[al2813]

I am back to the BMW forums after 7 years of driving Mercedes cars. Next Friday I am will be receiving my brand new X5 X50e and this morning have been spending hours on the different forums investigating idrive related points. My questions are related to the headunit version/Idrive version but also to music playback. Have not seen recent posts on the first part so thought I'd start one myself

first question: So based on July/August posts I may believe my car will be delivered with the MGU 22 headunit and idrive 8.5. I am based in Belgium, but understand my car is manufactured in the US. My dealer told me early November that my car was already assembled, so I would assume a Sep-Oct time frame. Am I guaranteed to get the MGU 22 and idrive 8.5. I have been driving a temporary rented IX since the summer while waiting for my car to get delivered, and I cannot be negative enough about idrive8. Starting from the menus and getting to its own navigation. Just try to setup a course from your office to your house and then ask the navigation system to find a charging station on the way. The navigation system will show you results but you'll never see two key elements in the results - is the charging station in your driving direction and what is the deviation from your plotted route. This is just insane. In fact at this moment only Apple maps can show you something like this but without the information of the free charging points. Anyway I hope idrive 8.5 fixes some of this stuff, although I understand the navigation is not that different. Since my new car is plugin hybrid, I will no longer need to charge the car on route. As my office is 100km drive (not going there every day luckily) and i couldn't afford the IX with the large battery, plugin hybrid it is.

Question 2: I am an audiophile and although I am not looking to get in the car what I have at home, I have a large library of SACD rips and vinyl needledrops encoded in DSD format. Is there a way to connect an external DAC to the car (I will have the HK sound system upgrade)?

[al2813]

In the meantime using the VIN decoder I found my car manufacturing start date is Sep. 14th 2023. Unfortunately the VIN decoder does not give you the head unit version.

[TurtleBoy]

Originally Posted by al2813

In the meantime using the VIN decoder I found my car manufacturing start date is Sep. 14th 2023. Unfortunately the VIN decoder does not give you the head unit version.

Without a doubt you will have MGU22 and iDrive 8.5.

[al2813]

Originally Posted by TurtleBoy

Without a doubt you will have MGU22 and iDrive 8.5.

Thanks!
Any news of idrive9 will make it to those units?

[TurtleBoy]

Originally Posted by al2813

Thanks!
Any news of idrive9 will make it to those units?

There are no plans for updating to iD9 the last we saw. The G65 should be the first X5 with iD9.

[apw2607]

Originally Posted by al2813

Thanks!
Any news of idrive9 will make it to those units?

iDrive 9 is a step even further backwards. Although it looks visually similar to ID8.5, its horribly slow and laggy.

The only thing that is marginally better is that it has its own app store, but BMW can already do this with ID8.5 via connected drive store and provision apps to the customers car.

I would like to think that by the time the G65 is introduced we will have moved on from the current iDrive offerings.

[BSfmAZ]

Originally Posted by TurtleBoy

There are no plans for updating to iD9 the last we saw. The G65 should be the first X5 with iD9.

Just received a '24 X5 M60i and it has version 07/2023.58. just curious about the version, (not sure I want any of the newer versions based on comments I've seen), however will I have to be re-configuring again real soon?? Are the versions tied to particular models?
sorry, so far not impressed with the software from BMW.

[TurtleBoy]

Originally Posted by BSfmAZ

Just received a '24 X5 M60i and it has version 07/2023.58. just curious about the version, (not sure I want any of the newer versions based on comments I've seen), however will I have to be re-configuring again real soon?? Are the versions tied to particular models?
sorry, so far not impressed with the software from BMW.

Last I saw the latest version was 11/2023.30. Other than maybe the pre-conditioning checkbox you shouldn't have to reconfigure it. All models get the same version.

[BSfmAZ]

Originally Posted by TurtleBoy

Last I saw the latest version was 11/2023.30. Other than maybe the pre-conditioning checkbox you shouldn't have to reconfigure it. All models get the same version.

FYI car(M60i) was "assembled" 12/08/23 and came with 07/2023.58, is the version model specific?

[TurtleBoy]

Originally Posted by BSfmAZ

FYI car(M60i) was "assembled" 12/08/23 and came with 07/2023.58, is the version model specific?

No, it is not model specific.

[chicagofan00]

Originally Posted by BSfmAZ

FYI car(M60i) was "assembled" 12/08/23 and came with 07/2023.58, is the version model specific?

It’s not uncommon for the installed units to be a version behind what is currently out there. They will have produced the head unit well before the latest release and they won’t take the time to do a software update during production. If you have an amazing dealership they might perform the software update before delivery but I’d say that is rare. You’d likely have to come with with some kind of software complaint for them to offer to update the iDrive version.

From what I noticed with my M3, they are also usually anywhere from 3-6 months behind in pushing the version out over the air once it’s released.

[Jobio]

Originally Posted by al2813

Question 2: I am an audiophile and although I am not looking to get in the car what I have at home, I have a large library of SACD rips and vinyl needledrops encoded in DSD format. Is there a way to connect an external DAC to the car (I will have the HK sound system upgrade)?

You can connect an external hard drive through the USB port, but I don't know of any analogue inputs for a DAC.

My guess is if you want to run an external DAC you'll need to add an amp with that capability. But with a DSP and a good tune, I'm not sure you'll hear any difference between the car's DAC vs something external.

[jad03060]

The version available at the dealership is usually one release newer than what is being sent OTA. The general feeling on this is that this gives them a pseudo beta test above what they can do in the development environment. Those versions can change their last .xx versions as they devise new features or bug fixes until they feel it's worth it to offer it to everyone OTA and start on the next one (often, about 3-6 months). That process doesn't happen across the board for all vehicles at the same time...BMW uses some unknown to us logic to decide who gets it when, but eventually, everyone that's able, should get it.

If there's a safety bug, there might be a release sooner, but otherwise, it seems like March, July, and November seem to be the base dates of updates.