I have a Bold 9000 and use it without issue in my 06 X5 w factory NAV. This may be a long shot but try doing a wipe and a restore of your contact list on your phone. Couldnt hurt to try.

Thank you for your prompt reply.
I started out with a clean address book. But, in order to work on the problem, I made a new category called "Car" and I put in 5 new bogus address book entries and I attached them the the "Car" category. I got the same inconsistent address book behavior. What software veraion are you running on your 9000?

can you please explain how you created the category - I want to give a try as well.

I have no issue with my 8120 (except the displaying of the sms on the car's screen and transferring the call to the phone when the call is answered from the phone...but that is a completely different story..)

So, I figured out the problem. On the 9700 I activated password protection, and I also activated "Encryption." Once I shut encryption off, all the proper contacts transferred to my E70. Only the ones in my "BMW" category transferred.

apetrov1x5
I posted this about 2 years ago, if you search, I sure you will find it. I will summarize for you:

On the PC, in Outlook, Create a new category. It does not matter what you call it. I called mine BMW. Attach only the contacts you need in the car to this category. Don't go crazy, the less contacts you have, the better the voice recognition works. Sync the BB to Outlook.

On the phone Connections-->Bluetooth Options

Find your previously paired BMW and highlight it.
Hit the Blackberry button (the one to the left of the trackball [trackpad], to the right of the green button)
Select Options
Next to Contacts Transfer select Selected Categories Only
a new line will appear underneath. It will say Contacts.
Bring the curser to that line and press the blackberry button. Select Categories.
Check in your car category and save as you exit.
Restart the car and give it a little time. Only the car contacts should appear.

A few notes
This all works in newer BMWs. The phone will send all the phone fields, to the selected contact, for the selected category. They does not work in my my father's E53, with combo BT and Assist card. There, I had to make separate list of car contacts, only one phone per contact, with a short description. I used first name, last name and work1. You must be consistent. The obvious disadvantage is that the address book on the phone itself, has duplicates. I would recommend putting (BMW) in the last name field, this helps with the confusion.

I use Blackberry desktop for Mac, because once you own a Mac, you'll never buy a PC again. Anyway, Blackberry Categories are not recognized by Mac Address book. Apple uses Groups to work with the iPhone. There is no relationship between Categories and Groups. This all means: after you sync the BB to the Mac, you will have to manually attach your car contacts to the car category, ON THE PHONE ITSELF. It's a pain in the a$$. The good news is that even after you sync again, the phone retains the categories. So you only have to do it once.

I had the opportunity to play with the iPhone, before I returned it after 10 days. On the iPhone too, you may send only the contacts attached to your car Group. This may be managed on the Mac, in Mac Address Book. It worked very well on my x5 and my 7er.

For a very brief time, I used The Missing Link with MS Entourage. This POS software did whatever it wanted, put stuff in strange places, deleted data on its own, and the whole point of buying a Mac, is not having to deal with Microsoft. I would recommend a ban on both The Missing Link and Entourage. However, If you must use it, I can confirm that the Category field does exist and it will sync with the BB and it will upload to the BMW.

So much for brevity.

If you have any questions, please post, I'll try to help you.

I am running Outlook 2007 on my PC. I could not find create new category button there.

could it be "create new distribution list instead"?

wow, thank you for such a complete reply (if this is the summary version, I can only imagine what is the your full post on this.

anyway it is clear that you tested this extensively and your experience is of great help to me.

I do not have a mac (only Pc and linux) so no problem with sync here.

but I do have an E53, so I will give it a try following your instructions.

thank you very much, your input is highly appreciated!

Hi, Edit--->Categorize-->All Categories--->New

Thanks, it works, I am creating the category right now.

as far as homework is concerned - succes, thank you.

now I hope in the car everything will work as it should and only the car category will be displayed on the screen.