I've got my 8700 running smoothly by simply not worrying about trying to upload the whole phonebook. Go to Settings/Bluetooth/Options and set the Address Book Transfer to "Hotlist Only". That way, mine happily connects when I get in the car (even mid-call, where it switches from phone to handsfree) and uploads the list of most recent numbers called. No more reboots.

Also, you should load your most used numbers into the voice-dial system. Then they will be available to you regardless of whose phone is paired to the system and are easily accessible without lots of scrolling.

Anyone who does manage to upload thier whole address book will spend their whole time scrolling through their numbers. IMO Blackberry's OS is a hundred times better and faster at finding a particular number than BMW's.

I did try everything else - swapping the Last/First to First/Last config, encryption on/off, etc. Have read a lot of people talking about CIP 20 upgrades, but not sure if this is relevant to my car - a late 05 diesel X5.