, and several disadvantages — no “click” when it cancels, and no ability to determine the status of the blinker without taking your eyes off the road. I have a bunch of obtuse turns on my commute that don’t reliably cancel signals; with a mechanical lever, I could navigate them reliably by feel. No longer.
sux doesn’t it…. just sux to be you with that car…. stupid switch… air !! heat !! A/C …. that Switch Sux !!!! Sux ! I hate it… darned switch… SHOZBOT!
I love The Switch. I can’t stand warm air on my face even if I’m otherwise ice cold. So in my wife’s BMW I can get pleasant, refreshing fresh cool air on my face no matter what the climate control system is otherwise dealing with. Luckily this is one of the few climate control issues my wife and I agree on, so The Switch plus dual zone is perfect for us. No wonder we keep buying 3 series.
I also like the door lock switch on the centre console (and I lament that they moved the window switches away from around the shifter after the E46). Why? Because my right hand is usually free or in motion because that’s my shifting hand. That’s why I also put my parking garage access card where I can reach it with my right hand, and why I always use my right hand to control Homelink buttons.
I read down through the responses far enough to find the switch DOES have a center position. My guess is this: when outside temps are at extremes to where you would ONLY want some amount of warm or cool air exclusively then the switch would be set to the appropriate side. When outside temps are at a moderate level, 60 – 72 degrees for example, then the switch would be set to the middle and the climate controls would do warm or cool to achieve the set temp. If that were true, then leaving the setting in the middle would prevent the problem you experience Doug. I would agree that the switch is superfluous – climate control can be designed to figure out which is needed to maintain the temp set regardless of outside temp.
If I were redesigning this, I’d make it a momentary rocker with a red light at one end and a blue light at the other. Under “normal” operations, both lights would be off; hitting one side would light it up blue or red as appropriate. Most importantly, though, the switch would be reset to unlit/neutral each time the system was placed in “auto” mode.
Yup, I’ve driven my car for about a month with the temp set at 72 degrees thinking I’ll get hot air, and not understanding why it was still blowing cold air at me, until my brother who was visiting (and owns a ’06 325) pointed out that I had it on the cold air setting. Incredibly frustrating “feature”.
Not frustrating at all. The climate control in your E90 is great, just like it was in my E90, and like it is in my F30.
Here is the proper way to use your system:
1) Choose a desired cabin temperature, let’s say 74 degrees
2) Enable automatic air recirculation
3) Enable automatic climate control
4) Adjust the body level vent temperature to one that is comfortable to you. If you want the vent temperature to match the 74, leave it in the middle [neither ‘blue’ nor ‘red’].
Simple as that. Now let’s say you’re fine with the 74 degree setting, but the sun is shining on you and you’re getting a little warm. Great! Just move the adjustment to blue, so that the air is cooler. Or if you have your sunroof open in the evening, 74 is a great temp, but it’s a bit cold, so adjust it to be a little warmer.
The point of this is that you are telling the car, I like 74 degrees, it’s great, but you know what, the air coming out of the vent is a little too warm or a little too cold, so I’d like you to maintain 74 degrees but doing so using a vent temperature that is comfortable for my face/body/etc.
It’s easy, it works great, and it’s beyond simple.
Kudos to you for writing this article which has enraged me enough to register for this site and leave a comment.
Do you really not know what this KNOB is for? It’s a fantastic feature to have that I use often and works wonderfully well. Read your owner’s manual. And for the record, switches are typically on or off; this has a variable setting.
I can tell you why from an engineer’s perspective: it is clean in the form of engineering design. You don’t need to do much but add a thermostat on the last part of the control panel for the temperature, but the rest of the system is the same old manual heat/cool system.
There, German engineering for you, from the perspective of “if it is good enough for us engineers, it is good enough for you” instead of the rest of the world’s “what would our customer want, and how do we get there” perspective.
Except, no. Read above.
This is not a cheap hack to “sort of get an automatic system” or “good enough”, or “just a thermostat added to a manual system”.
It’s a manual override of a modern automatic climate system, for only the dash vents, and to suit a particular desire/need – for cooler air on the body/face while maintaining a warmer cabin, or vice versa.
Leave it in neutral and it’s exactly a traditional automatic climate system, same as any other luxury (or optioned-up non-luxury) car.
It adds flexibility and driver/passenger comfort options.
(I would not be at all displeased if my Volvo had it, though it does not.
