What's up with everybody's attitude on here these days. All he means is that if there is a PROBLEM, iDrive will tell you. It's pretty obvious that he isn't referring to some magical hidden screen which shows gauges for everything.

The car tells you IF YOU NEED TO KNOW about voltage, levels, etc etc. If all is working fine, it's hidden from you.

 

Actually I am pretty sure not idrive but the odometer button can be held and you can access certain menus of information including oil temps and a whole bunch of other things. there are multiple threads on this and I never took the time to try them but if someone remembers where those threads are or are kind enough to repost the method that would be great.

I know you hold the odometer when the car is off but electronics are on-for like 10 seconds and a menu pops up but not sure how to proceed from there

 

How quaint, wanting information from this car. There is a proxy for coolant temperature, the white extension to the tacho red line.

In the olden days, we wanted and needed all sorts of information so as to manage the driving of our vehicle, like an ammeter, manifold vacuum gauge. Then again we had to check the oil with a dip stick before every drive and check on coolent levels regularly and diff oil levels and gearbox oil levels

I was rather chuffed not to have to do any of that now and see the removal of meters from the dash as progress (mostly, don't take away my tacho )

 

volt gauge , dipstick, ?! whats all these new and crazy words I hear!

 

I never trust the gauges or the computer, I check them every 6 months when I change the oil, In HK itis very hot and the coolant will be low but the computer never shows up so I top it up myself.
like 2 weeks ago the car had some thing wrong which was the back windows which keep going down when I bring it up but the computer did not tell me there is some think wrong.

 

Why do you care? Drive it hard, have fun. Get rid of it and get a new one before warranty and free maintenance expire.

 

Russ, the point being made is that by the time I-drive let's you know something is wrong...it's too late. I would definitely appreciate having guages rather than depending on a sometimes "glitchy" computer. And the fact there is no oil dipstick...still has me befuddled....would have been very easy for BMW to have left it there - if you don't want to check it - don't...but for those of us who do - it would have been nice. I plan on changing the oil half way between the recommended interval as I believe that 15K or 12 mos is too long to go between changes and the ability to check the level would have been nice. I guess you and I are different, I very much like to know what is going on with my car and I disagree with RWB as well...in that I'm not an "M driver" but still want to know what's going on with the engine and basic systems in the car. I sweep my guages in my GT500 every several minutes. Believe it or not I actually enjoy this as part of the ownership experience of my vehicles.

 

That certainly presents the case to NEVER buy a CPO lease return from your local BMW dealer. Just because maintenance and warrenty work is free doesn't mean I want to purposely abuse my vehicle....I do like the "drive it hard and have fun" part...but I also like to keep it maintained as well.

 

I'm with you...don't trust those compter gremlins

 

ceric....can you blow that avatar up a bit for us...PLEASE!!!