Leburpor

What is wrong with these people and their inability to use the I-drive with ease??? It's so easy to use and this is the first BMW I've owned.

Makes me regret not spending an extra $15k to get the 550i

octee

Yeah, this is my first Bimmer with the I drive and it's not that big of a deal. I seriously can't understand why car and driver can't stand it.. are they that illiterate????

As far as the M45, it's a nice car, no doubt, but it's no "flawless machine" that's for sure.

swajames

No point in us all being in collective denial guys - we may as well take this continued iDrive criticism on the chin, because by and large it's basically fair and it's basically right. iDrive may have been one of the first of its type, and as a concept its undoubtedly the right thing to do - it's clearly here to stay. The problem is that in its current incarnation the software and interface is slow, it is buggy, and it is relatively unintuitive and inelegant. On Nav Pro cars it's particularly sluggish. I can't really accept that its just that these journalists don't get it, and it's not just because BMW was first to market with this system that it gets a lot of flak. I don't necessarily care for journalists opinions either, but the iDrive interface and user experience as it stands really isn't fit to be in an E60. The cars are mechanically flawless and handle like a charm - but unfortunately the electronics are not really engineered to the same standard (according to JD Power themselves, iDrive is what cost BMW the lost places in the recent round of satisfaction surveys). Personally, I spend big and early adopt on technology, the more I can get in my car the better and iDrive should be a total home run for me but, sadly, it isn't as the stuff we get to play with in our E60's is, unfortunately, pretty second rate. I'm convinced it will get better, I've got no doubt the Gen 2 iDrive will be *much* better, but there's little point in making excuses for the current versions or saying that the pretty much universal condemnation of iDrive is wrong and we're all right.

And I write all of this as a happy E60 owner who otherwise *loves* his car!

Rant over!

tachyon

Barron's also had a review of the 550i in today's edition (Sep 25).

"Outside: This sedan looks chunky and not very pretty. Indside: It's close to, yes, the perfect driving machine. The fiercely heavy clutch makes smooth takeoffs rare, but feed power through the six gears and the 550i is a jet. I loved the handling and head-up display, which projects speed and other data on the windshield. The active roll control makes turns stable and flat. The thermal night vision is fun, but you must look down to use it, taking your eyes off the road. Downer: the still impossible iDrive climate, radio and navigation control."

Leburpor

Ok, granted that the I-drive is not perfect, not as quick as it could be and apparently buggy occasionally. However, look at the words these journo's used:- "exasperating I-drive", "impossible I-drive"

I doubt they are trying to display the breadth of their vocabulary in the choice of words so I conclude that these guys can't be competent with basic computer usage. Either that or I must be a genius....hmm...that IS a possibility

swajames

Rudy

I agree and will add a couple points...

I think the journalist's issues with iDrive are not due to the speed of the interface, they just don't "get it." Once iDrive-like interfaces are more common in other cars (which is clearly the future), they'll begin to "get it" and reserve their judgement to issues of speed, bugs, etc. Right now, they're just not open-minded enough to accept this type of interface on a widesread basis.

That said, it's true that iDrive, in it's current iteration, isn't the greatest. Sure, it's an improvement over the "original" iDrive that the 7-Series used but newer cars (non-BMW) have taken the concept much further. (Actually, I've never seen the E90 iDrive system so I don't know how much, if any, it's improved over the E60.) My recent experiences are with a brand new M-B S-class. I haven't had enough time with it yet to fully evaluate things (pro and con) but I will say that the new COMAND interface is much, much, better than the iDrive on our cars. It is blazingly fast, has a very logical layout (for the most part), and just "feels" better. One feature that I think is a particulary great one is the way the voice command works. When you press the voice button on the steering wheel, you hear the familiar "beep" just like in our cars but immediately you are presented with a list of the possible voice commands on the central display. To me, that's a great idea since the biggest problem with voice command is remembering what to say and when to say it.

We can only hope that as time goes by, BMW will copy the best features of the others (as they did from BMW) and the hardware processing will get faster and faster too. In a handful of years, these points will hopefully be moot.

znod

I agree; I am going to check the 550 out more closely. Might not get an AMG after all.

300TTto545

If I-drive responses were quick, it would not be that bad at all. I have Nav and it is annoying. I would also like to be able to hear the radio right away when I get in the car....

Wilchwitz

Part of the problem with the journalist's knee-jerk reaction to i-Drive is face saving. After wasting ink for years bashing i-Drive its pretty hard to all of a sudden say, "Oh, now I get it! I was wrong."