I had the chance to drive a 530xiT for a couple of days before my 530xi arrived. The xiT was an "early" 2006 (ie - no Start Button) model without Nav, and the standard US radio (whatever that means for that production day). My xi is a November 2006 build (I have a start button) with Nav and Premium Sound (Logic7). My two questions are this:

1 - Why is the iDrive so much more responsive on the xiT (that does not have nav)? I can be at the main menu and push the controller in any direction on any menu, and, POW - there's the next menu/option. On my Nav-equipped machine, I can push the controller and count to three before the iDrive actually does anything. This is in just about every menu option. Even changing the track on a CD. Before someone blames my CCC, I have had two CCC's and CIP 19.x and 20.x. The behavior was the same.

2 - This one is hard to describe: when selecting MP3 files from a long list: On the non-Nav xiT, I could scroll around quickly and easily, and the iDrive controller knob would not "kick back" when I got to the bottom of the screen, which was not the bottom of the list. The display would just scroll very smoothly. On my Nav xi, when I get to the bottom of the screen, but not the bottom of the list, the iDrive knob "kicks back" (like there are no more entries), pauses for a second (like it is retrieving more data), and then displays more of the list. The same thing happens while scrolling through my phone's address book via iDrive. It's like the non-Nav cars have more memory for buffering these entries, while the Nav-equipped cars can only buffer a little bit at the time and have to keep pausing while they retrieve more data.

3 - When playing MP3 files, why is it that Non-Nav cars show the MP3 "tags" for the song currently playing, while my Nav-equipped car only shows the file name? I'll upload pictures later. I played the same CD in my xi and the xiT and took pictures of what I mean (you can already see my car if you check out this thread: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho....php?t=128019).

Sure: this is whining for posts 2 & 3, but the speed issue in #1 is aggravating. Any ideas?