Ok, after reading the manual in detail, and playing with my car for a few hours, I found some obscure and interesting stuff that I bet some owners didn't know about them. Please feel free to add to this list, and if it is good enought, it could become a sticky.
1) After you move the vehicle in reverse, you don't need to push the safety button on the left of the shifter to move back to Drive. It makes a 3 point u-turn much faster.
2) You can pause, rewind and fast forward your Satellite Radio music, just like a Tivo! While playing a song, Just move the iDrive one click to the left, and select the 4th option down on the new pop-up menu that apears. Also, you can see ALL THE SONGS PLAYING in all the stations if you select Title view instead of Station view with the first icon on that same menu.
3) If you try to drive with your door open, the car will stop, engage the hand-brake and put the vehicle in P, all by itself.
4) If you turn off the engine, the car gets into P by itself. If you were in the Sports program (shift lever to the left), the car selects P, and then moves the lever to the right by itself.
5) There is a 12V power outlet below the glove box compartment. (Glove box closed, look up from the floor, towards the left).
6) If you open the trunk with your key-fob, or with the switch next to the hood release, the trunk unlocks and pops-open. No Convenience Package required...
7) For those with fold-down rear seats (don't know about the rest): When you fold down the center arm rest, there is a little piece behind it that pops open and gives you access to the trunk. That piece has a small compartment inside, suposedly for the Ski Bag.
8) When using the cross-hatch function in the Nav (to find a location in the map by moving the iDrive cursor left-right and up-down) you can move diagonally at any angle if you rotate the iDrive knob while tilting it left, right, up or down.
9) You can play the songs stored in your blackberry and control the playback thru the stereo if you connect your BBerry to the USB/iPod port in the armrest compartment and enable the USB Storage option on your blackberry. This also recharges your Bberry while you drive, and if you had it paired with bluetooth to the car, the playback will pause while you get a call, and resume where you left the song.
10) If you have the 2TB option (Sports Auto Transmission), you can configure Sports mode in the Dynamic Driving Control to only change the Chassis (if you don't have ZDH, only changes the steering wheel tighter) and this gives you a better feel, while saving you gas. If then you want to also change the engine and transmission, just flip the shifter to the left. This way, you don't have to be re-configuring the Sport setting every time.
11) If you floor the accelerator at a red light, you leave almost everyone in the dust and a stupid grin apears automatically in your face...
1) After you move the vehicle in reverse, you don't need to push the safety button on the left of the shifter to move back to Drive. It makes a 3 point u-turn much faster.
2) You can pause, rewind and fast forward your Satellite Radio music, just like a Tivo! While playing a song, Just move the iDrive one click to the left, and select the 4th option down on the new pop-up menu that apears. Also, you can see ALL THE SONGS PLAYING in all the stations if you select Title view instead of Station view with the first icon on that same menu.
3) If you try to drive with your door open, the car will stop, engage the hand-brake and put the vehicle in P, all by itself.
4) If you turn off the engine, the car gets into P by itself. If you were in the Sports program (shift lever to the left), the car selects P, and then moves the lever to the right by itself.
5) There is a 12V power outlet below the glove box compartment. (Glove box closed, look up from the floor, towards the left).
6) If you open the trunk with your key-fob, or with the switch next to the hood release, the trunk unlocks and pops-open. No Convenience Package required...
7) For those with fold-down rear seats (don't know about the rest): When you fold down the center arm rest, there is a little piece behind it that pops open and gives you access to the trunk. That piece has a small compartment inside, suposedly for the Ski Bag.
8) When using the cross-hatch function in the Nav (to find a location in the map by moving the iDrive cursor left-right and up-down) you can move diagonally at any angle if you rotate the iDrive knob while tilting it left, right, up or down.
9) You can play the songs stored in your blackberry and control the playback thru the stereo if you connect your BBerry to the USB/iPod port in the armrest compartment and enable the USB Storage option on your blackberry. This also recharges your Bberry while you drive, and if you had it paired with bluetooth to the car, the playback will pause while you get a call, and resume where you left the song.
10) If you have the 2TB option (Sports Auto Transmission), you can configure Sports mode in the Dynamic Driving Control to only change the Chassis (if you don't have ZDH, only changes the steering wheel tighter) and this gives you a better feel, while saving you gas. If then you want to also change the engine and transmission, just flip the shifter to the left. This way, you don't have to be re-configuring the Sport setting every time.
11) If you floor the accelerator at a red light, you leave almost everyone in the dust and a stupid grin apears automatically in your face...