hello and welcome to episode 4 of my bmw 4 series long term video diary which is essentially me
running this car which is a bmw 420im sport over a period of about six months to find out
exactly what it's like to live with the things that you don't necessarily get when we get the
car for a week and do a shorter review for example today we're going to talk about options and
what you can spend your money on aside from the standard price of this car so this car is about
forty thousand pounds standard with options this car is forty nine thousand pounds so there's a
really big difference there and you can spend an awful lot more money if you really want to
but the question is are these option packs worth it well today i'm going to sit and tell you
all about them and my opinion on them how i've found them over the last few months because i've
got pretty much every single one fitted to this car which is nice but yeah i'm going to
let you know if they're worth it so you don't have to find out the hard way if they are not
before we get going please make sure you subscribe to the parker's cars channel and don't forget to
send your notifications on right let's get going so you join me inside the four series
and what i'm going to do here is i'm going to go through the options but as i said i'm going
to talk about the option packs rather than the individual options because most the time with
exception to stuff like a tow bar or a sunroof you can only get the options within their packs say
you want to get a heated steering wheel you can't just get that you need to get it with the pack
we'll start with the comfort pack and the comfort pack includes additional storage compartments and
extra usbs just down there in the back uh you get the comfort access as well so that's basically
keyless entry the electric boot lid so you don't have to do it manually um and also as i said the
heated steering wheel which is a little button down here and that costs 990 pounds but also
this car has got the comfort plus pack so that's all those things i just mentioned in addition to
electric front seats and the memory function as well and front lumbar support in the seats
together with those two extra things that's 1150 pounds that's about a grand more basically
than the regular comfort pack we'll talk about them individually but also with respect to
each other in case you want to get both the individual storage compartments i mean you've
got one down here which you can put your wallet in that's quite handy as i said you've got the
usbs there's netting behind the front seat there's a bit of netting in the back as well
it's useful i wouldn't say it's essential though especially with these usbs in the back because
you know a lot of people won't put people in the back of this car because it's the coupe
comfort access when you're wirelessly getting into the car you don't have to
rummage around in your handbag say for the keys that for me is essential and this is a 40 grand
car with this spec and i think it really should be standard so definitely worth it electric boot
lids i mean do you need it probably not um some people that might be essential for them but i
reckon for a lot of people it won't the heater steering wheel really nice to have especially in
winter at the moment it's getting a lot sunnier here ask me about it now i would say it's not
essential but in the winter you probably will want that on balance and i think mainly even just for
the comfort access the keyless entry you really want the comfort pack as for the comfort plus pack
which adds an extra thousand pounds and gives you electric seats with memory and the lumbar supports
ah it's yeah i haven't tried it without so i don't know what it's like without the lumbar
support i think that's probably the main thing because if you're uncomfortable in this car then
that's really not going to make you very happy and the whole thing is going to be ruined for you so
it is about a thousand pounds as i said extra but because you get the front seats electric
and the memory and the lumber thrown in i don't know i don't think you can put a price on being
comfortable so yeah definitely say get the comfort pack and ideally the comfort plus pack
as well next up on the list is the technology pack and of course the technology plus pack which we
also have fitted to this car i'll start with a technology pack on its own which is 1900 pounds
and with that you get wireless charging just there in the center console you get the harman
kardon surround sound system you get the head-up display um and the gesture control which i'll go
into a little bit more detail in a second if you go for the plus pack you get quite a lot added on
so technology plus pack which is 3650 pounds so about 1700 more than the regular technology pack
you also get parking assistant plus which gives you the top view the panorama view the 3d view
so you can really see all around the car gives you a nice view of that the driving assistant
professional which is your adaptive cruise control your lane guidance drive recorder which records
uh what's happening around the car say if you're in an accident i'll talk about that
more in a second and also the wi-fi hotspot on the technology pack the wireless charging
it's nice but you don't need it you can just plug it into a usb so you can save money on that the
