I like idrive and have liked it since I bought my e60 in May 2004. Here's the point that so namy people, especially journalists, miss. With the growing complexity of today's cars, an idrive system is the only solution. The alternative is to have hundreds of hard buttons and a dashboard like an airplane.

Idrive is not perfect and later generations will surely get better. But, BMW should get an award for taking the plunge and introducing this system first.

 

Too much coffee?

Seriously though maybe we don't get "a climate" in the UK but once I have set up in iDrive, the circular dials are just peachy.

ABC

 

Ok - idrive. In the UK our man Clarkson says it stand for "I distract and then I crash" - this I can understand as it can be very distracting .

I agree with the comments about being sluggish. In addition to the start-up slow down mine is difficult to get into Entertainment. The other thing that infuriates me is that a great deal of my driving is long distance and I need navigation on to see the map and TMC alerts etc. I usually drive with radio or CD playing and like to swap chennels or tracts. Maybe it's me but I can't seem to be able to have both Nav displayed and Entertainment. So, I have to keep going through the motions of switching back and forth.

I have tried to master voice control and downloaded the voice commands from this site - but 13 pages of commands!!!!!! :thumbsdown:

 

Yes the X5 has 6 buttons that are user defined... so these would be like Macro's. One button could be fire up the Ipod and go to CD2 (by artist) and play, etc. Very cool.

 

The online manual does not apply in most areas. It might be for the 7-series. Use the commands in the manual you got with the car.

Your problems are q. easily solved.

eg "FM Menu, Station 3", "CD 3, Track 4" "Map" (for last displayed map view).

Additionally, you can have the entertainment window plus the nav view additionally showing in the smaller assistance window.

What does Clarkson know?

ABC

 

Not a lot but he earns more!

Thanks for the tips - I'll try them.

 

I think iDrive idea is great, but BMW really needs to hire decent software company that is familiar with interfaces for small, mobile devices with limited controls. iDrive user interface is rather clumsy. Look at smartphones that are able to provide quite rich interface with 4-way stick with a click and a back button. For example, why initial menu has only five items? Why not 8 icons in 4x2 grid? First row can be fixed and second dynamically keep 5 most recently used items? Why can't I add shortcuts to the iDrive screen? Why does BMW has to add klunky 6 buttons to 2008 model?. How one is supposed to remember what, say, 5 means? Why not icons on the screen? It is just a software after all... Hell, look at Apple iPhone!

I think the problem is that BMW is using grossly underpowered CPU and low resolution screen. Don't tell me about cost - LCDs are cheap and $500 PDA is running 600MHz CPU these days with VGA screen. Gee, I can get very good laptop for $1000!

 

What you said makes me remember about a comment I once heard about all this: car manufacturers, using this technology, could offer skins to the Idrive and, why not, a little software to create your own. Of course, for a fee... The scope of the personalization should be limited to the GUI in order to minimize mockups and, with the introduction of the USB port, why not allow this customization to be uploaded by the owner himself.

On another subject, I remember reading somewhere that, in the 3 series diesel, once you press the remote to open the doors, the diesel pre-heating thing kicks in automatically reducing to milleseconds the engine startup. Why not apply the same principle (remote press) to start other things like the Idrive in order to have a ready to go car once you enter it?

 

I get on with iDrive just fine, and I do think that magazine reviews are unfairly harsh about the system.

BUT

I also echo criticisms other people have raised about the need to use iDrive to adjust simple stuff like the climate control. I live in the UK, but I do miss being able to easily control whether it's outputting to screen/vents or footwell. It's a single button push on the 1 and 3 Series, but a ridiculously complex procedure in the 5 (with advanced A/C). Lucky that 'auto' does a reasonable job most of the time. I'm a little disappointed that the LCI 5 Series doesn't get the climate control interface of the 1 & 3 Series.

Whilst I'm on a roll, it also bugs me that although iDrive gives you some configuration of the car that is really nice, it doesn't go far enough - if they're going to bother having a 'climate' section, I'd like to be able to configure/disable the annoyingly sensitive humidity sensor.

 

I agree with the above. I still like it better than the touch screen on my old Lexus, but there are a couple of things that are just so well hidden and most of all, the thing is so damn slow. Fix that and I would be totally fine with it (now that I know where everything hides). I think Audi did it right and I'm not sure if the addition of the five or so short cuts in the X5 and 08 5-series are the right fix - wasn't the I-Drive supposed to eliminate buttons?