If I were to update my car to the latest firmware, would that get me anything new (feature wise) that I don't have now? I'm not sure what version I have but I will check the iDrive and report it.

 

When was your last update? Some changes you may notice, depending upon the current version you have, include the lawyer screen going away automatically, cosmetic changes to iDrive including the colors and changes to Navigation including perspective view.

Edit: BLooD is generally correct. My comments are based on your 2004 car. If the car has had a software update in the past three years, you'll likely won't notice anything...

 

there's no info in the idrive hidden or otherwise that can show the version no., only the dealer can tell you that.

there's been nothing new for quite some time and probably wont be as the software is as mature as its going to get.

 

My car did get some updates but I have not idea what version I have. My Navi does have the perspective or birdview.

 

The dealer just upgraded my '06 550i from its original software to the latest version. There are lots of little changes to the colors, readability, etc., but the two BIGGEST things I notice are:

-The fuel pump now primes to build up pressure as soon as a door is opened. It didn't do that originally, and I had occasionally long cranking times when starting up.

-The MP3 player now reads ID3 tags, showing the proper titles for music, instead of the file names.

The car also seems a little more aggressive about pulling timing when accelerating, resulting in a slight power loss, but this is so small it's no big deal. And I'd much rather have pulled timing than broken ringlands on our crappy California gas.

 

what colour is the menu screen? as that was the last thing changed.

you pro nav owners are lucky, business nav has had no updates since day one

 

The color of the main screen is brownish.

 

the menu colour was changed at progman 25.0.0 to brown, i think green is the original colour, so i believe you have progman 25 at least,
progman was replaced at 32 with ISTA/p 33 which is what i have installed and i think the service centres are on ISTA/p 35 by now.

hope this is of help to you.

just a short note, if you decide on an update the whole car will have to be done due to the ISTA/p works, this can take upto 7 hours depending on equipment installed.

 

Thanks Blood for the feedback. 7 HRS is a long time and it will cost a lot of $$$ to do....

 

I had mine upgraded from the original 2006 version. The only noticeable things (beside the colors) are that I don't get the weird warnings and occasional radio muting problem like I used to. In fact, I haven't had any warnings at all since the install, while I used to get at least some kind of warning or another almost every week.