i have an '04 530i no NAV, no BT BUT with 6-disc CD changer and xm pre wired. i asked my dealer at Stevens Creek BMW for iPod integration and before they qouted me they asked me how many songs i have on my iPod and i said more than 2,000. and the agent told me if my playlist is that big i can only play playlist A to F..... what gives???

 

Nonsense. If you get the BMW interface, you will have access to all your songs. The iDrive doesn't work as quickly as the click wheel on the iPod, but it beats the hell out of any other solution I've seen.

 

BMW interface= meaning BMW oem part, right? they provide the part, install and update SW if necessary.. NOT the DICE (if there is any available aftermarket) that can be installed by me..(?)

 

Not sure what your saying...

But, The intergrated IPOD connector from BMW displays all the songs on your IPOD. I have over 4,000 songs on mine and it loads all of them rather quik. I have never heard of this A-F thing. Sounds off base to me.

 

If you create a playlist with more than 1,000 songs it stops at the previous playlist. I created some playlists and one of the middle ones had >1000 and it didn't show any after and including that one. Once I changed it to not have any >1000 playlists it shown them all.

 

The idrive can only see 1000 songs at a time. Check the manual you get with it.

 

To make matters worse, if you do not have Nav, you can only see 500 songs and 255 folders or artists. This is the one big drawback in that you cannot choose 'shuffle songs' as you can on the iPod and listen to songs randomly selected form the entire iPod directory. I have also found that if you select artists and then select random play it only plays randomly for a given artist, i.e., it does not randomly play amongst all artists. Definitely a bummer that it does not truly provide the same functionality as the iPod but it definitely still blows away a 6 disc changer. I suppose I will need to start using my playlist functionality to store groups of songs < 500.

I just purchased my first Bimmer last week, '05 545i, and I am thrilled. The Logic 7 sound is by far the best OEM stereo I have ever heard. Not sure why some folks do not think the quality is all that good. Oh well, I suppose great sound is in the ear of the listener.