You are assuming that BMW buyers are actually choosing the car based on its usability/utility. Not so. They just want the status of a BMW, and that the one they buy/lease is the latest one. I'd wager that very, very few of the current 7-series BMW owners know or care about i-Drive, or know all its capabilities. They simply know they are in the latest, greatest BMW, and that all their friends will be impressed. About all they'll ever know is to put it into drive and step on the gas.

Unfortunately, we are now at the stage where super-saturating a car with features is the only way to 'differentiate' it. My wife and I test drove a VW van the other day with "TCS" and "ACR" and other pseudonym-named-features that the salesman didn't even know how to explain. We couldn't find one without the pseudonyms and the salesman just shrugged and said "they all have it... whatever it is". My wife just shrugged and said "well, I hope it can go in the snow". Do the designers actually think that the next time it snows my wife will remember what the "ACR" button means and press it? Ummm... not a chance.

I can't even figure out how to clear the "Replace Key Battery" message on my 9-5 without reading the owner's manual, and it just frustrates me to have to be annoyed by such drivel. How about when the battery dies, the key fob just no longer works, and I have to use the key. Then I'll replace the battery. No messages. No digging into the manual for the elusive phrase "hit the unlock button 4 time in a row"....



posted by 12.4.21...

• .. i-Drive, do you ? (Or, BMW, what were u-thinking?), STICKMAN, Mon, 30 Jun 2003 11:49:49
  • Re: .. i-Drive, do you ? (Or, BMW, what were u-thinking?), Ed NC, Mon, 30 Jun 2003 13:09:20
  • Re: .. i-Drive, do you ? (Or, BMW, what were u-thinking?), compaqted, Mon, 30 Jun 2003 13:04:36 <-- Viewing This Message
    • Do you feel like "i-Scream" yet ? n/m, SaabKen, Tue, 1 Jul 2003 08:46:54
    • Re: Yes! Oh for the days when >, STICKMAN, Mon, 30 Jun 2003 14:41:01
      • Even better .... the days when we *walked* to our, SaabKen in Vancouver, Mon, 30 Jun 2003 18:06:37
  • Re: .. i-Drive, do you ? (Or, BMW, what were u-thinking?), michael p, Mon, 30 Jun 2003 12:37:26
  • just wait until it Blue Screen of Death's :) n/m, Trev, Mon, 30 Jun 2003 12:03:44

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