IMU

I hope you like your wife!
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I-Drive is a cinch to grasp, it will take much longer to master a wife, if at all

Bean

i have had my E60 with I-Drive for about two weeks now and I think it is great. I do not understand all the bad press it has received. Don't let it stop you from buying a fantastic car.

aussiebeemer

It isn't good. Significantly inferior to Audi's much more intuitive MMI. Even twiddling the knob, as the actress said to the bishop, is easier in the Audi.

But it didn't stop me choosing BMW over Audi. I just avoided ordering too many options, to minimise the need to use iDrive.

In particular I left out satnav. The underlying system seems to be the same as Audi's (and Merc's), but the implementation sadly lacking, by comparison. And none of the German systems supports UK 7-digit postcode entry, making all of them a pain to use compared with TomTom Go/One or Garmin nuvi at a fraction of the price.


I find the idrive terrific and wouldn;t be without it after two weeks.

And a feature I love using is the satnav - just point and shoot
When I borrowed an equipment-loaded A6 for a day, I didn't need to read the manual. When I borrowed an E61, I had to do a lot of reading. But, as I said before, I still ordered an E61.
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retroK

I love the iDrive! Its very intuitive IMHO!

DaveH

Sorry, but, much as I love the car, I can't agree. Sure, It's fine most of the time, once you've learned it. But just look at some of the quotes above:

"they would never read a manual"
"IDrive in some setions is not very intuitive"
"Once you get to know where everything is in the menu"
"It's really tricky the first day"
"after a day or so..."
"It clearly has a learning curve"
"It should be 50% faster"
"its not intuitive or natural to use"
"once I got used to..."
"it takes time to learn and remember"

Why should you have to read the manual to operate basic functions?
Why should it take days to figure it out?
Why should you have to learn where everything is and then remember or get the manual back out? (I read elsewhere in this forum that you have to keep practising - iDrive is not like riding a bike, as it should be).

I'm in the business of user interfaces - mainly self-service kiosks - and know how much better iDrive could and should be. It might help if BMW had used a touch screen, like Honda, but even without that it could be so much easier and more intuitive. Just making the control button more fluid in its action would help.

I opened the manual randomly and came across this procedure for updating the radio's autostore stations:

1. Select FM or AM and press the controller.
2. Move the highlighted marker to the second field from the top.
3. Select 'Autostore' and press the controller. 'Set' is selected.
4. Press the controller. Further menu items are displayed.
5. Select 'Autostore' and press the controller.

All while driving at high speed. And that's if you can remember or figure it out. On every other car I've owned, I just press one button.

Once you've done that, there are seven steps to memorise a station. On almost any other radio, you just press and hold a button.

I recognise that inreasingly complex cars need increasingly sophisticated controls, and BMW is to be applauded for trying to move the game on. But they made a bad job of it.

I guess I'm going to get plenty of reactions from the hip to this, but you really don't have to spring to the defence of iDrive just because you (quite rightly) love the car.
{Hits "Add Reply" and hides behind desk}

300TTto545

I never read the manual to learn how to work I-drive. I skimmed it a few weeks after buying the car but I certainly didn't need to read the manual.

But - it could be better. Little things like arrow keys on the steering wheel going the "wrong way" when selecting sat radio stations. But mostly speed is the problem. Make a move and the response is not instant. So you don't always know if the move was noticed.

All cars will have some iteration of Idrive - and it will be better. The Japanese have always copied ideas and improved on them - this will be one more example.

The fact that Ipod use is still not supported is a good example of how BMW does not do it right. The first to start and now behind the competition. Every new car (that is newly designed) right now that appeals to the under 40 crowd can probably control an Ipod. Embarassing for BMW IMO.

thatbimmerguy

I never read the manual and I know how to do pretty much everything in iDrive (didn't take me any time to master at all, got it all straight off)...but then again, I'm young...we can apparently work anything

subterFUSE

If you can't figure out the iDrive, then you're just too damned old to be useful anymore.... and should therefore be sent out on a raft and torched by a flaming arrow... Viking style.

The world is getting crowded, and you're just taking up space.

Fünfer

During my test drive, I was able to figure out most of the functions of iDrive in less than 15 minutes w/o reading the manual. About the only function that was not obvious to me was the "shortcuts feature".

If you are in the UI business, you must admit that the beautiy of iDrive is that a you can physically control it without having to visually coordinate your hand to find the right buttons to push. That's a significant feature for a system that you have to control while driving.

About the only thing I did not like (or did not figure out during the test drive), was actually the menu button. I would prefer to be able to "get back" to the top menu using the iDrive knob only.

BTW, try to use the autostore feature in an Audi with MMI. You will be surprised...

skaffa

Easy enough! Win 2000 is much more difficult! :thumbsdown:

Skaffa