Lucky you, I guess I have to wait for another 9 months.

You waiting for the new infotainment system?

Yes I am, and besides had made a promise to the wife after getting the X5 in November- that I will have to wait for 18 months before getting a replacement for the 3 series.

Already did....Click here

Thank you.

Just read the article. I like the new CIC hardware, but not the controller nor interface. It appears BMW is going with more buttons and not less.

Maybe I am in the minority, but what is wrong with the current i-Drive system and interface? IMO it is easy to use, very intuative and works well.

The Audi MMI system is a little more complex and has too many buttons and shortcuts for what the system was orginaly designed for, which was simplicty of use.

The new butons are shortcut buttons to avoid going through menus. Hard drive is other big thing which will allow lot more names to be stored in address book and some other good features like "my info", etc. etc.

You're not alone. I like the current iDrive setup as is. I don't really even care for the 6 radio presets or shortcut keys or whatever. I think it works great as is. Even at autobahn speeds, I have no issues going thru iDrive to do what I need to do.

Curiosity: Why does the 118i with iDrive get 8 preset buttons, but all the other BMWs get 6? I think this might have to do with Business versus Professional sat nav. Ours was equipped with Business sat nav, while all US models have Professional sat nav. :dunno: