August 28, 2007 8:00 AM PDT
The iDrive was initially billed by BMW as an "ergonomic concept designed to make operating the myriad functions inside the car easier." But drivers and critics said it was too hard to initially figure out and dubbed it the "iCrash" when it was first introduced on the 2002 BMW 7-series (at right).
"The 7-series is one of our most expensive and tends to be purchased by customers that are older than our overall average demographic. And for some of those people--they just were not terribly computer literate. The younger demographics, in cars like the 3-series once iDrive made it there--those people found it much easier to use," said Thomas Plucinsky, BMW product and technology communications manager.
BMW redesigned the iDrive with a simpler interface for the BMW 5-series in 2005 (at left). The position and shape of the controller has also changed slightly.
Photo by BMW
