[cracker123]

Got a G05 as a loaner and I have to say lot of the iDrive improvements over my G12 7 are welcome. The blinking door lights are incredible as well. The graphics and size of the screen is also pretty nice with the new iDrive system. As I mentioned before felt the PPI could be improved in the future versions. The menus and navigating within the iDrive is lot more intuitive now.

Now coming to the bad part, I feel the HVAC is a big step backwards.

1. I can't get over the fact the heated and cooled seats take some effort to to turn on and off. Why can't they just be separate buttons.

2. The flow wheel is gone and is controlled from iDrive and that used to be a signature BMW HVAC control. No need for this change.

3. Sync button is in software as well.

4. Some buttons have top and down functions and some don't. This is just confusing.

5. The quality of the plastic used for the HVAC controls should match the quality of favorites controls.

6. BMW needs to standardize the switch/button's style/shape/materials across the board. It just feels like there was a lack of thought on this. Every button feels like it is different. This increases the cognitive load in remembering what each button stands for or does. By standardizing they can let people know the action/movement without looking at it. Audi does a decent job on this.

What do others think.

[aspiring335]

Originally Posted by cracker123

Got a G05 as a loaner and I have to say lot of the iDrive improvements over my G12 7 are welcome. The blinking door lights are incredible as well. The graphics and size of the screen is also pretty nice with the new iDrive system. As I mentioned before felt the PPI could be improved in the future versions. The menus and navigating within the iDrive is lot more intuitive now.

Now coming to the bad part, I feel the HVAC is a big step backwards.

1. I can't get over the fact the heated and cooled seats take some effort to to turn on and off. Why can't they just be separate buttons.

2. The flow wheel is gone and is controlled from iDrive and that used to be a signature BMW HVAC control. No need for this change.

3. Sync button is in software as well.

4. Some buttons have top and down functions and some don't. This is just confusing.

5. The quality of the plastic used for the HVAC controls should match the quality of favorites controls.

6. BMW needs to standardize the switch/button's style/shape/materials across the board. It just feels like there was a lack of thought on this. Every button feels like it is different. This increases the cognitive load in remembering what each button stands for or does. By standardizing they can let people know the action/movement without looking at it. Audi does a decent job on this.

What do others think.

I agree that it's not very well thought out, particularly the heated / ventilated seats. I don't have my vehicle yet and none of the models in the showroom had ventilated seats, so I was really surprised to see a video showing how the ventilation setting has to be controlled from the screen.

[X5_CC]

I find some of the HVAC controls annoying as well. I would prefer a temperature wheel instead of up/down buttons, but it doesn't bother me all that much.

Your comment about the flow control wheel now in iDrive — if it's what I think you're talking about, you can press fan up/down while in AUTO mode and it adjusts the flow intensity, and there's a readout between the vents showing the intensity. It took me a while to figure this out and it's not really covered well in the manual.

As for the buttons, the new 8 series and X7 have almost identical buttons and layout to the X5, so it looks like it's becoming the new standard for BMW.

[Jrunr]

Is there a way to get the Heated seats to come on with remote start?

[onesixeight]

Originally Posted by Jrunr

Is there a way to get the Heated seats to come on with remote start?

Mines turn on with remote start but it doesn't light up the heated seat button. Not sure if it remembers if your heated seats are on before shut off or it turns on automatically at a certain temp. You can't set it like G30 5 series.

[bluegreen]

I was wondering how that worked with the heat/ventilation as one button? On my car now they are separate buttons, so I can ventilate and heat at the same time, not that I usually do that. But how does one button choose between heat and ventilate?

[mbarrett635]

Originally Posted by onesixeight

Mines turn on with remote start but it doesn't light up the heated seat button. Not sure if it remembers if your heated seats are on before shut off or it turns on automatically at a certain temp. You can't set it like G30 5 series.

Not to be too cynical, but are you sure? Why would they turn on, but not have the lighted switch illuminated? What happens when you hit the switch, if they are already on?

On our 640i, there is a setting in iDrive to set a temperature to have the heated seats come on automatically. There is no corresponding setting (that I can find) in the X5.

[onesixeight]

Originally Posted by mbarrett635

Not to be too cynical, but are you sure? Why would they turn on, but not have the lighted switch illuminated? What happens when you hit the switch, if they are already on?

On our 640i, there is a setting in iDrive to set a temperature to have the heated seats come on automatically. There is no corresponding setting (that I can find) in the X5.

I may be mistaken or I could be feeling the residual heat in the seats. I'll have to do more testing.

But yes, the G05 does not have the setting to have the heated seats automatically come on at a certain preset temp. I'm hoping some form of programming can enable this.