Im fairly certain BMW takes the engineers that work on the cupholders & transfers them into the audio group, but only if they do an exceptionally bad job.

 

Ha!

 

My car came with the iPod interface and I just found out this morning that when connected with my iPhone it will stream Pandora and the song details actually show up in my CCC iDrive screen. It also passes through voice directions from any of the main map apps I have tried. The voice fades in and out.
I was playing around with the Griffin BT when I wanted to hear what the sound quality is compared to the hard wired iPod interface when I realized that anything the BT could do, the iPod connection could do better and also keeps the phone charged. The phone is tethered, however, but nicely out of sight in the glove compartment. Voice commands work as before and so does the handsfree phone connection. Will see how I can live with such a setup. Can always stick the BT into my wife's car.

 

On the older cars the iPod interface is actually quite nice. My 2006 had the BMW interface and it worked fine. Round about 2008 I think they started adding USB ports and 1/8th" input jacks to the cars which would lead one to believe that plugging in an iPod cable to the USB jack would result in having control over the iPod through the CCC/ CIC interface like just about any other car with a USB jack. My complaint is that with BMW you need to spend another *I think* $600 for this functionality which is a bit ridiculous in $67,000 car, not to mention the CIC system itself is still painfully dated. I much prefer the Uconnect system in the Chryslers I rent and find just about any modern entry level car that I rent has a better interface system than my BMW.

I can live with it... It's just that my 2004' A8 had an interface that trumps my 6 year newer BMW CIC system. Hell, even the 2012 535 I got as a loaner from the local BMW dealer had the BMW apps feature which is absolutely archaic. You need to keep the app open and the phone unlocked to use it. lol... that's silly.

 

I couldn't agree with this more.

PCY - For the record I am in the category of "human being" but I am pathetic in a different way than the "pathetic" i was describing.

 

Well they figure if you're paying the asking price for the car ($67,000) why not rape you on the additional $600. After all, 99% will pay it after they find out they do not have all the options. What other option do they have? hahaha. tricky bastards.