Is there a way to select "FM", program all 6 buttons with FM radio stations, and then hit "AM" and then program 6 more AM radio stations?

Seems short sighted if the there's a mode button right beside the programmable buttons yet one can't have 6 presets for each of the modes.

 

no

 

I like the fact that you can mix programming between modes, it breaks away from the old tradition from the mechanical preset button days...

If anything is short-sighted, it's that there's only six buttons (eight outside North America)!

 

A BMW product manager from Germany told me that he was told that Americans must have an AM/FM button. He said that with a straight face. I told him it was quatsch.

Re the buttons, there are presets in the radio itself - separate from the Favorite buttons. No need to use Favorite buttons for 6 radio stations.

 

Right -- but even with that, I've always said that the iDrive system (not the dedicated favorites buttons) should have a consolodated presets page (not one page for each band) so that I can have preset #1 be a Sirius channel, preset #2 be an AM station, preset #3 be an FM station, preset #4 be another Sirius channel, etc.

Having one page of presets per band is still thinking inside the box and has it's roots in the old mechanical radios back in the early days...

The favorites buttons are a good start -- just give us a screen full of programmable "virtual" favorites buttons and we'll be on our way!

 

or make it like audi's mmi and then it'll become more useful than "iDistract, iCrash"