Very different iDrive

I've discovered a very significant interface difference between the 545/645 and 750 iDrives. And its frustrating beyond belief.

In the 545/645 (can't speak for the 550/650) to move within the screen to a new submenu you moved the iDrive up,down, left or right. Very simple and makes for quick navigation.

I've discovered the 750 has the odd requirement of forcing the user to scroll through every possible option until you land on the one you want. You can drill down - but you can't move left, right, up or down. So if I'm on Preset #12 in my SAT and want to change to an FM station I have to scroll all the way up, past Preset #1, then to my radio options, then to FM...blah..blah...

I realize you guys already know this...but navigating the 750 interface seems needlessly tedious. I'll check into voice commands - maybe that's the short cut I'm looking for.

Switching back and forth between the two cars (650/745), the differences really annoy me. At first, I thought maybe the 650's movement was the better of two, but given some time, I think I much prefer the 745's. The only time I prefer the 6's iDrive is when I am setting something up in Navigation.

Originally Posted by credit777

I've discovered a very significant interface difference between the 545/645 and 750 iDrives. And its frustrating beyond belief.

In the 545/645 (can't speak for the 550/650) to move within the screen to a new submenu you moved the iDrive up,down, left or right. Very simple and makes for quick navigation.

I've discovered the 750 has the odd requirement of forcing the user to scroll through every possible option until you land on the one you want. You can drill down - but you can't move left, right, up or down. So if I'm on Preset #12 in my SAT and want to change to an FM station I have to scroll all the way up, past Preset #1, then to my radio options, then to FM...blah..blah...

I realize you guys already know this...but navigating the 750 interface seems needlessly tedious. I'll check into voice commands - maybe that's the short cut I'm looking for.

Correct. The 7 series iDrive has was too complex so later on they simplified it. Even with the new interface I use the steering buttons to change selections. Easier regardless if you have iDrive or not.

Originally Posted by credit777

I've discovered a very significant interface difference between the 545/645 and 750 iDrives. And its frustrating beyond belief.

In the 545/645 (can't speak for the 550/650) to move within the screen to a new submenu you moved the iDrive up,down, left or right. Very simple and makes for quick navigation.

I've discovered the 750 has the odd requirement of forcing the user to scroll through every possible option until you land on the one you want. You can drill down - but you can't move left, right, up or down. So if I'm on Preset #12 in my SAT and want to change to an FM station I have to scroll all the way up, past Preset #1, then to my radio options, then to FM...blah..blah...

I realize you guys already know this...but navigating the 750 interface seems needlessly tedious. I'll check into voice commands - maybe that's the short cut I'm looking for.

I find that pressing the steering wheel talk button, and saying "radio frequency *******whatever point whatever******* is faster butthat is just me....

Originally Posted by esoteric

I find that pressing the steering wheel talk button, and saying "radio frequency *******whatever point whatever******* is faster butthat is just me....

Right...basically I think the answer is to become proficient with the voice commands.

But, it seems each day there is more and more about the 7's iDrive that bugs me. Little things, but bothersome nonetheless.

For example, lets say I'm listening to SAT and an old song comes on that I might want to buy from iTunes. In the 5 or 6 series you simply slide the iDrive controller down - and it takes you right to the song title.

Not so with the 7 - here you simply land in the SAT main menu. Then you have to scroll to SAT, click it, scroll over to the stations and find the one you're presently listening to and click again.

By that time the song is over!

Maybe I didn't have my 530i long enough, but I personally preferred the 7's i-drive over the 5's. All of the sliding of the i-drive rather than twisting was annoying to me. But, I did learn to use i-drive on a 7 first so that may be the culprit.

getting used to the voice control & what words you really need to say for it to recognise it and skip instantly to a submenu from the 1st menu is what you need to do.

also cant you use the FM/AM buttons on the radio faceplate to switch to FM?

Originally Posted by SilverSaloon

getting used to the voice control & what words you really need to say for it to recognise it and skip instantly to a submenu from the 1st menu is what you need to do.

also cant you use the FM/AM buttons on the radio faceplate to switch to FM?

You can change inputs, station,and volume from the steering wheel. The faceplate lets you change stations and volume.

I have a feeling that BMW did not give 750s to the design engineers to drive or that they prefer to drive the 650. Because if they drove the 750 on a daily basis, they would have realized how convoluted the iDrive is. In addition, had they have to drive in traffic jams everyday, they would learn to appreciate a scroll feature for the navigation map.

I started with the first 1.0 (if you will) 745Li and I had a good experience from the start. We are not talking about glitches, just plain old operation. To me, it just made so much sense and I found it easy to operate.

In comes version 2.0 and wow, it looks better and has some new functionality. Now I use what could be possibly version 5.0 and I still like what I see.

Now in the 6er and 5er, I was taken back a bit with it's little differences... I suspect what BMW did was instead of changing everthing in the 7er iDrive it incorporated them into the 3,5,and 6ers. Remember one main complaint from the world was that their were (Are) too many ways to move the darn iDrive knob. Walla, you now have 4 positions instead of 8 to manipulate the system but now a bunch of sub-menus; HAH! Be careful what you ask for becuase the Germans will give it to you and you still will not like it. "Damn Yankees!"

In all, I prefer the 7er but I drive my 6er everyday and I am fine with it, no issues here. Can't wait for iDrive version 10 seems to be the magic number with Microsoft. [Think MS Office 10]

I suppose its all in what you get used to. I find the 750i easy to use, but when I switch to the 550i for any length of time, and get used to that system, the 750i then seems to be frustrating and I have problems with it. Particularly the nav system. Simply stated, I prefer the nav system in the 550i to the 750i.
vz

Originally Posted by crvtt

But, I did learn to use i-drive on a 7 first so that may be the culprit.

I learned the iDrive on the 7er first as well, and thought it much better than in the 6er. Now that I'm used to the 6er, the 7er seems the odd one (745 is wife's car so I don't drive it that often.)

I've learned a very helpful voice command shortcut - "map", "scale 500 meters".

But I haven't solved the most frustrating problem of quickly getting to the SAT screen that identifies song title and artist info. It requires significant, carpel tunnel inducing scrolling.