Ipod, Idrive, gear shift issues compared to loaner I got while car in shop.
 

I was planning to get and Ipod interface for my x5, its in the shop right now getting some updates and minor fixes, but I decided to wait until later to get USB connection installed.

However, I got a 535 loaner which had a USB interface, I tried my 6gen ipod, it played some songs okay, I had inital problems having it connected (im using the USB connector that came with the IPOD) but I cannot see playlists or a bunch of other stuff, I can just access the songs menu (if I try to get into playlists it says feature unaviable or something like that.) plus some songs have weird names like f01 f02 etc.

Anybody have an E70 with a USB connecter that works fine with 6 gen ipod?

Also I noticed that the iDrive menu in the loaner 5 series scrolls much faster than my e70. The button on top of the idrive has a rubber padding which is soft unlike the e70 which has a plasticy solid feel.

Anybody have delay issues with idrive that was fixed with updates? Also iv noticed the gear shifts in the 5 series are much faster than with the e70, wonder if all x5's are like that or should I talk to them about looking at it?

Thanks!

You'll need the BMW supplied cable to get a full feature set on your iPOD.

I've got the latest SW version but it has made no appreciable difference to the iDrive performance.

I wonder why there is a delay in the X5 idrive but in the 5 series the idrive scrolls thru menus as fast as going thru an ipods menu, anybody notice this? or does everybody have idrive lag/slow scroll thru menus?

When I test drove a 535i (after I purchased the damned 4.8i), I too noticed how much better the 5er transmission was. Gear shifts were faster, more precise and when going up steep hills/inclines, the 5er did not aggressively downshift & hold the gear until 4500rpm. BMW must have just thought that X5 owners wanted a "truck" like feel. :(

Yeah. Your not imagining things. Drive wise (transmission, power, etc). The 535i blows the X5 out of the water. I did test drive the 535i prior to the purchase of the X5, but still went with the X5 for the comfort and utility. But for such a large car as the X5, it drives incredibly well.

I've posted about this before, dealer fitted ipod connection will not let me randomly scroll through my 60GB ipod songs, it lists album folders aphabetically and plays them serially. I can stab the idrive controller 4 times, and it randomly chooses another song and thats fine, a pain, but ok. This ipod has no directories in it however, from my pc all I can see is all the songs stored in the ipod root drive.

Recently I got an ipod touch, and copied the same tracks to it using itunes, and now, I see all my songs listed alphabetically, no folders, or album lists, so its as good as random now :thumbup:

What surprises me is that this is not determind by the cars software, but by something in the ipod :dunno: Strange

Is/was your Ipod up to date as far as firmware? I know alot of others have had issues with it on the Pioneer Avic radios. Undoubtably Apple updates the outdated logic on the older Ipods as they release newer stuff for the latest ones...

I too sync my music in a flat directory, with out subfolders, specifically for the random feature. I never really care to try to hunt down music...I just let them play in random, and skip if I don't want to hear a certain one.

the slow i-drive menus with ipod playlists is due to the idrive knob resistence; see http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e70-forum/...nu-option.html

but there is also the slow menu lag, when I scroll thru menus it freezes for a few seconds, whenever I move the controller around nothing happens, then it unfreezes and then it works fine.