[MMVI]

I have got iDrive for the first time and whilst the interface is a treat to look at I am VERY disappointed in some of the features and how clumsy to downright stupid some of the navigation is...

Why, when I choose a track on the idrive am I locked in to that track, what the hell is that all about, Why is any change a 'new search', I don't want to search for anything I want to back up the tree that I know I have just navigated however clumsily down. Ridiculous, time consuming and frankly distractingly dangerous. I have just shown a colleague who has the old shape 5 as he did not believe me and he scoffed at the ridiculousness of it.

I have still not got to grips with POI handling on the Nav I can't be bothered to explain the problem here as it is just crap, and I completely wasted £90.00 on the internet option as after probably 5 attempts it has never shown me a web page other than Google and that looks worse than the rubbish browser on a playstation.

I am getting an iphone soon and very much hope that the system will give me the option to use its 3G connection instead of the 14.4k nonsense in the car. As for the delay from when you ask for a URL, to when you lose interest and give up because you never got it is unacceptable. Its like using the oldest PC you can imagine.

On the upside the Navigation is quite beautiful to look at. The colours, font, zoom in and out are first class but where is 'Choose alternative route, or avoid part of route, any Tom Tom makes this system look like something out of the stoneage.

A rant and a moan, yes, forgive me but I am entitled to my opionion and beloved though you are I am sorry BMW but this lot is not good enough.

P.S One more thing and this is a little sour grapes. I have just dropped 40k on a car, it is a 520d msport. This is a lot of motor in anyones book but was there really a need to put a down function aircon and reduced lighting in the car. My aircon and such was better in my three and even though I have spent a lot more money, for some reason BMW needed to remind me I am driving the povvie model model. Its not relative, its cheap. Go figure.

I feel better now. Sorry.

[wessew10]

All navigation systems have their flaws. I have not found the need to go back up the tree as you describe it very often in actual use. You can change route preferences, etc. on the fly by hitting the Option button. The navigation system works quite well for me and this is comparing it to Lexus and Acura systems I have used in prior cars.

[kave]

Originally Posted by MMVI

This is a lot of motor in anyones book but was there really a need to put a down function aircon and reduced lighting in the car.
I feel better now. Sorry.

Can you explain in English please. "a need to put a down function zircon"?

Are you saying you don't like the Angel eyes and like to have daytime running lights and you don't think the air-condition cools enough? If you have problems this time of the year I guess it will get worse in the summer.

[HighlandPete]

Isn't it simply the standard 520d is built to a price, to compete in the market place. There are plenty of options, if you want the full cream.

If you check the specs' of the 320d and 520d you realise the 520d is giving far better value, as standard specification. They have to cut the cloth somewhere, or the 3-series will look even more highly inflated.

HighlandPete

[sieben1973]

Why, when I choose a track on the idrive am I locked in to that track, what the hell is that all about, Why is any change a 'new search', I don't want to search for anything I want to back up the tree that I know I have just navigated however clumsily down. Ridiculous, time consuming and frankly distractingly dangerous. I have just shown a colleague who has the old shape 5 as he did not believe me and he scoffed at the ridiculousness of it.

I am with you on this one
I HATE IT

[MMVI]

Originally Posted by kave

Can you explain in English please. "a need to put a down function zircon"?

Are you saying you don't like the Angel eyes and like to have daytime running lights and you don't think the air-condition cools enough? If you have problems this time of the year I guess it will get worse in the summer.

In the uk, the 520d uniquely in the range is not fitted with ambient lighting and has a basic aircon with features missing and blanks on the control panel.
My 325 had both of these features.

[eripers]

Originally Posted by sieben1973

Why, when I choose a track on the idrive am I locked in to that track, what the hell is that all about, Why is any change a 'new search', I don't want to search for anything I want to back up the tree that I know I have just navigated however clumsily down. Ridiculous, time consuming and frankly distractingly dangerous. I have just shown a colleague who has the old shape 5 as he did not believe me and he scoffed at the ridiculousness of it.

I am with you on this one
I HATE IT

If you go down selecting artist, album and song you create a filter based on tags. Then it is really no obvious song to jump to. Start play at a higher level ie after selecting artist and album I will play all songs on the album. I don't like this behavior very much either, because it will then play the songs in alphabetical order, not the order on the album.
But if you select a song by going down the directory structure and selecting a song there it will continue to next song as you want. If you order the files in artist\album\song structure with filename starting with song number you should get the functionality you want. In this case you just select a start song and not a tag filter.
And then you have playlists, and both tag filter and playlists can be added a random order, so you really have a lot of options.
Personally I like to play an album at the time so I could do with the directory structure option. But I think this has something to do with age, young people today things songs and artist more than album so they might find the ta filter options useful.

[sieben1973]

Originally Posted by eripers

If you go down selecting artist, album and song you create a filter based on tags. Then it is really no obvious song to jump to. Start play at a higher level ie after selecting artist and album I will play all songs on the album. I don't like this behavior very much either, because it will then play the songs in alphabetical order, not the order on the album.
But if you select a song by going down the directory structure and selecting a song there it will continue to next song as you want. If you order the files in artist\album\song structure with filename starting with song number you should get the functionality you want. In this case you just select a start song and not a tag filter.
And then you have playlists, and both tag filter and playlists can be added a random order, so you really have a lot of options.
Personally I like to play an album at the time so I could do with the directory structure option. But I think this has something to do with age, young people today things songs and artist more than album so they might find the ta filter options useful.

