Quick question about the iPod/USB Interface

[Ayyub]

Lets say I get a 135i without navigation (therefore no i-drive*) but also get the USB/iPod integration option. I know that in my dad's M3, you select songs and change the audio settings using i-drive, and it works great. How does the interface work without i-drive? Is it awkward to use?

Further, would I be better off not getting the audio system upgrade or the iPod/USB integration and going aftermarket instead? I already have an excellent single-DIN head unit I could use.

* I have nothing against i-drive (I like it, actually), but I don't want the $2k navigation package.

[nordique14]

You control the USB connection via the head unit. You click the audio button and then choose USB. I have a thumb drive where I keep my music. I use the right knob to scroll up or down the folder structure and press the knob to drill down to a sub-folder or select a song. Very easy. The buttons under the display will allow you to list by directory, artist, album, etc. The up/down on the steering wheel will let you choose the previous/next song within the folder you are in. I do not know how the iPod/MP3 player works but I suspect it would be similiar.

The USB allows you to control via the head unit and steering wheel whoch the AUX does not. Plus it will display the artist/song title on the head unit. You might be able to get an iPod specific adapter for less (I think they are $300 not including installation). But that is only for the iPod while the USB will allow you to use any mass storage device.

The 6FL option (iPod/USB) is the best value option after the sport package.

[Ayyub]

Excellent, that's what I was hoping for. The head-unit I have basically works like that, only you can't select individual songs -- you have to select an artist and an album and then start playing the first song. You then have to use the next/previous buttons to pick a song. Very annoying for collection albums with over 50 songs when you want to listen to song #26.

Thanks for the information!

[1Ronnie]

I have a 40Gb IPod, connected as a USB device (without the IPod cable). The only thing you need to remember is that if there are too many Artists it can take forever to scroll through them.

As an aside, if you have the various ID3 tags set, such as Artist, Genre etc, the HU will set up those buttons for you, once it has cataloged the device. However, this takes about 15 minutes for my IPod with ~5000 songs.