Contents
Contents
Notes
6About this Owner's Manual
6Symbols used
6Symbol on vehicle parts
6Your individual vehicle
6Status at time of printing
7For your own safety
7Service and warranty
8Reporting safety defects
Overview
12Cockpit
13Instrument cluster
14Indicator and warning lamps
Opening and closing
18Keys
18Central locking system
18Remote control
20Door lock
20Interior
21Luggage compartment lid
22Luggage compartment
22Electric power windows
23Manual convertible top
24Fully automatic convertible top*
26Wind deflector*
27Alarm system*
Adjustments
29Safe seating position
29Seats
30Seat memory*
31Seat heating*
31Safety belts
32Steering wheel
32Mirrors
33Airbags
34Transporting children safely
37Vehicle Memory, Key Memory
Driving
38Ignition lock
38Engine
39Parking brake
40Manual transmission
40Automatic transmission with
Steptronic*
42Electric Power Steering EPS
42Drivelogic*
42Turn signal indicators/Headlamp
flasher
43Washer/wiper system and
rain sensor*
44Cruise control*
Lamps
45Parking lamps/Low beams
46High beams/Standing lamps
46Instrument lighting
46Fog lamps
46Interior lamps
© 2002 Bayerische Motoren Werke
Aktiengesellschaft
Munich, Germany
Reprinting, including excerpts, only with the
written consent of BMW AG, Munich.
Order No. 01 41 0 156 897
US English VIII/02
Printed in Germany
Printed on environmentally friendly paper –
bleached without chlorine, suitable for recycling.
At a glance
Controls
Driving tips
Mobility
Reference
29
Adjustments
Safe seating position
For relaxed and fatigue-free driving you
should select a seating position that
reflects your personal requirements. The
correct seating position combines with
safety belts and airbags to enhance occu-
pant safety in the event of an accident. To
ensure that the vehicle's safety systems
provide you with optimal protection, we
request that you direct your careful atten-
tion to the following section.
For supplementary information on trans-
porting children, refer to page 34.
Sitting safely with airbags
Always maintain an adequate dis-
tance between yourself and the air-
bags.
Always hold the steering wheel by its rim
with hands at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions,
to minimize the risk of injuries to your
hands or arms in the event of airbag
deployment. Never allow any objects, indi-
viduals or animals to obstruct the areas
between passengers and airbags. Never
use the front airbag's cover as a storage
tray or support for objects of any kind.
Never allow front passengers to rest their
feet or legs on the airbag cover.<
For airbag locations and additional infor-
mation on airbags, refer to page 33.
Sitting safely with safety belts
Never allow more than one person to
wear a single safety belt. Never allow
infants or small children to ride in a passen-
ger's lap. Avoid twisting the belt while rout-
ing it firmly across the pelvis and shoulder,
wear it as snugly against your body as pos-
sible. Do not allow the belt to rest against
hard or fragile objects. Do not route the belt
across your neck, or run it across sharp
edges. Be sure that the belt does not
become caught or jammed. Avoid wearing
bulky clothing and pull on the lap belt peri-odically to retension it over your shoulders.
In the event of a frontal impact, a loose lap
belt could slide over your hips, leading to
abdominal injury. In addition, the safety
belt's restraint effectiveness is reduced if
the belt is worn loosely. Expectant mothers
should always wear their safety belts, tak-
ing care to position the lap belt against the
lower hips, where it will not exert pressure
against the abdominal area.<
For information on using the safety belts,
refer to page 31.
Seats
Before adjusting your seat, always
observe the following precautions
Never try to adjust your seat while
operating the vehicle. The seat could
respond with an unexpected movement,
and the ensuing loss of vehicle control
could result in an accident. Never ride with
the backrest inclined to an extreme angle –
especially important for the front passen-
ger to remember. If you do so, there is a
risk that you will slide under the safety belt
in the event of an accident, thus reducing
the protection provided by the safety belt.<
Seat adjustment
1Backward/forward
Pull lever 1 and slide the seat into the
desired position.
Adjustments
32
To unlock the safety belt
1.Press the red button in the belt buckle
2.Hold the belt
3.Guide the belt back into its reel.
