I'm still adjusting to the operation of my new car & first 5 Series, but an observation i've made that's a little annoying & i'm hoping it's user error (i'm not doing it properly).

Heard many times that i-Drive is a littly fiddly & complicated, but was told that newer verisons (i.e the E60) were much better & more intuative than the 1st encarnations of i-Drive, however i'm a little put out & having to keep fiddling around to even swap between basic functions & then return etc. I'll give a couple of scenarios to ask if i'm operating correctly or if i just have to live with it (which i can if required).

Firstly, i've got no route set in Nav, but i've got the map up on the screen, i then decide i want to swap from disc 1 (CD) to disc 2 (CD) as i'm now bored of disc 1. As i see it, i have to back out of the nav/map screen to the main i-Drive 4-way menu, then move the controller to Entertainment, then navigate round that to change from cd1 to cd2. Once finished & the cd has changed, i then have to return back to the main 4-way i-Drive menu, move the controller back to Navigation, then navigate back down to select perspective view (my favourtite) to return to where i originated. This takes a good minute to complete & invlolves the equivalent of about 10 clicks etc. Is their an easier way?? I have the multi function wheel, but all that allows i volume decrease/increase, track up/down, move from CD to FM/AM (star) or swap to the BlueTooth phone directory (diamond). I know i can alter the 2 select buttons (star & diamond) but the variations are limited.

Secondly, i again am viewing the nav-map either for fun or following a route & i decide i want to make a phone call, now i can press the diamond button on the wheel to take me to the phone directory, but lets say the number is not in my phone, i have to leave the map screen & basically follow as above for CD's, but of course go into the Communication section & repeat both ends of the above scenario.

Thirdly & again almost the same as above & above that, i want to change the air-con settings or heated front seat settings, i have to navigate back to the main screen, into my chosen function, complete that then return back to where i was originally but taking many clicks to get their.

Lastly, why when i return to navigation from anywhere, do i have to always scroll down to the bottom of the screen to get the Perspective (or any other) map display, why can't i just return to exactly where i was in that function when i left.

In the big scheme oif things, these are not show-stoppers, but for a ?40K car it does seem a little long-winded. In my RS6, it was just one button & you always entered than function where you'd left it last, so if i pressed the Nav button, my display showed the live map, if i want to change CD, i'd just press the fwd button on the head unit thingy & the cd would change or i could skip track or fast forward using those buttons, without leaving my nav/map screen or my BlueTooth phone call.

Any takers to help here? I've read the manual fully now, but it only seems to provide details on how to operate a function, not move between functions.

Cheers,

 

One short cut is, say if you are in entertainment, and want to go to OBC (which in my case is on the right in the 4-way menu), you do not have to move back to the 4-way from the entertainment menu. All you have to do is push the knob to the right and hold it there for a couple of seconds. And you will be in the OBC menu. You just have to remember the function for the each of the 4 directions.

 

I don't have OBC, as my car has Prof Navigation.

So does this apply to all functions?? If i'm in Entertainment which i think is at the bottom of the 4-way & i want to go to Communcation which i think is at the top of the 4-way or into Navigation which is on the right of the 4-way, i just push/pull the controller for a couple of seconds in the relevant direction as it would be on the main 4-way menu??

 

Yep, works for any function and has the benefit of taking straight back to your last active screen in each of the 4 directions, e.g. perspective map -> CD -> perspective map.

Also, I thought that if you had the phone you got voice dial for that, even if you don't explicity have voice commands for the rest of the system. Is this no longer true?

 

Excellent, thank's very muchly. I'll just memorise what the functins for North, South, East & West & i should be even happier. Is it exactly 2secs i hold the controller for or about??

Perhaps i can voice-op the phone & i know the Nokia 6230i can voice operate, but i've never had much luck with mobile voice dialling.

That said, i'm having extended voice retro-fitted on Tuesday, so perhaps that will do away with my original question anyway as i'll just try to voice operate everything & have no need to ever touch the i-Drive controller.

 

Maybe 1.523 seconds. Nah, I am only kidding. Just hold it in the position until the menu changes ...

 

Thanks very much. I'll try it out tomorrow.

 

Well pleased & thanks Stranger, i tried it this morning & it does exactly as you say.

Will defo save a little time & make driving a little safer as i can now stop keep having to carry out 10+ actions just to change from one function to another briefly.