
Contents
The quickest way to find special topics is to 
consult the index, refer to page298.
4 Notes
7 Reporting safety defects
At a glance
10Dashboard
18 iDrive
25 Voice activation system
Controls
30Opening and closing
47 Adjustments
57 Transporting children safely
61 Driving
82 Controls overview
96 Technology for driving comfort and 
safety
110 Lamps
116 Climate
122 Practical interior accessories
Driving tips
138Things to remember when driving
Navigation
148Navigation system
150 Destination entry
159 Destination guidance
167 What to do if …
Entertainment
170On/off and tone
173 Radio
176 Satellite radio
181 CD/DVD player and CD changer
188 Music collection
194 External devices
Communications
204Telephone
217 Office
226 Contacts
228 ConnectedDrive
Mobility
236Refueling
239 Wheels and tires
259 Engine compartment
264 Maintenance
266 Care
270 Replacing components
276 Giving and receiving assistance
Reference
284Technical data
290 Short commands for the voice activation 
system
298 Everything from A to Z
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Notes
Vehicle equipment
This Owner's Manual de
scribes all models and 
all series-specific equipm ent, country-specific 
equipment, and optional equipment that is 
offered in the series. For this reason, this 
Owner's Manual also de scribes and illustrates 
some equipment that may not be available in 
your vehicle, for example due to the special 
options or national-market version selected.
This also applies to safety related functions and 
systems.
If equipment and models are not described in 
this Owner's Manual, please consult the 
accompanying Supplementary Owner's Hand-
books.
Status of this Owner's Manual 
at time of printing
BMW pursues a policy of  continuous, ongoing 
development that is conceived to ensure that 
our vehicles continue to embody the highest 
quality and safety standards combined with 
advanced, state-of-the-art technology. For this 
reason, it is possible in  exceptional cases that 
features described in this Owner's Manual 
could differ from those on your vehicle.
Updates after press date
Updates after press date  for the Owner's Man-
uals, when necessary, are issued as appendices 
to the printed Quick Reference Guide for the 
vehicle.
For your own safety
Maintenance and repair
Advanced technology, e.g. the use of 
modern materials and powerful electron-
ics, requires specially  adapted maintenance 
and repair methods. You should therefore have 
the corresponding work on your vehicle per-
formed only by your BMW center or at a work- shop that works according to BMW repair pro-
cedures with correspondingly trained 
personnel. If this work 
is not carried out prop-
erly, there is a danger of subsequent damage 
and related sa fety hazards.<
Parts and accessories
For your own safety, use genuine parts 
and accessories a pproved by BMW.
When you purchase accessories tested and 
approved by BMW and Or iginal BMW Parts, you 
simultaneously acquire the assurance that they 
have been thoroughly te sted by BMW to ensure 
optimum performance when installed on your 
vehicle.
BMW warrants these parts to be free from 
defects in material and workmanship.
BMW will not accept any liability for damage 
resulting from installation of parts and accesso-
ries not approved by BMW.
BMW cannot test every pr oduct made by other 
manufacturers to verify if it can be used on a 
BMW safely and without ri sk to either the vehi-
cle, its operation, or its occupants.
Original BMW Parts, BMW Accessories and 
other products approved by BMW, together 
with professional advice on using these items, 
are available from all BMW centers.
Installation and operation of accessories not 
approved by BMW, such as alarms, radios, 
amplifiers, radar detectors, wheels, suspension 
components, brake dust shields, telephones, 
including operation of any mobile phone from 
within the vehicle withou t using an externally 
mounted antenna, or transceiver equipment, for 
instance, CBs, walkie-talkies, ham radio or sim-
ilar accessories, may ca use extensive damage 
to the vehicle, compromi se its safety, interfere 
with the vehicle's electrical system or affect the 
validity of the BMW Limited Warranty. See your 
BMW center for additional information.<
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Notes
If the vehicle is not maintained according to 
these specifications, this 
could result in serious 
da mage  to the ve hicle . Such da ma ge is not co v-
ered by the BMW New Vehicle Limited War-
ranty.
Reporting safety defects
For US customers
The following only app lies to vehicles owned 
and operated in the US.
