After my initial experience with the idrive, I decided not to get a BMW. I went back about 3 weeks later, spoke with a different salesman who spent about 30 minutes showing me how to scroll through the system. After a few nights sitting in the car playing with the knob, I can now amaze my friends with how the idrive works. I have also found that nearly everything you can do with the knob, you can do with voice commands. As I have written in other threads, I can't imagine driving a vehicle without the idrive. If Consumer Reports spent a little time with the system I think they would realize how simple it is to use.