Have been looking through pictures posted by owners, web sites, etc., and have noticed that in some cases the controls for the in-dash CD player are on the right, some are on the left. The manual shows controls on the right but is paired with the NAV DVD. In fact, every picture I've seen that includes a NAV DVD unit shows controls for both on the right

Does anyone know why this is? Are all new cars produced after a certain date now consistent?

 

It may depend on whether or not it is UK specced or where ever else they drive on the left.

 

No, it's not a UK thing. I believe the scenario has been something like this:
BMW developed the single slot (non-nav pro) unit first and put the controls on the left (close to the volume control knob for easy access) later on they decided to add a second slot for the maps DVD for the pro nav unit, and they added the DVD logo to the right side of this slot (as seen in some brochures) but after the release of the first brochure/initial version they saw that this setup looked really bad and they decided to move the controls to the right side for the nav pro unit so that both slots would line up correctly. As far as I know there is no car driving around that has the brochure setup since this was a pre-production model (the nav pro is only a couple of months available now). I hope this helps and clears up the confusion.

 

Somewhat off-topic but does anyone know if the CD player has a fast-forward or reverse function within a song?

 

Yes, you can fast forward or reverse by holding the forward or reverse button down. This works with either the buttons near the CD slot or the ones on the steering wheel.

-Rob