BMW i-Drive

[Flieger]

So I was looking at the 3 series at the LA Autoshow. It had i-Drive. Is it even an option anymore? I hope you can get a car without it.

Anyway, the guy in the car before my Dad took about 5 whole minutes playing with the i-Drive. He gets out, my Dad gets in. He spends about 5 minutes playing with the i-Drive. He gets out and says he couldn't figure out how to change the volume. I decide to try it. I spend about 5 minutes playing with it and can't figure it out.

Whatever happened to the Ultimate Driving Machine? It is just a rolling computer. Are people really supposed to be able to use this while driving? I can flip through a song on my i-Pod plugged into the radio in my car or change the volume without distracting me or taking my eyes off the road. How are you supposed to do that with i-Drive.

So, does anyone know how to change the volume on BMW i-Drive?

[Drisump]

You have to put in an after market stereo and isolate it from the I-drive, LOL. Just kidding, but did you see the UK Top Gear where they're on the Isle of Man and Hammond is trying to figure out the I-drive on an M-6? I like Bimmers but this seems to be over the top in terms of complexity. Cheers

[svandamme]

it's still optional in Europe...

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Flieger

So, does anyone know how to change the volume on BMW i-Drive?

I just got rid of a 2008 535. The volume control is a pair of buttons on the steering wheel. I fingered the sound system out without a lot of trouble, but I had the da&n car for 3 years and never figured the heater out.
The best thing about iDrive is it's sturdy. If if wasn't, mine would have been beaten through the floorboard from me pounding on is yelling "I just BAMB! want BAMB! to BAMB! turn BAMB! the God$amnmamaflorking heating system on BAMB! BAMB! BAMB!!
I am soooo glad to be rid of that car.

[Dantilla]

I lost all interest in BMWs a few years ago.

I don't want a car with "Flame Surfacing" or I-Drive.

Yes, Chris Bangle has been very influential on car design- Just as Ghengis Kahn influenced the history books.

[EarlyPorsche]

I-drive is the number one reason I have avoided BMW. Mercedes is complex but makes perfect sense...everything is where it should be. Same with late model 911's. BMW needs to get back to a sensible complexity.

[onewhippedpuppy]

BMW seems obsessed with adding technology to their cars without first considering if there is a need for said technology. I've never been in a car and remarked that "this volume knob is hard work, there's got to be an easier way".

Perfect symptom of the problems at BMW - the new M5 uses an electronic soundtrack to generate engine noise inside the cabin because the car is otherwise too quiet to sound "sporty". Ever hear one of the new AMG models? No fake noise required there.......

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I just got rid of a 2008 535. The volume control is a pair of buttons on the steering wheel. I fingered the sound system out without a lot of trouble, but I had the da&n car for 3 years and never figured the heater out.
The best thing about iDrive is it's sturdy. If if wasn't, mine would have been beaten through the floorboard from me pounding on is yelling "I just BAMB! want BAMB! to BAMB! turn BAMB! the God$amnmamaflorking heating system on BAMB! BAMB! BAMB!!
I am soooo glad to be rid of that car.

Surely it can't be that bad... I've never played with one but how hard could it be?

[LakeCleElum]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

Surely it can't be that bad... I've never played with one but how hard could it be?

How bad can it be? Try driving down the road and going thru 4 menus just to turn your defroster fan up a notch while your windows are fogging up!

I purposefully didn't buy my wife a used 328 last year because of it....

[89911]

If you can work an ipod, you can work an idrive. A couple of observations from someone that has driven and owned BMW's over the past 10 plus years, 2 without idrive, 2 with:

• The first variation of the idrive was quite a departure. What they have now is much simplier

• Most cars have some type of variant of idrive to control the 100's of different features that cars come out with. If not, you will have cars with the early 90's dashes that have 50 buttons on them.

• Does anyone that commented on it actually drive one on a daily basis? I can jump into plenty of new cars and get frustrated before learning how it works. The newer idrives have 10 programmable buttons right under the central screen that you can program any feature. How hard is that?

Would I rule out the chance to enjoy a great car because I didn't want to spend 20 minutes finding out how to use it. No. Really its not that big of a deal.

[Scuba Steve]

Originally Posted by 89911

• Most cars have some type of variant of idrive to control the 100's of different features that cars come out with. If not, you will have cars with the early 90's dashes that have 50 buttons on them.

Call me crazy but I thought that was kind of cool.

[Dantilla]

It is a technological step backwards to require multiple steps to perform one simple function.

