#2008 idrive review drivers#
#2008 idrive review series#

Planning and following routes is also easier on the new iDrive. The copying function will continue even if you switch to the radio or the navigation function. You can also rip CDs directly to the system’s hard drive or copy digital music files from any device connected to the U.S.B. Incidentally, for those who must always be tethered to an iPod, there’s a connector for the music player in the armrest, and the iDrive will display an iPod’s track, album and artist information on screen. The push buttons vary in shape so it’s easy to learn them by feel. They give you direct access to the CD, main menu, phone, radio, navigation and options screens, in addition to the always helpful “back” button. The seven buttons around the iDrive knob also made it easier to switch among functions. This made it easier to tell where I was with a quick glance. The new control system includes a cluster of seven buttons around the control knob.įor example, a musical note graphic pops up for the CD/Multimedia selection. You spin the knob to go down a menu list, push it to select an item, or just shove it left to go back to the previous menu.

#2008 idrive review drivers#

The crisp 8.8-inch display still eschews a touch screen (the company doesn’t want drivers leaning forward to change settings) in favor of the control knob, but the knob works more consistently and simply with the on-screen menus. Sitting behind the wheel of a preproduction 2009 335d, I immediately felt more comfortable with the new iDrive.

#2008 idrive review series#

It will be standard in 7 Series models starting in the spring. This great-grandson of iDrive made its debut in revised 2009 3 Series and 1 Series models this month as a roughly $2,000 option (depending on the model). The voice recognition system has been tweaked with a faster computer processor and 80 gigabyte hard drive that lets iDrive switch more quickly between functions and controls. The iDrive control knob still sits ahead of the center armrest, but it is surrounded by a cluster of seven buttons. Now, with what is officially BMW’s fourth version of iDrive, the company has abandoned the compass menu for a traditional vertical list and branching-tree structure. Later, the eight-point compass menu was cut to four. And the on-screen menus, which started from an odd eight-point compass screen, used abstruse initials like “BC” (meaning board computer, used to access features like distance-to-empty and fuel economy) and “PDC pic” (meaning park distance control, which helps with parking).Īs if all this weren’t bad enough, earlier iDrives were so slow to respond that changing any setting was best performed while the car was parked.īut over the years, BMW throttled back on the iDrive, first adding buttons for climate controls, then a row of programmable buttons so that drivers could get directly to functions of their choice. In one version of the system, for example, one had to navigate multiple screens just to turn up the air-conditioning storing a preferred radio station took up to five spins and clicks of the knob. The trouble was that it was frustratingly complex. The iDrive could (and still can) control everything from the temperature settings and the speed of the air-conditioning fan to the radio, navigation system and cellphone. But as engineers sometimes do, they went too far. So they eliminated many of the buttons and knobs and replaced them with iDrive’s in-dash LCD display and a rotating, sliding, toggling knob on the center console, allowing drivers to select among myriad controls and settings. BMW engineers said they thought the growing thicket of inscrutable buttons on car dashboards was confusing.

The iDrive system was originally intended to be a paragon of simplicity. Now, in some cars that became available this month, the company is offering a new system with a revised interface that is easier to use and may be ready to shed its image as a symbol of technology run amok. “Dizzying,” “hindrance” and “knobsense” are some of the kinder words that have been used to describe the often bewildering computerized interface that operates the navigation, communications and entertainment systems.īut just as relentlessly, BMW has clung to iDrive through seven years of adjustments, upgrades and tweaks. ONE is hard pressed to recall an automotive feature that has been as relentlessly criticized as iDrive, the central control system in many BMWs.