Alrighty... Just got back from a nice drive up to Mt. Tam. OMG do I love this car!!! I've posted more pics below, and as a reminder, here are the stats:
330i
Sparkling Graphite
Black Leather, Burl Walnut wood trim
Sport Package
Premium Package
Cold Weather Package
iDrive/Nav
Sattellite Radio
Automatic/Steptronic


First Impressions:
Well, let me just say that I LOVE iDrive (Bugs and all -- and belive me, there are some bugs)... While iDrive can be a bit of a hassle to deal with, I quickly learned that the easiest way around was by using the voice commands. Even if you don't know which commands will be understood by the car, you can always find out by saying "options" or "help"... After a few minutes of practice, I was easily switching between FM and Satellite radio, calling up the navigation screen ("Persepctive" view), and dailing my bluetooth cell phone without ever taking my hands off the wheel. Also the navigation seems to work great (I've used Garmin in the past, but so far, I like the BMW one better -- it's very quick about recalculating a route if you miss (or chose to skip) a turn.

While that may seem like a dream come true, there are some issues... I found that as I became more familar with iDrive, I would tend to zip through the motions too fast (I'd quckly nudge down for entertainment, push down to select, turn left and right to change station/source, etc.). However, even though you know the order of moves you need for a command, if you do it to fast w/o waiting for the computer to catch up, you'd easily confuse the iDrive, and it would execute a command for a previous menu screen... Also, I found that sometimes my voice command would change the radio from FM to Satellite source, but the iDrive screen would SOMETIMES still show the FM radio menu on the screen (though I'd then just hit "menu" to escape)...

All of the "bugs" mentioned don't really detract from my love of iDrive -- but I'm a gadget geek that is used to WinXP crashing on a regular basis b/c I've got too much junk linked to my home computer... However, if you are the type of person that still has a VCR with "12:00" blinking, then iDrive may not be for you...

My only other "complaint" has to do with the sport seats.... I loved the idea of the extending thigh rest, as I'm a tall guy... However, I found that the section of the seat that extends would be much more comfortable if it were just a couple inches wider... with it extended, it totally supports my right leg... but if I put my left foot on the foot rest, then a bit of my left leg hangs off the side of the extended leg rest.... This is only a MINOR discomfort, and I only noticed it after 2 hours of driving... But it did bother me enough to push the leg rest back into the seat completely...

So how did it drive? Like a BMW! Unfortunately, I'm still in the 1000 mile break-in period... I didn't drive the engine hard, but I did have a good time taking corners like I was on rails! Also, the hummmmm of the engine made me want to turn off my music and just listen to it... it was purrrrfect...

Can't wait to go out for another drive!!!