What is the best feature of iDrive?

[NiBe]

Hello friends,

what is the best feature of iDrive for you?

For me it is "display off" which turns it off and it does not shine into my eyes. Do you know if it is possible to code this cool feature permanently?

Thanks!

[nrubenstein]

Single hump conversion.

[STooK]

I hate single hump and never had it in any of the 4 e9x I owned. I don’t use the navi obviously but the best feature is that it has a screen so it’s much easier to access menus and options. With the non idrive you have to guess what the little display is telling you in the cluster and honestly makes the car look 4 generations older. I guess to some people that’s “clean” but I’ll take idrive any day of the week (CIC only, not CCC).

[nrubenstein]

Originally Posted by STooK

I hate single hump and never had it in any of the 4 e9x I owned. I don’t use the navi obviously but the best feature is that it has a screen so it’s much easier to access menus and options. With the non idrive you have to guess what the little display is telling you in the cluster and honestly makes the car look 4 generations older. I guess to some people that’s “clean” but I’ll take idrive any day of the week (CIC only, not CCC).

I'm pretty sure it looks a lot newer than an E21 either way.

I'd argue that ancient NAV ages a car a lot more than no NAV. IMO, the only valid argument for CIC is to get the COMBOX. I solved that with a Mobridge unit instead.

[nycplumber]

Just fyi you can make display off a preset. So when you press 1 for radio it turns off the display.

[tbuck]

Originally Posted by nrubenstein

I'd argue that ancient NAV ages a car a lot more than no NAV. IMO, the only valid argument for CIC is to get the COMBOX. I solved that with a Mobridge unit instead.

The reality is that ALL NAV systems go out of date fairly quickly. Any car over 5 years old is well behind anything current. I never use the NAV function in any car, even the newer ones, because it is just simpler to use a phone, which has the advantage of always being current.

I wanted the screen primarily for COMBOX, yes, so full bluetooth for phone and streaming, but also for access to all the other menus as well. Other than to hard-core enthusiasts, the lack of a screen is a negative. Since mine is not a track/autoX car, but rather a fun weekend car, I wanted all the bells and whistles. Were I to be getting one of these for the track or autoX I would certainly want the single hump, but for any other use give me the full-fat version!

[NiBe]

Originally Posted by nycplumber

Just fyi you can make display off a preset. So when you press 1 for radio it turns off the display.

Can you provide instructions how to do that?

I like the double hump version aesthetically. Previous owner replaced the original unit with aftermarket Xtrons so it actually has some good features such as Waze, Bluetooth etc but I don't use the features much.

The only thing I would like to achieve is when I start the car the display is off until I wake it up by pressing something. That would be so cool.

Btw I just coded:

- comfort key eject (when you hold start/stop button the key ejects automatically)
- do not interrupt windows up/down movement when doors are opened
- double hazard light
- added high beams to welcome lights

[NiBe]

It turned out that I can assign the diamond button on steering wheel to display on/off function. Not exactly what I want (I want display off by default) but pretty close. Thanks BMW engineers!

[Lucky1]

There are A LOT of individual settings for the car you can program in iDrive including auto settings for climate control, M drive button functionality, etc. Can you do everything it can without it? I have a 128i "single hump" if you want to call it that and its clean, I'll give you that, but I'm being told I can retro in Apple CarPlay easily and at low cost. Won't be so dated then, will it?

[Lucky1]

Originally Posted by NiBe

It turned out that I can assign the diamond button on steering wheel to display on/off function. Not exactly what I want (I want display off by default) but pretty close. Thanks BMW engineers!

Be nice also if the screen were actually completely "off". It doesn't display anything but the backlight was on last time I tried. If memory serves correctly in my Z4M the backlight goes off. Unfortunately when a bluetooth call comes in (ie for nav instructions until I get CarPlay retrofit) it turns the display back on

[nrubenstein]

Originally Posted by tbuck

The reality is that ALL NAV systems go out of date fairly quickly. Any car over 5 years old is well behind anything current. I never use the NAV function in any car, even the newer ones, because it is just simpler to use a phone, which has the advantage of always being current.

I wanted the screen primarily for COMBOX, yes, so full bluetooth for phone and streaming, but also for access to all the other menus as well. Other than to hard-core enthusiasts, the lack of a screen is a negative. Since mine is not a track/autoX car, but rather a fun weekend car, I wanted all the bells and whistles. Were I to be getting one of these for the track or autoX I would certainly want the single hump, but for any other use give me the full-fat version!

That’s exactly my point. NAV in any car just pins it to the exact era of its development. My phone would be mounted to the dash no matter what, so NAV is basically useless to me. And I don’t like seeing it there.

As for “hard core enthusiasts,” well… Who exactly is paying $25-40k for a 10-15 year old car that gets EXCEPTIONALLY shitty gas mileage and is also pretty slow?

[tbuck]

Originally Posted by nrubenstein

That’s exactly my point. NAV in any car just pins it to the exact era of its development. My phone would be mounted to the dash no matter what, so NAV is basically useless to me. And I don’t like seeing it there.

As for “hard core enthusiasts,” well… Who exactly is paying $25-40k for a 10-15 year old car that gets EXCEPTIONALLY shitty gas mileage and is also pretty slow?

LOL, touché! However, with the number of "boi racer" "enhanced" examples I see around on the market it would seem to be quite a few that I would not consider hard core.

[akkando]

The fact that you can convert it to Carplay makes the car feel relatively modern.

[NiBe]

Originally Posted by Lucky1

Be nice also if the screen were actually completely "off". It doesn't display anything but the backlight was on last time I tried. If memory serves correctly in my Z4M the backlight goes off. Unfortunately when a bluetooth call comes in (ie for nav instructions until I get CarPlay retrofit) it turns the display back on

True true, just had a night drive and the back light indeed shines even when display off.. Bad BMW engineers...

[georgebmwM3]

I think we will get more integration from devices like mr12volt in the future

[tdott]

Originally Posted by akkando

The fact that you can convert it to Carplay makes the car feel relatively modern.

I second this.

Carplay / AA is all I need.

[Ximian]

My navigation maps are pretty up to date so I actually use the navigation feature for somewhat long drives.

Waze will screw you over on cross country drives if you're not paying attention.

[NiBe]

Originally Posted by Ximian

My navigation maps are pretty up to date so I actually use the navigation feature for somewhat long drives.

Waze will screw you over on cross country drives if you're not paying attention.

Here in Europe nothing better than Waze.

[nrubenstein]

Originally Posted by NiBe

Here in Europe nothing better than Waze.

Waze is very frustrating in the US. It has the best event notifications, but the quality of the directions has declined radically. And the actual interface is awful. Not to mention all the network timeouts. It's really, really bad. I still use it because it tells me the specific information that I really care about, but I think that we are getting to a point where even Apple Maps is a better navigation app. Which says a lot.

[nah dude]

Originally Posted by nrubenstein

Waze is very frustrating in the US. It has the best event notifications, but the quality of the directions has declined radically. And the actual interface is awful. Not to mention all the network timeouts. It's really, really bad. I still use it because it tells me the specific information that I really care about, but I think that we are getting to a point where even Apple Maps is a better navigation app. Which says a lot.

I live not too far north of you and have been using Waze since it launched over 10 years ago (remember running it on an iPhone 3GS) and have never had any of the issues you describe. Also Apple maps has been pretty decent for the last couple years.

[NiBe]

Is Android better than Apple?

Anyone knows how to turn off display of iDrive by default?

Thanks!