If the safety belt system has been
stressed as a result of an accident or
if it has been damaged in any other way:
have the safety belt mechanism, including
the safety belt tensioners and any child-
restraint systems, replaced by your BMW
center. In addition, have your BMW center
inspect the safety belt anchors. Otherwise,
the system cannot be guaranteed to pro-
vide the required protection in the event of
an accident.<
Steering wheel
Adjustments
Never attempt to adjust the steering
wheel while driving the vehicle. It
could respond with unexpected move-
ment, posing a potential accident hazard.<
1.Push the locking lever downward
2.Adjust the steering column's reach and
rake to suit your seat position
3.Pull the lever back in.
Mirrors
To adjust exterior mirrors
1Switch for 4-way adjustment
2Selection switch for changing between
mirrors
3Button
* for folding mirrors in and out
Fold the mirrors in and out by pressing the
button repeatedly. This can be useful in car
washes or narrow streets, for example, or
for repositioning mirrors that have been
folded forward.
The mirror can be folded in at driving
speeds of up to 6.2 mph / 30 km/h.<
To adjust manually
The mirrors can also be adjusted manually:
Press on the edges of the lens.
Electric defrosting*
Both mirrors are automatically heated in
ignition key position 2.
Interior rearview mirror
To reduce the glare from vehicles behind
you when driving at night, turn the rotary
knob.
Adjustments
34 gered in every type of collision, e.g. in the
event of minor accidents, certain vehicle
roll-over situations or collisions from the
rear. In these instances, the safety belt pro-
vides sufficient protection.
Adjust your seat to a position that provides
maximum distance between you and the
steering wheel and the instrument panel
while still allowing comfortable and safe
access to all vehicle controls.
To minimize the risk of sustaining hand and
arm injuries, always hold the steering wheel
on the rim with the hands at or near the
9 and 3 o'clock positions. Do not place
your hands on the center pad.
Never allow any objects to obstruct the
area between the airbags and an occupant.
Do not use the cover panel above the pas-
senger side airbags as a storage area.
Never allow front passengers to lean
against or rest their feet or legs on the air-
bag cover panel.
Do not apply adhesive materials to the
cover panels of the airbags, cover them or
modify them in any other way.
Never install a rear-facing child-restraint
system in the passenger seat of this vehi-
cle, unless the passenger airbags have
been turned off and the indicator lamp in
the center console indicates that the pas-
senger airbags are deactivated.
If you transport children, carefully read and
comply with the instructions in the follow-
ing section.
Be sure that child-restraints are mounted
correctly and as far as possible towards the
rear and in the lowest position. <
Even when all these guidelines are
observed, there is still a small residual risk
of injuries resulting from contact with
deploying airbags in isolated instances.
The ignition and inflation noise from the air-
bags may induce a mild temporary hearing
loss in sensitive individuals.
Transporting children safely
Deactivating/reactivating passenger
airbags
The passenger airbags must be deac-
tivated before using a rear-facing
child-restraint system on the passenger
seat, refer also to page 36 for explanation.
BMW also recommends that the passenger
airbags be deactivated if a child is trans-
ported in a front-facing child-restraint sys-
tem, regardless of the age of the child. If
you transport a child in the passenger seat
– not an infant in a rear-facing seat – who is
properly seated and seat-belted at all
times, the potential benefits of airbags
deploying in an accident generally out-
weigh the risks of the child being injured by
the force of a deploying airbag.
Therefore, you should deactivate the pas-
senger airbags only if you find it difficult to
ensure that the child will remain properly
seated and seat-belted at all times.
Always position the passenger seat as far
back as possible and at the lowest level.
The above warning and recommendations
are compatible with regulations estab-
lished by the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration – NHTSA – permitting
the deactivation of front passenger airbags
by means of an on-off switch for members
of certain "at risk" groups.
Specifically, the 'at risk' groups are:
>Infants in rear-facing infant seats
>Persons with certain medical conditions
>Children aged 12 and under in the front
passenger seat.
NHTSA provides this information via their
website – www.nhtsa.dot.gov – or via their
Auto Safety Hotline toll-free at 1-800-424-
9393 or 366-0123 in Washington, D.C.
area.<