Automotive Industry

BMW makes iDrive optional on the redesigned 3 series; Cars will have 2 different instrument panels available.(News)

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Byline: Jens Meiners

Now we will find out whether customers like BMW's iDrive.

The complicated device, which is standard on the 7, 6 and 5 series, will be optional on the redesigned 3 series, due in spring 2005.

Critics panned iDrive as nonintuitive when BMW first installed the control device in the 7 series in 2001.

Drivers move the iDrive knob in eight directions and scroll through menus to control the radio, heating and various electronic features.

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BMW simplified the system when it was introduced in the 5 and 6 series. Those models have an iDrive with a four-way ...