My BMW 4+

Making life a little easier

In todays digital age everything seems to be over complicated and needs a password or an account to make it work. When you eventually get the device or software working- you wonder if it was worth it!.
Well this phone app is a must for armchair mechanics or the non technical.
Once installed, it initially tells you exactly what is going on with your car without leaving your armchair- engine oil OK: tyre pressures OK: did I close the windows now it’s raining - no matter, at the touch of a button you can close your windows: lock your car: make your car flash its lights as you can’t quite remember on which floor you left your car. Your car has a built in tracker: the app shows you its exact location on a detailed map - very handy if someone “borrows” your car without permission. It also records mileage and a lot of other features. This app is extremely useful and I thoroughly recommend it.

Back to the future

The app itself is very basic vs other manufacturers. It would be interesting to understand why. In terms of the functionality of the app I followed the instructions in order to connect to my car. according to the log within the app I have only made one successful command over the past month and a half, which I put down to it being within range of bluetooth. Remotely I dont think it has ever worked as it flags an error. I’ve phoned technical who then emailed me requesting current software versions etc. The process is laborious, it may work for BMW in order for them to simultaneously handle many of an issue but from a customer satisfaction perspective is archaic and very frustrating. I love my car hate the app I’ve not seen anything more technologically advanced since owning my prior BMW in 2017. On a more serious note if you wish to rely on this app to track your cars whereabouts in the event it is stolen or other reasons forget it.
I’ve since had someone from bmw support email me saying my car needs a software update. I only bought it from a main dealer around June. Instead of the developers commenting on here and providing a number that when you ring is only used to create a reference then puts u in a slow to respond email process how about old fashioned technical support given how much a BMW costs.

A bit limited

It’s early days with the car & the app but I’m starting to find it a bit limited. For example, you can lock the car & flash it’s lights remotely, but it takes forever for the signal to reach the car via the cloud. Charging defaults to ‘charge immediately’, so whenever I get home and plug it in, it starts. I then have to go into the app and manually set a departure time for the next day to override it. Why can’t I have a weekly schedule for it to default to, or for it to default to the last departure schedule? I can’t set the max charge to help preserve battery life. BMW suggest you set the departure time to a few hours after you plan to leave. Ok, this (rather crudely) limits the charge, but means the car won’t be preconditioned at the time you want. And lastly, is there a simple way to stop it charging, because I can’t find it? This is not a sophisticated app by any means, and I’d expect better given how many people will be using this very soon.
Update: in changing from ‘charge immediately’ to ‘charge schedule’, after plugging in, the car has failed to charge overnight on both occasions, despite the new arrangement being sent to and accepted by the car.

Developer Response ,

Hi Badgersbits! Thank you for your feedback! We will make sure to forward your improvement request to our product team. - My BMW App Support Team