That will not work for my 320GB drive full of music in the car
imagine how much i have to scroll from A to Z

[EdM5]

Originally Posted by sieben1973

Why, when I choose a track on the idrive am I locked in to that track, what the hell is that all about, Why is any change a 'new search', I don't want to search for anything I want to back up the tree that I know I have just navigated however clumsily down. Ridiculous, time consuming and frankly distractingly dangerous. I have just shown a colleague who has the old shape 5 as he did not believe me and he scoffed at the ridiculousness of it.

I am with you on this one
I HATE IT

Sounds crap indeed.
But, if you use an iPod as audio source it all works like a charm.
You can make dedicated playlists for individual albums and you'll never have to worry about clumsy menu navigation again.

[eripers]

Originally Posted by sieben1973

That will not work for my 320GB drive full of music in the car
imagine how much i have to scroll from A to Z

I use a 320GB disk myself, and it's not too mutch scrolling. Of course it depends on the number of artists you have.

But if the number of top level artist folders are to many, then just add a level and group according to alphabeth using A-E,F-K,... folders or any other folder structure you choose.

[martin mustang]

I totally agree, and the one part that really gets to me compare to the E60, is why on earth they moved the cruise control functions to the steering wheel, and left some of the vital one out, like the programmable switch that I used for closing vents circulation, very handy when a diesel in front of you covers you with smoke, now by the time you get to the switch, its too late and you rather want the vents open ASAP to let the smoke out.
When a driver opt for the auto cruse control, this means that the road is clear, a highway more likely with very little to do, so hardly any obstacles or traffic, so why on earth BMW ultimate driving machine did not leave this function away from the steering wheel, and keep rather distracting functions used more frequently at reach like mute the stereo, up down play list ….

[Bamsha]

Perhaps you should have ordered some more options(air con) instead of spending so much on M-sport on a 520d...

[sunnyUK]

It is a pain so i I just use the scoll wheel on the steering wheel to change songs - a bit tedious i guess -as you get the entire HD presented as a list but at least you can keep eyes on road.

[Gran Turismo]

If selecting only for an album, the tracks will play in the original order on the album. The CCC is a computer too, and as a matter of fact those things usually tend to list files in alphabetical order... The audio system in the earlier E6x models was far less advanced in every respect.
If you want to preserve the album order when using other search criteria, you'd need to insert track numbers at the beginning of the song filenames.
However I would rather suggest to create playlists im M3U format and store them in the top directory. Playlist Creator by oddgravity is a nice freeware for creating and maintaining them, no need to buy an iPod just for that at all.

I actually prefer the cruise control on the steering wheel. The two stalks in the E63 kept confusing me (= blasting the full headlights at the poor guy in front of me ) even after several years.
The only IMHO weird thing with the F10 is why after starting the engine the CC has to be "activated" first with the I/O button / why pressing "Set" in the first place can't activate it as well.

The Internet connectivity and the related bandwidth is country and provider specific, so there's no point ranting about it on this international board. As for the functionality - what we currently see is the first generation. IMHO it's rather insane to use a classic browser (i.e. Google) on iDrive, replacing a keyboard + mouse just with the iDrive controller and to be allowed to use that while driving!
The generic Internet usage approach in a car should generally be "App" based and fully adapted to the available simple basic input device (= iDrive controller), like the "weather" or "stocks" apps we see on today's smartphones. A first step - while being far from perfect yet - is the facebook 6NR app. Another one I could imagine would be some optional NAV feature to use Google (Maps) in the background for the POI search instead of the locally stored static data.
I'm pretty sure we'll see more such developments in a very near future, possibly including more advanced voice controls à la Siri.

[okram]

I agree with the OP, user interface is clumsy.

I don't use search option. I found it inconvenient - requires many more turns and presses to handle. Also it only sorts songs in alphabetical order and not in album order. Music Search resets after longer stop so you have to make selection again. I put all my songs in folders by artists, records and it works well - the only thing is that it also resets after a while and "current playback" option does not work.

[koby]

I too am extremely disappointed with the tech in my f10 as well. All the untested and flawed operational aspects of the idrive interface makes me feel like the quality of BMWs build and r&d is slipping. Sadly that's part of every manufacturers cycle as they try to ramp up production, and start to cut corners for the sake of profitability. Can't shake the feeling that parts of the car were rushed into production w/o really addressing early issues - jerky transmission case in point.

[kave]

Originally Posted by MMVI

In the uk, the 520d uniquely in the range is not fitted with ambient lighting and has a basic aircon with features missing and blanks on the control panel.
My 325 had both of these features.

Allright, same here, and we don't get leather as standard either.
Almost all 5-series sold here are equipped with Comfort package. That includes proper aircon, xenon and some other stuff which should be standard.
But, it's not a japanese or korean car where almost everything comes as standard of course.

I fully agree with the clumsy interface of the i-Drive, after numerous test drives I haven't figured it out properly. Most other cars ore more logical and easier to understand.

[BigMikeTwn]

In my previous E60, the Idrive would boot up to a navigation portal screen... at least it looked nicer than the one in my F10 which is just a list of words to scroll down.......

[Mark_G]

Are you sure the air-conditioner is different on yours than other 5 series models? I don't find the A/C on my 550i to be very good so it may be an issue across the range of 5-series models.

[eripers]

Originally Posted by BigMikeTwn

In my previous E60, the Idrive would boot up to a navigation portal screen... at least it looked nicer than the one in my F10 which is just a list of words to scroll down.......

It boot's to whatever screen you leaves it in. I have map on main and media information on split screen. Mutch better than starting up with a picture of the iDrive button in my opinion.