Reverse Camera quality has improved (evidence)
 

sat in my friend's new Diesel with the new iDrive and have to say that the camera looks much better at night vs the old camera. Tried both with reverse lights on and off.. both times was pleasantly surprised. Here's a shot i took with the iphone (not best quality pics).. keep in mind it was 10pm and raining.

So is there a retrofit for this for old iDrive? (just the camera hardware?)

And we did side-by-side comparison with the camera on my 08 4.8i - same time, same weather, same place. The new camera is SOOOO much better !

This really emphasizes what has long been BMW's weakest point--electronics. BMW is perpetually behind the curve. They should be ashamed to have continued selling such an inferior nav system (camera too) through the summer of 2009 when far better systems were available at least 3-4 years ago. I had the old nav in my 2006 330 and it was already obsolete then. My brother's 2005 Lexus had a far better system.

It really seems BMW stays 4-5 years behind its luxury competitors in this regard, which when you think about it is simply amazing. BMW leads in nearly every area of engineering--engine, suspension, materials, etc--yet continually lags nearly everybody in customer electronics.

I agree with your point.. however, the new iDrive is probably ahead of everybody in many aspects.. Camera, HD Based NAVI, screen resolution, Entertainment options (including music storage), access speed (browsing through menus), intuitiveness..

overall, i give it 5 stars.. i might change my mind when i get my car a in a couple of weeks, but i speak from experience of owning/using the MKIV NAVI, latest Acura MDX, 08 X5, Infiniti NAVI..

I have the new nav in my 2009 M3. I'd say it's on par with most competitors in terms of speed, hard drive storage, etc. but I don't think the user interface is as good as the Lexus system. It is really quite good, but again, it's long overdue.

the thing is that BMW owners enjoy their cars for the ride/handling and have always (in majority) not really cared for electronics.. now it's just a nice perk! :)

I can't agree
 

I think BMW owners enjoy the performance and handling and for the most part have chosen to tolerate BMW's deficiencies in electronics rather than just not caring about the issue. Plenty of former owners are exactly that because they refuse to pay big $$ for obsolete equipment. For the prices BMW charges they need to stay even with or ahead of the competition in all aspects of the customer experience.

If you read posts on xoutpost.com, you will see that there are a lot of us that have not "chosen to tolerate BMW's deficiencies in electronics". We have been able to do little but complain though -- it hasn't chased us away from BMWs. Who knows, all those complaints to BMW NA and to the BMW dealers may have had an impact though...

I do read posts on Xoutpost.com. I think you are agreeing with me but I can't tell for sure. My premise is different from that of genemish; I feel BMW owners for the most part DO care about the quality of the electronics but HAVE chosen in the past to tolerate inferior systems since the remainder of the car is superior, rather than purchase a vehicle from another manufacturer. If you buy a BMW with an obsolete nav system then by default you have chosen to tolerate and let BMW get away with the inferior system. I did so in 2006.

I'm just glad the complaints seem to have generated some action. It's too bad it took them 10 years to mostly catch up.