harman kardon surround sound sounds brilliant but in my experience standard bmw sound systems are
actually pretty good as well so unless you're a massive audiophile again you can probably
save a bit of money there uh the head up display useful i think it's most useful in the m4 when
it's such a quick car that you don't really want to start looking down at the speedo this is more
relaxed and i don't think you necessarily need to have it because it's just a slower more genteel
experience driving this car gesture control i thought this was pretty cool when i first got
it because it means that you can do that kind of thing to turn the volume up as you can now here
and then you do that to turn it down you can also do that gesture to stop a track or start a track
and it's great but i'm pretty much on the verge of turning it off because if you're quite expressive
with your hand gestures if you're talking to someone or you're on the phone the wireless the
hands-free it just takes everything you do and turns it into a gesture so you end up skipping
tracks turning the volume up doing whatever and it can end up being a pain in the ass so you don't
need it which basically means technology pat you could probably save the money on
the issue with that is you do want the stuff in the technology plus pack which you can't get of
course without the technology pack so the parking assistant plus if you're really confident parker
again you might not want it but i think it's super useful going through width restrictors
through tight car washes and also the reversing assistant as well which i believe is included on
that and that helps if you need to reverse that tight lane or through a garage that sort of thing
driving a system plus which mainly consists of this isn't exhaustive but it mainly consists
of the lane guidance assist and the adaptive cruise control i think that's actually really
useful and also it's a good example of the software some systems aren't very good i
reckon this one is it's very useful in traffic jams it isn't too rough on the adaptive crew so
you're not going forwards and backwards with your speed really aggressively and the steering as well
that's nicely programmed again you might not need it but i think in a car like this a nice
luxury car it is super useful something else that is super useful is the drive recorder now
think of this basically as having a dash cam in the car but without having to have
that awkward dash cam set up with this it just uses the parking cameras around the car and then
say you know someone cuts you up rotten or you get involved in an accident in an accident it
will automatically save as the gesture control in an accident it will automatically save
the footage the last 20 seconds and the next 20 seconds and you can also do it manually by hitting
the button down here so that's really useful and it gives you a completely 360 degree view as well
wi-fi hotspot i don't think you need that honestly basically yeah technology pack isn't 100 necessary
but the plus pack with the parking assistant the driving the driving assistant professional and
also that drive recorder ah it's a shame i reckon you need that and it's actually quite expensive
3650 quid finally the visibility pack 1500 pounds and actually it's the only one that i haven't got
fitted to this car and it brings laser light so basically more effective headlights and also
high beam assistant now interestingly the high beam assistant you can get that on this car i just
need to pay for it via the infotainment system and then it's unlocked you don't have to pay
the full 1500 quid the laser lights are very good um i haven't tried them on this car i have tried
them on other bmws they are excellent but in all honesty the regular headlights on this the leds
are also very good so i don't think you're necessarily going to need them i've never had
an issue with the headlights on this car going down dark country lanes so i reckon yeah save
yourself 1500 quid and if you really want the high beam assistant then you should be able to get it
through the infotainment system and i believe as well it's cheaper too actually wait wait wait wait
wait i nearly forgot the m sport pro package which is two and a half thousand pounds and it comes
with things like m sport brakes tinted glass the shadow line details and an m sport differential if
you have the 430i however none of this is as important as the adaptive m suspension which is
essential on this car the ride and refinement are one of the standout features and without
the adaptive springs i understand this to be a very different story so it's definitely worth
getting the m sport pro package so there you go all the optional technology packs on this car
rated i've almost got all of them as i said the only one i haven't got is the visibility pack but
hopefully that is useful it tells you a little bit more about them it gives you a bit more
context whether you need to spend your money on them or not of course it's your choice but this
is my opinion on what i found living with the car over the last few months so i hope that's helpful
uh for the next update i haven't quite decided what i'm gonna do yet so if there's anything that
you wanna know about and you wanna discuss in more detail and let me know i'll do my best to cover it
and yeah see you next time make sure you subscribe and turn your notifications on
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