Quote:
Originally Posted by KingOfJericho
To those without the system, be honest here... If the iDrive was a no cost option, would you get it? That should be the real question.
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Well, if money were no object I would've bought a 911.
In any case, the cost of iDrive is non-trivial, so of course it's going to be a major factor in the decision process. But it's not about being
able to afford it or not, but whether or not the buyer sees perceived value in the purchase.
For me, $2150 (basic iDrive) + $750 (the cost of Bluetooth at the time I bought, needed for full functionality) = $2900, or really not worth it when I picked up a Garmin for >$200 and the iPod connectivity for ~$300 (yes, I easily navigate a 60GB music library w/o iDrive). These days, Bluetooth is "only" $650, but you have BMW Apps for $250, so full functionality will cost you $3050.
So while I'm sure it's cool to have all that stuff, to me, at the end of the day, it wasn't $3,000 cool.
On top of that, I genuinely don't like the look of it in the car. It looks sort of shoehorned into the cabin and disrupts the otherwise simple design, and as someone else mentioned, I don't want to be looking at a computer screen the whole time I'm driving, especially at night (a pop-up screen would've been a plus, but probably still wouldn't have swayed me). Finally, judging by the one new 5 Series I had as a loaner, I didn't find the UI to be all that good. Certainly adequate, but not worth the premium BMW is charging.