I've had my new Z4 since Monday and I have a couple of questions:

First, what exactly is the MPH reading on the computer. According to the owner's manual (I think) it's supposed to be average miles per hour, however, mine says something like 11.4. 11.4 can't really be what my car thinks my average speed is, can it?

Second, the MPG reading on the computer currently is at about 16.1 and has slowly been creeping up over time. Does it take one full tank of gas before the computer can accurately determine what your MPH is?

Finally, is there a way to lean the passenger (or driver) seat forward? If, for example, you want to clean out back there or maybe put something. I have the M seats. I looked in the owner's manual and it showed how to lean the seats forward with the non-electric seats but I didn't see anything about the electric seats.

Thanks!

1) The MPH reading is very inaccurate and pretty much pointless, you can reset it i dont know how cause I really dont care but if you notice at stop lights the avg MPH will drop. Once again i have yet to see a use for this besides seeing how much you can make it increase in a day :P

2) The MPG reading will take time, when I took delivery of my car it was getting I think 5 MPG cause it was sitting at the dealer it had 8 miles on it. On my way back from LA to SD (1.5hr) it went back up to about 20 MPG. Then dropped to about 19 MPG and now I'm at a steady 22.1 MPG. This is another one you can reset but I've left mine since delivery and it's working just fine. Should just take a day or two for the computer to recognize your driving and fuel consumption.

3) I'm assuming you have the power seats? On the side of the seat cushion (bottom piece) next to the door sill you should see "buttons" that resemble a seat. There should be two pieces one that resembles the lower (butt seat) which is horizontal and the other back piece that is vertical. The horizontal piece can be adjusted; forward, back, front up/down, back up/down. To move the seat forward you will need to push towards the front. Now for the back (vertical pieces) you can move it; tilt forward and tilt back. To "lean" the backrest forward simply push the top of the vertical button forward.

Hope this helps. Enjoy the new car

I've had my new Z4 since Monday and I have a couple of questions:

First, what exactly is the MPH reading on the computer. According to the owner's manual (I think) it's supposed to be average miles per hour, however, mine says something like 11.4. 11.4 can't really be what my car thinks my average speed is, can it?

Second, the MPG reading on the computer currently is at about 16.1 and has slowly been creeping up over time. Does it take one full tank of gas before the computer can accurately determine what your MPH is?

Finally, is there a way to lean the passenger (or driver) seat forward? If, for example, you want to clean out back there or maybe put something. I have the M seats. I looked in the owner's manual and it showed how to lean the seats forward with the non-electric seats but I didn't see anything about the electric seats.

Thanks!

1) The average MPH reading is from the last time it's reset to now. So if you've never reset the MPH reading, it'll read the average of your overall speed through the life of the car so far. Read the manual. Reset procedure is well documented.

2) See above.

3) The buttons on the side of the seat is self explanatory. Bottom portion moves the seat forward, backward, up, down, and tilt. The top portion moves the seat back forward and backward. It's not rocket science.

1) The average MPH reading is from the last time it's reset to now. So if you've never reset the MPH reading, it'll read the average of your overall speed through the life of the car so far. Read the manual. Reset procedure is well documented.

2) See above.

3) The buttons on the side of the seat is self explanatory. Bottom portion moves the seat forward, backward, up, down, and tilt. The top portion moves the seat back forward and backward. It's not rocket science.


Thanks for the response! I did read the owner's manual and my questions were clarifications between what the owner's manual said and what I observed. The MPH is supposed to be the average speed but 11mph? That makes little sense since most of my miles have been on the highway. With regard to MPG, once again just wanted clarification on what's going on and how that works.

With regard to the seats.... I know how to adjust the seats. My question was specifically how to lean the seat forward to get behind it (sorry if my post wasn't so clear). I'm going to try BimmerZealot's suggestion. Please read my questions more carefully. They are not rocket science! : )

First, reset the average MPH, then watch it. You say that you just got the car you have to remember that it has been slowly moving around the lot, test drives etc. Average MPH is only useful for long highway trips and then it is just for the sake of curiosity. You say that most of your miles are highway but you pull into your driveway, stop at lights, drive down your neighborhood street and so on. This all affects the average mph. Remember your 2 trains leave the station one heading east, one west, blah, blah, blah except the teacher always assumed instant speed with no acceleration.

I also have the electric M seats and there is no quick lean forward button. You have to use the seat controls.

Thanks for the response! I did read the owner's manual and my questions were clarifications between what the owner's manual said and what I observed. The MPH is supposed to be the average speed but 11mph? That makes little sense since most of my miles have been on the highway. With regard to MPG, once again just wanted clarification on what's going on and how that works.

With regard to the seats.... I know how to adjust the seats. My question was specifically how to lean the seat forward to get behind it (sorry if my post wasn't so clear). I'm going to try BimmerZealot's suggestion. Please read my questions more carefully. They are not rocket science! : )

I did read your question carefully. BMW seats are about as self explanatory as it gets. The shapes of the button is a seat. Moving each portion on the button moves the seat accordingly. It is not hard to figure out.

RE: Average speed and MPG, it is the average between when the interval is last reset until current time. Even though you do most of your travel on the freeway, you'd be very surprised with what your average speed is. Let's say you have 2,000 miles on the car so far. How long did it take for you to accumulate those 2,000 miles? How much of that is sitting at a traffic light waiting for the light to turn green?

Another way to look at it. Let's say your daily commute to and from work is 2.5 miles on the surface streets, 15 miles on the freeway, and it takes you basically 30 minutes to get in the car, start it, pull it out of the garage, drive the 2.5 miles making 3 stops before getting on the freeway, spending 12 minutes on the freeway, making 2 more stops before you get to the office...

The 17.5 mile drive at 30 minutes would come to an average of 35 miles per hour, even though you were traveling on the freeway for nearly the majority of the time at 75 miles per hour. Now, account for all the time that the car sat idle (yes it takes that into account as well) during the weekend, the 5 minutes you spent in the parking lot looking for a space to park at the grocery store, the 15 minutes waiting for your wife to put make up on while idling in the drive-way...It is not hard to imagine the overall average speed to be in the low teens.

Heck my Z4 has only seen freeway miles, typically between 85-100mph (allegedly), and track miles (between 65mph-140mph), and the average "speed" still only reads about 35mph.

MPG works the same way. The first 30 seconds after you reset the interval it'll be pretty much "real time" reading, but as time progresses it's an average of consumption over time...So longer between the interval you reset, the more it resembles the average MPG over time. So let's say, the tech test drove your car on the street after delivery preparation, and did a few quick runs around the block to make sure everything works, the MPG is going to read terribly low for that first few miles of test drive. Like in the single digits. If you do not reset, over time, if you drive conservatively, it's going to slowly move up because it's reading an average fuel consumption over the ENTIRE period. So say he consumed 2 gallons driving 5 miles. Your average MPG is going to start reading at 2.5MPG initially. Then you spent the next week going through 5 gallons and 100 miles. Your MPG reading should steadily climb during the week to 15MPG (105 miles / 7 gallon). Then the next week you empty out the tank by burning another 5 gallons and doing say, 120 miles in that stretch. Your MPG meter should now read 18.75MPG (225 miles / 12 gallon). Over time it's only going to continue to creep up until it's close to the actual consumption. Unless you reset your consumption counter.

Neither reading is instantaneous. To get actual current readings of speed and consumption you need to put the cluster into diagnostic mode.