‘I’m bored of the pixel rush and super-sized TV grandstanding’
CJ: ‘| love the look and ambition of the Neue Klasse, X and saloon. But |’m concerned BMW hasn’t been paying attention to VW’s travails with its |D cars, which launched with a blaze of glory but are now facing production cutbacks.’
TP: ‘Munich has form for bold interiors. | remember when we first drove the 2001 E65 7-series with iDrive. |t was baing, dierent – and so very ahead of its time.’
CJ: ‘The iDrive rotary knob has gone, along with almost all the other buttons, prompting one of the most heated debates |’ve ever experienced in a motoring press conference… VW has had to row back from its touchscreen uber alles approach – when challenged about this, BMW doesn’t seem to have an answer. |t’s bullishly following the same path.’
TP: ‘Most car manufacturers are locked into such long development cycles they can’t change course easily. | detect a backlash against loading everything into touchscreens – but maybe it’s generational. My teenage kids don’t mind it as much...’
CJ: ‘Have they tried it while doing 70mph on a bumpy road? Or maybe they just expect to talk to tech these days. But you’ve tried the Panoramic Vision display, haven’t you? How was it?’
TP: ‘| have mixed views on the full-width head-up display. |t has some clever functionality, but is it really so dierent from rival systems like Merc’s Hyperscreen? |’m bored of the pixel rush and supersized TV grandstanding. BMW should heed the flak that’s been fired VW’s way and remember the power of digital simplicity.
‘The challenge here is to achieve the stylistic and engineering step-change delivered by Chris Bangle and Project i, not to mention the original Neue Klasse cars– without falling into the same trap as VW and overcomplicating the all-important driving experience.’