After reading a bunch of stuff here and after nagging the chief mechanic at my dealership with questions about CIP versions, DVDs, "Status report" verisions, translating back to CIP versions, etc., I think I now have a very good understanding of how things work. I'm listing things in a bullet item fashion since it's easier. In the end I hope this is helpful to people. And I hope I'm not wrong! Here's what I know:

- CIP stands for Coding Individualization Programming. It's the application which controls the update process.

- dealers can get CIP releases (noted in version numbers like 13.3, 15.0, 15.2, etc.) via DVD or by downloading
it from BMW.

- on each CIP release version XX.X, there are multiple software packages for the different cars that BMW
supports

- these software packages have their own names/versions and are noted as E060-04-09-XXX (for E60),
E90-XX, E65-XX, E81-XX, etc.

- when you talk about your car's software version, you should be referring to the E060-04-09-XXX (where XXX
is your car's software version) and NOT the CIP version number (more later on why this can be confusing if
you do)

- you can get this software version number for you car by requesting a printout of the "Status report" of your
car from your dealer

- I mentioned that you should refer to this E060-04-09-XXX number when talking about your car's sofware
version and not the CIP version. Why? Because THIS is your car's software version and no translation is really
needed if you think about it back to the CIP version. And even then, you may not get a correct answer. Why?
Because BMW can release different CIP release versions (e.g. 15.0, 15.1, and 15.2) to dealers (whether by
DVD or download), but those different CIP release versions may still have the same E60 software package!
In other words, hypothetically speaking (since I don't know for sure yet from my mechanic) CIP 15.0, 15.1, and
15.2 when released may still have the same E060-04-09-555 package. The E90 or E65 package(s) may
have changed however, which is why there is a new CIP release. But the E60 may not. It depends. But you
see that if you like to refer to the CIP version when talking about your car's software version (instead of using
the XXX from E060-04-09-XXX which you can get printed), one person can say he/she has CIP 15.0, another
can say 15.1, and a third 15.2. Yet in reality they all have the same E060-04-09-555!

I hope this makes sense. It took me a bit of time to comprehend it all, but it all makes sense now. We should not use CIP versions in our signatures or when talking about our software versions anymore in my opinion as it may not be correct and can cause confusion.

Thoughts?

 

This makes sense, and falls in line with everything I've heard from my dealer...

Thanks for the summary!

James

 

Excellent clear summary...very helpful

 

Very well time spend and put..THANKS!

 

Awesome - very helpful.

 

We should pin this topic. Lomag?

 

The last CIP number I had was 13.2 on the 10/28 invoice. The 12/14 invoice did not list the CIP number, but the BMW NA engineer said it was 13.1. I don't have the invoice for yesterday's pick up yet. Should be in tomorrow's mail.

 

Right, but that invoice just tells you what the service guy types in. He can even be wrong about the CIP version (anything can be typed in!). But again, the CIP version is not the version of your car's software. Ask for a "Status report" printout.

BTW, I spoke with my mechanic today after work and found out that indeed, CIP 15.0 - 15.2 all have the same software version package for the E60 - E060-04-09-555. The E60 package did NOT change on those 3 CIP releases. I belive 15.1 and 15.2 had changes for the E90 and E81 - so only those packages were affected. So whether you get your car upgraded from a bay that has CIP 15.0 or one that has 15.2, you will still have the same version - E060-04-09-555.

 

The last entry in the secret menu via the i-drive showed something like "E60 ***** 04-09-500" for mine. ***** is a string of characters, something like MMI****. So this number could be referring to the iDrive software version. Is the iDrive software what has been referred to as car software all along?

 

Well, I think now you are only confusing it totally.
Even BMW speaks about the software releases as "s/w versions/CIP's 15, 15.1, 15.2", etc...