BMW iDrive

[rico47]

Hi guys,

I have read a lot of bad reviews about bmw's idrive: complex, unintuitive, actually adding steps for basic operations. 7 series owners are too old for this kind of feature...

bmw has been selling the 7 series for 2 years now and is releasing the 5 series with a "simplified" version of the interface but I am still reading the same reviews: "terrible, too complex..."

I have actually tried once the idrive for a few minutes and it did not seem so complicated, It may need some time but it must be possible to get used to it. And I cannot think that BMW would have repeat such a mistake (if it is so)

Is there some actual 7 series owner here who could tell how it is really like to actually use the idrive everyday, is there some bugs, how long did it take to get used to it?

[Anzeige eBay]

Hallo rico47,

 

kennst du schon BMW iDrive (Anzeige)? Dort ist vieles zu finden.

 

BMW Ersatzteile (Anzeige) | BMW Zubehör (Anzeige)

[thepolarfoxqx]

a freind of mine has a 740iL, and has so damn many buttons on the dash, I can't remember what is where, and what half of them do. I-Drive is an adjustment, but it works well once you are used to it. It brings it all together, and atleast the interface is uniformed. Sure, old people set in their ways don't like techonology, but then what are they doing with a BMW? I drive isn't that hard at all. No worse, in fact likely better than having 50 buttons in a 1 sq/ft piece of dashboard.

[kleinefisch]

Having a bad user interface is enough to prevent any consumer from buying anything. It's very important to have something easy or people just wont buy it. BMW should commision Apple to design a system for them, Apple really know what they're doing with that kind stuff.

[thepolarfoxqx]

i will strongly disagree.

I've used computers my entire life, i'm better than proficient in all three tiers of windows UI, Dos, Bash, KDE and GNOME, and i've never gotten MacOS, i started to understand it, and then they switched to OS-X, and that really threw me for a loop. It's just not intuitive. It isn't sequential in its logic. Everything needs to work the same to make it easy to understand, it has to be uniform, and OSX is everything but uniform.

[GIR]

Uuum MacOS is anything but intuitive. Lets start with the very very very first thing that annoys me about MacOS.

See those 3 buttons at the upper left corner, the red, yellow and greens ones? WHAT ARE THOSE FOR?!!!

There is no uniform way of running apps. There is no uniform way of accessing, grouping or listing apps or documents.

The whole thing needs a whole lot of getting used to which is far from intuitive.

Same goes for iDrive. BMW crammed every little setting or function in one menu. The whole thing is just too big. The basic things are on top and easily accesible. But if you want to do something uncommon (like adding a radiostation) then you have to browse through thousands of menus before you find the setting.

Imagine this. You're driving and you press the radio autoscan function. The autoscan finds a station you really like and you want to store that while driving. You'll have to pull over and set it or run the risk of crashing while trying to set it because you were paying attention to the screen instead of road.

Same goes for alot of other functions. If you want to change the driving dynamics while driving... impossible.

On the surface it's okay but if you go a little deeper it becomes really complex really fast.

Ofcourse the multidirectional pressure sensitive knob doesn't help at all. In one menu you have to turn left and in the other you have to turn right and in another menu you have to turn while pressing the knob down.

[LateNightCable]

I have no qualms about dealing with a lot of buttons and knobs, if fact I prefer it. Having a 740 with buttons crammed into " 1sq/ft. " of space is really no hassle when you know what they all do, and live with it everyday. Everything you need is Right there, no fussing with a single command knob, and scrolling through menus. i-Drive may look simple on the surface, but even if you know your way around, it's just a novelty that cleans up the appearance of the console but is not useful for much else.

Not only that, but you have to ask yourself, are you really going to be messing around with even 25% of those features on a regular basis? Punch and go is practical, i-Drive is not.

[kleinefisch]

Ok, my fault, I wasn't referring to Mac OS. I was referring to their devices (iPod especially). The user interface is the most intuitive thing I've ever seen. The new ones even have the same basic way of using the device (and dial). Now, the iPod isn't asked to do as much as iDrive, but it's pretty damn good. Although, we all know that Apple will probably never be commissioned by BMW, but it would be a nice way to fix iDrive. Might as well try something, because iDrive seems to need any help it can get.

[850 Ci]

i test drove the 745Li for 2 days. got used to it by the time i drove it home. the only problem i had was it barley fit in my garage.

[thepolarfoxqx]

I don't know, once you get used to things, i-drive isn't bad, even adding radiostations, you just have to be used to it. I'll admit it is far from perfect, it needs like intuitive additions, like twist the knob while in autoscan to add the station. BMW should have thought of that. It isn't bad. My problem is often i hit the wrong button. The jaguar is poorly layed out, ditto the rover (but worse so), so its a guessing game where what i want is. The Porsche has more buttons than I neccesarily have time to think about driving it, and my bimmer, other than its alpine audio system (my addition), is fairly straight forward and perfect.

[dcvenom]

The 7 series Idrive becomes very engaging once you get used to it. problem is it often gets distracting as you find yourself learning the interface.

[Anzeige Amazon]

Hallo rico47,

 

schau doch mal hier zum Thema Zubehör für BMW (Anzeige)? Eventuell gibt es dort etwas Passendes.

 

Auch interessant: Der V16 Motor zum Selberbauen (Anzeige).

[thepolarfoxqx]

see, that is something i did before driving, i atleast aquainted myself, just did a few odds and ends (like adding a preset) to get the hang of it, then it wasn't so bad once i was using it driving.