So I had my 2007 X5 3.0 in to the dealer earlier this week as I had a few random electrical gremlins I wanted to see if they could determine a root cause for:

1. Every time I start the car after leaving it for a bit, the screen brightness is always back to the middle, even though I set it to the highest setting each time I get in the car. I read several posts from other members with the same issue, but no one seems to have gotten a good solution for this one yet.

2. Intermittently, when I put the car in reverse, the backup camera display will overlay what is currently on the nav screen--usually the iPod/AUX screen. So when I'm trying to look at the display, I see both at the same time which renders the feature useless when it happens.

The dealer checked the car and of course "couldn't reproduce" any of the issues--even though I specifically told them how to reproduce the screen brightness issue. My guess is they didn't leave the car off long enough to see the brightness reset to the middle.

Anyway, when they looked at the car, they said there were a bunch of low voltage faults recorded. They also said that after doing an "energy analysis", the car reported that I make a lot of short trips--which I do. Granted, short trips for me are 4 - 5 mile one way trips to and from work, around the city, etc. They said this is a common occurrence and they recommend that I get a batter charger and hook it up once a week.

Now I'm sorry, but this just seems wrong to me. I live in Seattle, and nowhere here (unless you live in the burbs) requires a long trip. So the idea that what I (and most people in the city) consider normal driving is "short" for this car which requires battery charging?!? They said my issues with the nav screen, brightness setting, etc. are probably due to the low voltage faults since the car is probably shutting down certain non necessary systems when this happens causing these problems.

I had a 2008 528xi before my X5, and with the same driving patterns never had this issue. They checked the battery and said it was fine, so I'm at a loss as to why I now have to start charging the battery of my car--this seems crazy to me.

Has anyone else heard of this or experienced this?