What iDrive interior would you choose?

[EnI]

Well I like the X5's interior the most ...but interestingly, it is also the most conservative and least Bangle-esque of the interiors shown.

Klier, you said in another thread that you did not like Audi's interiors -- and yet here, the interior you like the most is much more like Audi's than any other recent BMWs.

IMO, the current BMW interiors will date extremely quickly ...I would be willing to bet on it.

I disagree. IMO the current BMW interiors will not age quickly. Because they are totally different from any other seen interiors - so they still look fresh despite being in the market for quite some years.

Take the 7er for example: even after 5 years the interior still looks very up-to-date - even more: MB kind a copied the 7er interior layout in W221 S-class.

I'm sure BMW interiors can be called classic: since they are definitely not classic and will never be. And thus they are attracted to different kind of people - not the ones who love classic interiors.

But if you are saying with "will age very quickly" = "will never become classic interior design", then you are absolutely right. But you have to know that is the purpose of new BMW design language: not to be classic anymore!

Also: I disagree X5 interior is the moste conservative of all current BMW interiors. To me 6er has the most conservative iDrive interior (ignore the funny color & trim combination in the above posted pic).

Btw: where do you see Audi elements in E70 interior??? Can you explain please. Thanks.

 

[EnI]

The 7er's interior could be the best if they used better materials.

Better materials in 7er??? Have you ever seat in the 7er?
For me it was more than enough good - also in comparison to so many times celebrated Audi A8 interior.

But, yes the pic with all biege interor looks odd .

 

[El Zorro]

you know what i read somewhere about this new idrive in the X5.. it has 6 programmeable buttons.. so whats up with that.. doesent that in a way go against the original i drive idea where one knob does most of the job..

for example the first i drive in the 7er had just the wheel.. and then they added the Menu button.. and now this.. maybe the idea failed then.. but i dont care.. really .. they are making it better...so who am i to complain..

I thought just the same thing when I heard of those 6 buttons (btw, on the pictures I see 8 buttons ). Good point I think they realized they'd gone too far with their 'simplification', so they needed to add buttons again. In order not to imitate Audi's MMI-system (and admit they made a little mistake), they choose not to work with "NAV", "CD", "<text>"-buttons around the Idrive knob, but with programmable unlabeled buttons, which isn't very handy IMO (are people supposed to remember what is under button 5 for example?). Mercedes came up with their system after BMW and Audi, and they more or less took the best out of IDrive and MMI (I don't want to suggest they just copied the whole thing )

 

[klier]

I guess I am the only one who likes the interior of that M6.

Eni, can you please edit my post with a more normal M6 interior shot, and maybe put a little smaller pic of the M5! Thanks! (oh and that shot of the M5 is NOT with with updated interior trim either, which is a shame. But I couldn't find a good frontal dash shot

 

[EnI]

you know what i read somewhere about this new idrive in the X5.. it has 6 programmeable buttons.. so whats up with that.. doesent that in a way go against the original i drive idea where one knob does most of the job..

for example the first i drive in the 7er had just the wheel.. and then they added the Menu button.. and now this.. maybe the idea failed then.. but i dont care.. really .. they are making it better...so who am i to complain..

The MENU button is like "Escape" button - it was needed from the begining.

This new programmable buttons are just "fast keys" or "shortcut keys" for user-preselected radio stations, phone numbers, or navigation destinaions. Nothing more.

All 8 buttons are programmable in Europe model, while in US model 6 are programmable - other two are for radio modes switching IMO (like AM / FM / SAT) or something similar.

 

[LaArtist]

^ still it proves my point..maybe they got a bit to excited with the first idrive..
i rest my case..

 

[Imhotep Evil]

give me the 6er its hottest the I drive looks really in place there..

I definately agree.

 

[Imhotep Evil]

I guess I am the only one who likes the interior of that M6.
(

Well I'm with you and so is The Artist.

 

[warot]

I thought just the same thing when I heard of those 6 buttons (btw, on the pictures I see 8 buttons ). Good point I think they realized they'd gone too far with their 'simplification', so they needed to add buttons again. In order not to imitate Audi's MMI-system (and admit they made a little mistake), they choose not to work with "NAV", "CD", "<text>"-buttons around the Idrive knob, but with programmable unlabeled buttons, which isn't very handy IMO (are people supposed to remember what is under button 5 for example?). Mercedes came up with their system after BMW and Audi, and they more or less took the best out of IDrive and MMI (I don't want to suggest they just copied the whole thing )

Here's the Hot Key at work... you can see on the bottom of the Idrive screen what they stand for.