[RedBaron]

The only new BMW I would buy is a 1M without any packages because it is basic. Overall, I think the company is lacking in quality and including many electronics that will fail after the warranty is up. If you read roundel, Mike Miller is always stating this and how he dislikes the direction that BMW is going. My girlfriend's mom has a new 7 series and she really dislikes it compared to her old 750iL. I have driven both, and I would say that the new one just doesn't feel as solid as her previous one and is absolutely loaded with electronics. I was then told that she learned one thing from this car, and it was to look at other cars (SLK, Panemera) before looking at the next generation of the model that you previously owned.

I did play around with iDrive in that car, and it was not terrible bad. However, I am a computer geek and have an intuition with this stuff. It just seems like they are going against their consumer base (old people) with the 7 series by including so many electronics. The one thing I liked about iDrive is that you can set the fans to activate once in awhile to bring in fresh air.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Dantilla

It is a technological step backwards to require multiple steps to perform one simple function.

This. ^^^

No one should ever have to do something that resembles operating an ipod while driving a motor vehicle in traffic. That is NOT a step forward in modern living. There are many features that have been introduced in cars over the last 50 years that actually improve safety or just the over-all driving experience, (power windows/locks, A/C and cruise control immediately jump to mind), but there will never be an improvement over simple, well-made controls that are intuitive and do what they are suppose to do.

For me, there was a *sweet spot* in terms of automotive technology that occurred in about the mid-'90s, (at least for Mercedes), where the cars had ABS/ASR, remote-locking and air bags but the door locks did not automatically lock themselves w/o my asking and there were sane, logical knobs and buttons on the dash. I've driven several new BMWs and FWIW I am capable of figuring out i-drive but it's a huge step backwards in user interface for a motor vehicle. And it would absolutely rule-out the line as a choice for someone like my Dad who is not from the computer/video game generation.

The impression I get is that these cars were designed by and for very young people who have been in front of a game console or a computer screen since birth. What works on an ATM screen isn't exactly optimal on moving car going 70 mph through a snow storm.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

Surely it can't be that bad... I've never played with one but how hard could it be?

There is a thread here about a mount to put an iPad on your steering wheel. Too bad BMW didn't think of it because it would be a huge improvement over putting the iDrive screen in the middle of the dashboard. At least the USA Today in the demo is in plain English.
iDrive is a little more complicate and a bit less intuitive than an iPhone. The biggest problem is, you are almost always driving when you need to use it. You cannot make adjustments without giving your full attention to the screen on the dashboard and cycling through multiple menus. Once you find the right menu you are faced with a picture of a seated figure and some colored arrows pointing at his head, his feet, and his crotch, you have to figure out how to turn the arrows different colors that correspond to air temperatures and then figure out how to ...... wait. I take it back. It is A LOT more complicated than using an iPhone.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by 89911

[*]Does anyone that commented on it actually drive one on a daily basis?

Yes, for 2 1/2 years. It was a company car and ostensibly the employees were supposed to use it for travel. After one trip each, every employee refused to drive it again. One opted for her old GMC SUV and another would rather drive his little Hyundai. I was stuck with the BMW until the GMC died. Without an alternative our CFO got stuck with the da*n thing for the last six months of the lease.
I got a call from her once asking me how to make the defroster work at a moderate fan speed. Should that be a complicated task?

[speeder]

When intelligent people cannot figure out the defroster, your system sucks. That's the bottom line.

[Zeke]

My Jag has a knob for the fan control. Push on and rotate for speed. There are several other options but rotating the knob overrides. It might be the most used button in the car. The temp takes care of itself, I just tell the car how much I want to feel it.

Isn't that the bottom line?

I think I saw a car in the last ten years (maybe a Jeep product?) that had 2 knobs for the basic climate control, temp and fan speed. A couple of buttons to direct the flow for defrost, etc. I'm sure there was more behind the dash, but the front end was straight forward simple.

Now to find a stereo with knobs....

[FastCarFan]

Originally Posted by Dantilla

It is a technological step backwards to require multiple steps to perform one simple function.

I completely agree. I am not anti-technology, except when it unnecessarily complicates things. In my wife's Audi A4 Avant, they made a 1-step process to change the radio station into a 3-step process: push a button to activate the screen, use a knob to scroll to the desired pre-set station (scrolls the wrong way, BTW, definitely not intuitive) & then press the button to choose the station.

Same with the air flow. Instead of simply pushing the icon for the desired air flow, you have use a button to activate the screen, scroll to the desired air flow & the press the button. Drives me nuts.

[HardDrive]

A neighbor a few houses away has a new 3 series BMW. At least thats what I thought it was. I walked by a couple weeks ago, and realized it was a 5 series! Amazingly bland car.