I do, however, like the Volvo “body” buttons for distributing airflow through the cabin…)
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned “privilege” in the comments section :) Jokes aside, this is totally a first world problem (lamenting the fact that your AC works in X and Y dimensions), but good comment bait nonetheless. Personally, I think every car should have this switch. This time of year in PHX, it is 72 degrees quite often. If you set your ACC to 72 degrees, you’ll probably get lukewarm air blown in your face after the car has run for a while. Suppose you want a nice cool breeze to your upper body because it’s sunny out? In a BMW, no problem… just set the digi pot somewhere in the “blue range”, and you’re golden. Suppose you want the breeze to be a bit warmer? In every other car, you’re bumping the temp up or down every few minutes.
FVFVSIX, thanks. Yes, I have wanted a new BMW for many years. I always wanted the 6 with a manual, but for some reason they did not resonate with me. When I test drove the 320i (price driven), I loved they way it drove immediatly. Guess I llike the torquey four cylinder. Excellent gas mileage was a surprise benefit. Had no idea about the strange (to me) switch engineering till I got a few miles on it. Even after reading all the pro comments, don’t care for the ones I mentioned. Good to hear the posts about “the switch” including yours and will be trying it out again as I go. Almost all the pasengers comment about how quiet it is on the road.
What’s the big deal? Even on my home thermostat you have to select heat or a/c in addition to setting the temp. The last BMW I had still had the old school sliders which honestly, I kind of miss. Course the AC didn’t work so…
I’m sorry to hear you have an outdated home thermostat controlling your HVAC
Mine has 4 settings
Off
Heat
Cool
Auto
It is on auto all the time and never needs touching except to reset the filter change counter. Set it and forget it :-)
My 95 T-Bird has a temperature setting and then you set the fan control for vent, A/C, or heat.
I rather like it, because I can keep it on 68 degrees all year long and be comfortable.
As for my house, yeah, I’ve got Off, Heat, Cool, and then Auto On or Off. Never tried the auto setting though.
I happen to have a BMW E60 5 series. It has 2 buttons and 3 knobs. Button 1 = AC, Button -2 = Auto (on/off). Knob 1 = temp driver side, Knob 2 = fan speed including off, knob 3 = right side temp. I’m only mentioning the front climate settings. There is also another set in the back.
When the Auto is turned on, the AC is automatically turned on. You can choose to turn the AC off. In which case, if the actual ambient temp is warmer than your setting, the fan goes on full speed. If it’s really warm outside, you get warm air blown at you.
Turning the fan speed knob automatically turns the Auto climate mode off.
Turning the AC off when you don’t need cooling is actually a bit of fuel saving feature and allows some of the power from your motor to be directed to the wheels instead of turning the AC compressor. If I have my car at an autocross track, it’s AC off.
I suspect that button you are so annoyed about is the on/off button for the Air Conditioning compressor.
The same functions are on my dad’s Honda Accord, My sister-in-law’s MB C-class and pretty well any other car that comes equipped, either as standard equipment or optional, with automatic climate control.
The other function of the AC system in your car is it dehumidifies the interior of your car. So if it is cold, and you have hot air blowing into your car, you might still want to have your AC turned on to defog your windows.
I can’t believe you wrote such a scathing article about a switch which a)is very simple to operate, and b)is so useful. If you had done any research regarding how this switch works you would know that it does not DEFEAT THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF AUTOMATIC CLIMATE CONTROL.
Basically, when this Devil Switch is set to the middle setting, the air coming out of your vents is the same temperature as what your auto climate control says it is. When set in the middle, it’s no different than any other climate control system. What this dial does allow you to do that other climate systems don’t is to make a slight change to the air that’s actually blowing on you. To be more precise, moving it the whole way to the cold side will cool the air by 3 degrees Fahrenheit over what your C.C is set at, while moving it the whole way to the warm side warms it by 3 degrees. Personally I like having a cool breeze blowing on me when I drive unless I just jumped in my car on a very cold morning. With this extra control I can maintain a comfortable cabin temp while still having that cool breeze on me.
I am a BMW fanboy so blast me all you want, but I’ll say that as a journalist, you might want to do some research before blasting something you obviously have no knowledge on.
Exactly. This kid is freaking dumb as rocks. Couldn’t even read past the second article cause it’s clear that my dog has more logic than this guy.
What does the owners manual say about this feature?
Wow, you’re fucking retarded. It’s to fine tune the temperature genius. Going by your dumb ass logic, you should use a torch to keep you warm in the winter and jump into a near freezing pool in the summer to cool off. I read a paragraph or two, and had to stop reading before I caught the downs from you. Please never write another article again. K, thx.