Didn't move the dial from 60 until now. Took my car on its first cold trip a few days ago, and it was 14º in the morning. My daughter set the temp at 72. All my other cars (past and present) blow fully hot air until interior reaches set temperature, then it's maintained; not this car. Apparently air comes OUT at the set temperatures, but we didn't know. At about 27º ambient temperature, all of a sudden cold air starts to come out. What? Daughter cranks it up to about 78 and it starts coming out warm again. At around 35º, BAM!, cold again. Crap. All the way to 83, and THEN it feels and stays somewhat hot, but never remotely close to all other cars.
Remember reading that auto climate control system on BMWs were crap, and I have to agree. With near freezing temperatures outside, HVAC is not supposed to blow cold air all of a sudden at a 72 setting.
The system obviously works, but only seem to have 2 temperatures: hot and cold. And they only work consistently at the 2 extreme settings: 83 and 60, respectively. All other settings just switch between hot and cold at much lower temperatures than set. Had the system in manual because auto throws the air just at the feet, and I like the front vents too. At least the stupid thing has dual settings, as my daughter wanted it hot and me cold (well, wanted it warm, but no such luxury
).
Not a big deal, but curious if it's 'normal'. Or am I missing anything? Comments welcome. Take care.
EDIT: Now that I remember, the stupid 'wheel' in the middle of the dash is on 'cold', but that should just affect the middle vents, not everything, right?