[captainaudio]

I think if BMW started stuffing the center consoles with dirty diapers and someone posted here complaining, it would only be a matter of time before the first "If you don't want to smell baby poop buy a Lexus" post appeared. If we all take the "BMW can do no wrong" attitude BMW will have no incentive to improve anything.

There is a lot more to iDrive than nav and nav it definiely the weakest portion of the idrive user interface. I have a 5 year old Gramin Street Pilot and it is a much better nav system than idrive.

Perhaps a naive high school kid who fancies himself a computer expert would find the interface of iDrive acceptable but any computer professional with even a rudmentary understanding of programing will recognise that it (pre 2009 version) is a very cumbersome and overerly complex user interface.

As I said I would rather have it than not have it and it can certainly be figured out but that does not mean that there is not a lot of room for improvement.

I have mangaged a number of complex software development projects. If one of my staff had come up with the iDrive interface he would have been let go.

I honestly don't know how it stacks up against the competition but if iDrive is best of breed than that is a pretty sad state of affairs.

As far as "getting used to it" goes, you can get "used to" the smell of cow manure. but being used to it does not mean it doesn't stink.



CA