[Oulixes]

Originally Posted by JSpira

That is a false conclusion. One did not lead to the other.

The 4th generation of iDrive was developed from the knowledge gleaned from the first 3 generations.

In addition, you can't lump all three generations of iDrive into "the old system" as there were more differences than similarities.

Finally, while previous gen. units had issues, the percentage of units that failed has been exceptionally small and that is in direct contradiction with "too many problems".

As this is an Internet discussion, we should stay clear of causality. However, it should be noted that we do not have any conclusion, false or true, since we have little to no data to base conclusions on. 'Lumping,' is not a term I would choose, but if it is means observing that there is a degree of dependence between and among events in a time series, it makes sense to lump.

We do have one anecdotal evidence, namely that in one case the old iDrive has not only failed to interact with a phone, but also crashed, and had to be rebooted by a technician. We also were told that two BMW AG engineers blamed a company named Samsung for the fact that one (?) phone made by Samsung did not interact correctly with the old iDrive. We do not know if the iDrive crash JSpira mentioned was reproducible. We know that the old iDrive has been replaced with a new one, whose design we are told is based on the wealth of knowledge 'gleaned' from the previous generation(s), which are not to be called 'the old system' and must not be 'lumped.' We hope but are still not sure how crash-proof the new iDrive will be. We have no answer to my repeated reveille for a bit more intelligent documentation for the cars we drive. From this skimpy selection of statistically insignificant samples and anecdotal references mostly supplied by people who either make or sell cars whose charms and follies are being discussed, people are free to make any conclusions they want.

[jcrwu]

Hey Luigi. I just sent you a PM. My '06 E90 had the exactly same problem. The iDrive went blank and the DVD/CD drives kept spinning even after I shut off the engine. I had to pull the fuse to prevent the battery from draining dead. The dealership ended up replacing my CCC and reprogrammed the entire car with the latest Progman. So far, so good.

[luigi-e90]

thanks! i'll do the same on monday