When a carmaker's forte is engineering, its fault is apt to be over-engineering.

I see that in BMW. How else to explain iDrive, that interface between driver and the cars controls that is ingenious but as often cursed as acclaimed. For the initiated, this console-located mouse-like device facilitates access to and control of the sound system, the navigation system, the heating and cooling and everything else buttons and dials were once used for (without the dashboard clutter.)

But for those who lack either the patience or the wit to figure it out iDrive is a maddeningly complicated and unnecessarily layered process for anyone seeking to merely turn up the bloody heat or switch radio stations. Well, actually, that’s unfair. One doesn’t need to touch the iDrive knob to for the simplest levels of temperature control or to get sound from the radio, but if like to adjust the qualities of that sound then you must take the plunge.

Originally introduced in the 7 series, iDrive has now migrated to the 5 series. The howl raised by those resistant to the charms of iDrive (and their name is legion) apparently led BMW to modify the system somewhat for the 5 series adding an escape hatch (push the Menu button) when lost in the maze with no way out. I’m told that some of the more esoteric functions are also left out in the 5 series iDrive.

But still there the iDrive knob sits on the console – intimidating, delighting, obscuring, enabling depending on the driver’s wont. A device that divides as well as conquers. Some long-time BMW owners claim that it sent them fleeing into the arms of Audi, for instance. But will they be missed? BMW rides a wave of popularity that laps on new shores and washes up new sales records monthly.The 5 series for 2004 has undergone the first total redesign in eight years, the fifth since the series was inaugurated in 1975. The new one is larger in both size, technological innovations and price.

As with the iDrive, the 5 series also follows the 7 series in its changed appearance guided by that controversial designer from Wisconsin, Chris Bangle. The much-discussed bustle-back treatment is not as pronounced in the 5 as in the 7, but the new 5 is definitely bigger of butt than the old one. Some may like it; some may not. Those of us who found the previous 5 series pleasing and elegant of line will find this one more brutish even while accepting it as more modern.

Bangle is one of the more verbal car designers in the current generation of stylist stars, using both language and facile body English to explain what he meant in adding bustles, odd lines slashing backwards (on the Z roadster) and all of his other signature cues. The cynics say his glibness is how he conned the BMW management to go along with his contentious makeovers. Management must be truly in his thrall because he is now in charge of design for all of the cars in the BMW group from the Mini to Rolls Royce.

But back to over-engineering. It is, oddly, often induced by excellence. Car design, like a shark, has to keep moving to survive. BMW is recognized for an enviable level of achievement both in simple purposefulness of appearance and excellence of performance. BMWs are a general favorite of car writers and driving enthusiasts representing a benchmark for smart turn-in, precise steering, autobahn brakes and superior handling.(CONTINUE...)