[530iDriver]

Originally Posted by sq86

This is dumb but they're doing it because of the competition. It's more poorly executed though. The generic girl with headphones "album art" is distracting and not useful. Just show the entertainment text info. The album art can be reserved for the primary iDrive screen, especially since it's doubled up.

The reason, IMO, for the small, reverse tach that everyone is opposed to (including myself) is because without a manual transmission it's not needed anymore. It's still "informational" but not required. This is a total break from "The Ultimate Driving Machine" mantra but if that's the way they choose to go then someone else will have my money. They don't have to do this, see what Porsche does, but they don't seem to value prior customers input.

For better or worse the majority of the market rules. BMW, as any other carmaker, is in the business of making money and bringing profits back to the controlling Quandt family and their stockholders and investors.

Enthusiasts are a statistically insignificant portion of the market audience of BMW products. The soft and luxurious cars that most decry in these forums pay the bills and found your high performance variants and M cars.

When Porsche came up with the Cayenne SUv over a decade ago, Porsche purists and enthusiasts were up in arms in the face of such blasphemy. But it turns out the Cayenne was a success and it paid the bills plus development of the focused hard core models.