Folks
This thread is far too unanimous so for the sake of balance I'm gonna say that I hate the iDrive and think it is the most pointless, annoying "innovation" that BMW has ever made.
To me, its a solution looking for a problem; fixing something that wasn't broken in the first place. I mean, before iDrive existed who ever cursed their cars for having to push a single button or twiddle some simple knob to accomplish some task? I certainly never did (especially with BMW's which even when the Japs and Mercedes to some extent went totally overboard with button mania, still had relatively clean uncluttered dash layout).
But iDrive would be fine if it actually sped up or made it more convenient to do things. Here it fails miserably, since I can't think of a single thing which is easier or quicker to accomplish with iDrive than with old buttons and knobs (now granted I have not used iDrive on the E90, my only experience with it is on a 530d). Thats not to say you can't learn the system and become proficient with it. You can, its not that difficult. But even when you have become proficient with it, I still think the old way is better and faster. BMW's are, after all, supposed to be the ultimate driving machine, and anything that causes you to spend more time fiddling with a computer and your eyes off the road is surely missing the whole point.
Oh and before anyone says I am not tech literate etc etc let it be known that I am a tech freak in most respects. I love gadgets of all sorts, have 4 pc's in the house (2 self built with Stage 1 gentoo Linux installs
) and its not for lack of understanding. IMO its just pointless and the day it becomes compulsory on the 3, may be the day I buy my last BMW.
C