[Glos Guy]

What Car? has published an interesting article about how distracting and dangerous the trend towards touch-screen infotainment systems has become, with a top 20 from worst to best (of those tested). Can’t say I’m surprised that the BMW system is rated top / safest as, having used loads of them, I would agree, but I was surprised that the VW system came 8th as the system in our Tiguan is dire and if there were 12 systems deemed to be worse than that then I despair!

https://www.whatcar.com/news/best-and-worst-car-infotainment-systems/n21268?utm_source=20201223&utm_medium=EMAIL&utm_campaign=Enews%20bulletins&utm_content=WCAR%20Enews%20bulletin%20-%2023%20December%202020::story1_button

Topic

[Southamman]

I remember when BMW came out with their system and all the journalists hated it. Now it’s the bees knees. Lol

[Glos Guy]

Southamman wrote:

I remember when BMW came out with their system and all the journalists hated it. Now it’s the bees knees. Lol

I remember that too! It was the original iDrive in the 7 Series. As you say, they slated it. I never understood why, as I thought it was great but the latest system is brilliant. From my experience, the Audi system is a very close second, which is a surprise given how bad the VW system is!

[Phaedra]

2013 Gen2 Qashqai, got the Acenta Premium and my God the sound system was dreadful! sounded like a cheap 80’s boom box.

Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!

[Bowly101]

It doesn’t surprise me at all that Volvo scores so poorly as I know from personal experience what a pain their system is. We had the last generation XC60 which had a screen but also had buttons and it’s so much more intuitive to use. These new systems are fabulous bits of tech, they look awesome too, but to not have basic physical controls is silly. It’s as much of a distraction as using a mobile if not more so. I’ve started to use voice control more and it does work most of the time, but it’s not intuitive yet. All of that said, the quality of the screen, the speed of response, and the features are all excellent. We upgraded the hifi system to a Harmon Kardon and it is very good, although it’s noticeably better at Mrs B’s dance and trance music than it is my more mainstream choices!

[mitch]

so long as its not touchy feely screen controlled i am not overly fussy, i dont have the phone on in the car and all my music is on a usb.

current car mini countryman exc cooper s auto is fine all done with a single big dialy button, my kind of system.

[Aygo1991]

I would definitely second BMW’s iDrive as the best I’ve used, as I found it very intuitive, easy to use, and not distracting. On the other hand, the infotainment system in the 2017 CH-R wasn’t very good – sluggish response and performance, dated graphics, and low-quality display, put my off. Worst of all, you couldn’t switch off the monitor!

I found the Volkswagen system in my previous 2017 Golf  to be very good and straightforward to use. I liked the graphics and didn’t find the screen distracting. In the Evoque, it was very distracting and confusing with lots of buttons adjacent to the monitor whenever it worked.

Motability cars:

2015 RR Evoque AWD 2.0 TD4 SE Tech - written off
2017 Toyota CH-R 1.2T Dynamic CVT AWD - written off
2019 BMW X2 2.0L Sport
2023 Nissan Qashqai e-Power N-Connecta

[Elliot]

The new BMW iDrive system is excellent, so I’m not surprised it makes top spot.

[Lord Muc]

Yup, the bmw Idrive 7 is excellent, but heard good things about the new Mercedes system.

[Author]

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