Idea with trunk lid button on key fob?

A

Anders

Member
As a new zed owner I tend to test and question all nice features of the car. :?
One thing I cannot see the real purpose with is the trunk lid button on the key fob. It unlocks the lid and opens it a a centimeter or so , but nothing else, right? So I still have to go there and grab the lid, which usually means grabbing the lid end border (no other handle available), causing ugly finger prints over time. On my other car, an E60 LCI, using that button also opens up the lid completely.

So whats the point using the button on the zed? I could as well approach the lid and hit the BMW button on the lid and do the unlock and lift in one move. Or am I missing something obvious here
 
You raise a good point - but that is just the way it is - I have comfort closing - which means it when you push the boot shut it slowly closes itself but only when it is nearly shut - not really sure on the point of that really

I guess the fact it doesn't open fully could be down to 1 of the following reasons:-

1 - Traditionally roadsters can have a rack on the boot where you can place luggage - I have not seen a z4 with this - but if it did you might end up damaging the roof/rear window.

2 - Ensuring you don't get dirty figures means that you have to clean the car very often which means all z4's on the road look clean and boosts BMW's image

3 - BMW couldn't be arsed

4 - As seaguls tend to SH!T on my car quite a lot it could result in a bird being flipped if on the boot and BMW take their Wildlife concerns very seriously.

5 - People dont put stuff in the boot of a z4 so the function is not needed

6 - There is enough stuff in the boot for an electronic folding boot that this would just add to further possible problems

Personally my vote goes to option 3
 
Haha, you really have digged into all reasons behind this "feature" Stan! :lol:

Dont agree with number 3 being the main cause though - I´m still naive enough to belive BMW engineers are clever and compassionate people :roll:

So, I vote for #4. And just not birds are endangered, all the cats that may get injured by falling off the lid from their calm rest there...
 
Option 8 - people could get seriously injured by an upper-cut on the cheek while standing behind the car and bending over the boot to admire the beauty of the interior of the car when roof is down and then sue BMW to massive amounts.

Well, to be serious, having that button available on the fob I could think of a lot other functions for it that would be much better than just unlocking the boot. Like "fold mirrors" or "close roof" etc. Or why not still use it for the boot but implement "press for unlock" and "press and hold to unlock and open".
 
For me, I use the button to save that whole second of the soft close going whirr/moan etc. The lid is already open and I just lift it when I get there. Sometimes I don't use it and just press the badge. BTW you can lift the boot with the badge to avoid fingerprints. TBH in this weather who cares about fingerprints when the whole car is already filthy. As for why it's not an electric fully opening thing, who knows, but then I don't care either, its not really a hardship to lift the boot. I can see electric opening on big cars with heavy or hard to reach boot lids being useful but not on the Z. Just adds more weight and things to go wrong.
 
I think the finger prints bothers me more when car is dirty, at least they are more visible then. But u r right - who cares really.

On my E60 there is no electrical engine involved in the boot opening, it is just some steel spring or something that raises the lid when button is pressed. Seems pretty solid and I would have liked the same feature on the zed.
 
Funny enough I have just got a Mini countryman, the boot button will only work with the car unlocked 8) When I asked why (as the Z opened whether it was locked or not) they suggested they took this off because too many people were locking their keys in the car, it's the same sort of answer I got when I asked about closing the roof by the key fob,they said we don't do this because anyone in the car may trap their fingers when you close it , Jeez when are car companies going to stop trying to be our nannies :x
 
On the e89 you can choose if the boot opens on the key or with other doors etc. the boot will only open once the car is unlocked in the setting I have now which appears to prevent anyone opening the boot when you're stopped at lights or whatever as well as preventing you accidentally opening the boot with the key when you're in the car. Works for me.
 
are you sure your battery is not just running low and there is not enough power to fully lift the boot? :)
 
It's not option 1, my old 1 series was the same. There is probably an expensive option on BMW's in general for an automatic boot open/close that none of us have.

I'll go with Option 4!
 
The soft close mechanism is to help prevent the boot slamming and damaging what is a fairly fragile mechanism given all the kit that moves around in there for the folding roof. Even when you slam the boot down it hits bumpers to soften the blow before the soft close engages and closes it all firmly.
 
Could it be if you accidentally pressed the button,the boot wouldn't open all the way so as not to draw any attention.You could unknowingly unlock it from inside your home.When I arrived at the Kent meet last year a fellow member pointed out that my boot was open, don't know how that happened
 
eleflo said:
Funny enough I have just got a Mini countryman, the boot button will only work with the car unlocked 8) When I asked why (as the Z opened whether it was locked or not) they suggested they took this off because too many people were locking their keys in the car, it's the same sort of answer I got when I asked about closing the roof by the key fob,they said we don't do this because anyone in the car may trap their fingers when you close it , Jeez when are car companies going to stop trying to be our nannies :x
Click to expand...

You can get your zed coded like the mini. Mine is set so that I can't open the boot without unlocking first.

Going back to the OP, my 2002 320 worked in exactly the same way. My E87 is the same though and its 10 years newer.
 
It's so you can send your kids out in the rain to get you the beers you forgot to get out of the boot, without giving them the keys
 
I always assumed the boot opening function button was to allow the boot to be open so access was slightly easier when you maybe needed the boot open but didn't want to put items down in the ground instead just using a free or slightly free hand to move the now un latched boot without having to reach in and open in.

However soft close is a great feature, my mums E61 has it and that's always handy when you've pulled such a heavy boot lid a good meter and a bit and BMW will have you know that there can be issues with boot lock caused by the slamming of the boot lid. Basically the car lid won't shut properly and can still be lifted open, eventually it will close but the car may not recognise that this has happened and that causes the boot open light to appear. If you've a vert then it also means the roof can't go down and it's not a cheap fix. Well not for what I would call a design issue. I've had it on my 1 series vert, it's rather annoying
 
I didn't even realise I had this feature until I read this thread.

I have now tried it out, and yes, it is pretty useless. Doesn't open far enough to be useful.
 
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