[kaputt]

Can anyone with the basic I-Drive (non navigation) set up let me know how Pandora works with it? I would like to avoid having to pay the expensive price for adding the navigation and/or Apple car play. But I was curious if you could actually control Pandora from the I-Drive screen with the basic setup?

In my current car I can listen to Pandora through an Aux cord, but all of the control has to come through my phone still. In my next car, I would like to be able to chose the next song, and even give thumbs up and thumbs down through the actual radio interface. But I really would like to avoid paying the $1900 for the Navigation option...

[nicknaz]

As far as I know from loaner car experience, Pandora will not integrate with the basic iDrive, you need the "BMW Apps" option to do that.

The last time I had a loaner (? 2015? 328) with basic iDrive, I tried to use USB connection to stream pandora through the speakers it didn't work either. I had to use Bluetooth audio streaming. The downside of this was that I could not charge the phone. When I plugged in USB to charge, the phone thought I wanted to output audio through USB (which the car did not accept) so I stopped getting music.

You should see if the latest cars with basic idrive have CarPlay

[Mike.]

you need bmw apps.

You can stream over bluetooth but youre limited on what you can do.

[Araemo]

Originally Posted by Mike.

you need bmw apps.

And an iPhone. Pandora integration doesn't currently work well with Android. The BMW genius basically told me it sucks, but they're planning to release a software update to improve it... but maybe not until late in the year/next year. Standard bluetooth streaming works fine with Pandora, but you don't get the thumbs up/station control on iDrive.

[tex2670]

Originally Posted by nicknaz

The last time I had a loaner (? 2015? 328) with basic iDrive, I tried to use USB connection to stream pandora through the speakers it didn't work either. I had to use Bluetooth audio streaming.

Really? That sux. OP should go to the dealer and tell them to test this on a car without nav, and see if you still can't play Pandora thru your phone and a charger cable to the USB port in the armrest. Seems pretty petty by BMW to force buyers to upgrade to enhanced Bluetooth.

[S4NoMore]

It works well enough for me - you can skip tracks using the car buttons, but can't thumbs up/down or access your stations without the phone.