Concerning BMW simplifying the Idrive, yes the first generation was way too complicated. That had 8 directions or something. The newer ones are much simpler and pretty intuitive I think. It's just getting bad press from the first generation. If you think about it, the idea of minimizing the buttons is still there. You get 8 buttons which you program to your needs, rather than 100 buttons that does everything (with symbols so small you can barely read them)

 

[SDNR]

I disagree. IMO the current BMW interiors will not age quickly. Because they are totally different from any other seen interiors - so they still look fresh despite being in the market for quite some years.

Take the 7er for example: even after 5 years the interior still looks very up-to-date - even more: MB kind a copied the 7er interior layout in W221 S-class.

I'm sure BMW interiors can be called classic: since they are definitely not classic and will never be. And thus they are attracted to different kind of people - not the ones who love classic interiors.

But if you are saying with "will age very quickly" = "will never become classic interior design", then you are absolutely right. But you have to know that is the purpose of new BMW design language: not to be classic anymore!

Also: I disagree X5 interior is the moste conservative of all current BMW interiors. To me 6er has the most conservative iDrive interior (ignore the funny color & trim combination in the above posted pic).

Btw: where do you see Audi elements in E70 interior??? Can you explain please. Thanks.

Well I can only give my opinions EniLab, if you disagree, that's your right.

I find it quite difficult to explain what I am talking about here. The BMW interiors might be different to other car interiors but they still have a style that can be seen in numerous current household consumer products -- mostly the continuous curves and semi-organic shapes that are currently quite fashionable. We must also acknowledge that as far as design is concerned, we live in a very pluralistic time -- there is no particular "look" or "style" that we could call quintessentially circa 2006 ...but rather there are many different styles that express the multi-faceted, global culture we have today.

The X5 interior reminds me [in a very abstract way of course] of the A8's interior -- I cannot give you any specific reason, but I am quite serious about this -- I am sorry to be so vague, but it's just my personal perception.

I will reply later with a more specific response.

 

[Deleted member 25]

Better materials in 7er??? Have you ever seat in the 7er?
For me it was more than enough good - also in comparison to so many times celebrated Audi A8 interior.

But, yes the pic with all biege interor looks odd .

Of course i have seat in the 7 er, and i confirm what i said, material are not the best of the category, in my opinion, Mercedes and audi did a better job.

 

[EnI]

Of course i have seat in the 7 er, and i confirm what i said, material are not the best of the category, in my opinion, Mercedes and audi did a better job.

Can you be more specific, please. I really do not understand what is so sub-par in 7er?

Materials seemed on-par to me - but the design was really not as cohesive as the one of Audi & MB - therefore maybe a perception of worse quality?

 

[MB_AD]

7er have the best idrive placed and i like its interior. i tried BMW iDrive it's too complicated and 7er driving pleasure is not as Mercedes s-class.

But why all BMW interior are the same and i really don't like the round buttons

 

[klier]

7er have the best idrive placed and i like its interior. i tried BMW iDrive it's too complicated and 7er driving pleasure is not as Mercedes s-class.

But why all BMW interior are the same and i really don't like the round buttons

As you can see, they clearly are not. You can see they all have the same design direction (minus maybe the X5), but very different results.

 

[LaArtist]

still they are pretty darn similar..but nothing like audi they have the most similare interior line up of the german cars.. nothing bad with that by the way..if your initiall direction of desing is nice..

 

[wltsm]

For me, the 7er, I do really like the new X5, but the 7er is still the best!

 

[Centurion]

My vote went to the X5. It has the least sterile looking interior and I like the traditional and conservative wood panels streching around the whole interior.

 

[Matt]

I chose the 3 series interior. Its very stylish in my opinion. The 7er is looking a bit older now, especially since the release of the S class. The 5 er is looking plain and the 6 is not as flowing as the X5's and 3's..... It was a tough choice between the 3 and X5 but the three edged it...Looks really sexy and I honestly dont think Audi interiors hold a candle to it, seriously.

 

[Alexandro]

7er !!! and the suckiest one is 5er !

 

[tobajara]

I prefer the X5s interior.