[PKells]

I currently own a 2020 330 which is on iDrive 7 and works fine. I am looking into upgrading to a new BMW 3 or 5 series and reading more and more about the current iDrive versions, and how a brand-new model could come with iDrive 8 but not be upgradable to iDrive 8.5? At the same time BMW is ready to roll out iDrive 9 starting with 2024 X1 but cars on 8 or 8.5 won't be upgradable to 9 because BMW is moving from Lynix OS to Android?

When purchasing a luxury vehicle (or any vehicle for that matter) my assumption is you get at least a few years before a manufacturer rolls out a new UI.

Does anyone have any explanation as to what is going on here? Lot of conflicting info I am reading and just seems so poorly executed by BMW. Considering the UI is what we see and interact with on a daily basis don't want to but a brand-new vehicle that is outdated day 1 and non-upgradable to newer version due to hardware limitations.

It's also possible I care more about this than others and in reality iDrive version is a non-issue to a vast majority of owners.

Appreciate any insight you may have.

[G22b58]

From what I hear from people with Google based systems (other car makes) they would rather have my iDrive 7 system. I don't miss a slightly larger infotainment display in iDrive 8 (with more focus on touch screen I/F). I just saw a BMW demo on YouTube of their development for the future ("iDrive 10"?) where even the steering wheel controls were replaced by touch sensors. The touch elements on the screen also moved around on their own (so you really have to look) and the temperature controls were sliders. I say No Thanks!

[Technic]

Originally Posted by PKells

When purchasing a luxury vehicle (or any vehicle for that matter) my assumption is you get at least a few years before a manufacturer rolls out a new UI.

That was BMW way of doing iDrive updates from 2002 to 2018 -iDrive 1 to iDrive 6.

With iDrive 7, BMW introduced over the air (OTA) software updates to more capable hardware, to bring quicker iDrive upgraded capabilities and features.

So what was done with the iDrive updates in 16 years, now can be done in barely 2 years - iDrive 7 to iDrive 10 (just announced)- like most other manufacturers infosystems nowadays.