If you believe that your vehicle has a defect 
which could cause a crash or could cause injury 
or death, you should immediately inform the 
National Highway Traffic  Safety Administration, 
NHTSA, in addition to notifying BMW of 
North America, LLC, P.O. Box 1227, West-
wood, New Jersey 07675-1227, Telephone 
1-800-831-1117.
If NHTSA receives sim ilar complaints, it may 
open an investigation, and  if it finds that a safety 
defect exists in a group of vehicles, it may order 
a recall and remedy campaign. However, 
NHTSA cannot become involved in individual 
problems between you, yo ur center, or BMW of 
North America, LLC.
To contact NHTSA, you may call the Vehicle 
Safety Hotline toll-free at 1-888-327-4236 
(TTY: 1-800-424-9153); go to 
http://www.safercar.gov; or write to: Adminis-
trator, NHTSA, 400 Se venth Street, SW., 
Washington, DC 20590. You can also obtain 
other information about  motor vehicle safety 
from http://www.safercar.gov
For Canadian customers
Canadian customers who wish to report a 
safety-related defect  to Transport Canada, 
Defect Investigations  and Recalls, may tele-
phone the toll-free hotline 1-800-333-0510. 
You can also obtain other information about 
motor vehicle safety from http://www.tc.gc.ca/
roadsafety
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Dashboard
At a glance
4
Exterior mirrors folding in and out 55
5 Adjusting exterior mirrors, automatic curb 
monitor 55
9 Instrument cluster 12 12
Ignition lock 61
13 Buttons on the steering wheel
15 Horn, entire surface
16 Adjusting the steering wheel 56
18 Releasing the hood 260
19 OBD socket 265
20 Opening the trunk lid 35
1
Convertible: opening and closing 
windows jointly
40 
2 Convertible: opening and closing 
rear windows
40 
3 Opening and closing front 
windows
40 
6 Parking lamps 110
Low beams 110
Automatic head lamp control110
Adaptive Light Control 112
High-beam Assistant 113
7 Fog lamps 114
8 Turn signals 71
High beams, headlamp 
flasher 112
High-beam Assistant 113
Roadside parking lamps 112
Computer 84
Settings and information about the 
vehicle 86
10 Windshield wipers 71
Rain sensor 72
11Switching the ignition on/off and 
starting/stopping the engine
61
Telephone: accepting and ending 
a call; dialing the selected phone 
number; redialing if no phone 
number is selected
Convertible: microphone on steer-
ing column
Volume
Activating/deactivating the voice 
activation system 25
Convertible: microphone on steer-
ing column
Changing the radio station
Interrupting a traffic bulletin
Selecting a music track
Scrolling through the redial list
Next entertainment source
Recirculated air mode 118
14 Steering wheel heating 56
17 Cruise control 75
Active Cruise Control 75
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At a glanceDashboard
Around the roofliner
Coupe
1Microphone for voice activation system and 
for telephone in hands-free mode
2 SOS: sending an Emergency 
Request
276
3 Reading lamps 115
4 Glass sunroof 41
5 Interior lamps 114
6 Passenger airbag status lamp 108
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iDrive
At a glance
Control Display
Notes
>
Follow care instructions when cleaning the 
Control Display.
> Do not store items in the region in front of 
the Control Display; doing so may damage 
the Control Display.
Switching off
1.  Press the button.
2. "Switch off control display"
Switching on
Press the controller to switch on.
Buttons on the controller
Operating principle
With the ignition at radio readiness or beyond, 
refer to page 61, the following message is dis-
played on the Control Display:
To hide the message: 
Press the controller.
The main menu is displayed.
The message is automatically hidden after 
approx. 10 seconds.
Opening the main menu
 Press the button.
The main menu is displayed.
All iDrive functions can be  called up via the main 
menu.
Selecting a menu item
The menu items shown in white can be 
selected.
SymbolFunction
MENU Open the main menu
RADIO Open the Radio menu
CD Open the CD/Multimedia menu
NAV Start navigation in map view
TEL Open the Telephone menu
BACK Show previous panel
OPTION Open the Options menu
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iDrive
At a glance
Adjusting settings
1.
Select a field.
2. Turn the controller until the desired setting 
is displayed.
3. Press the controller.
Activating/deactivating functions
Some menu items are preceded by a check box. 
It indicates whether the fu nction is activated or 
deactivated. Selecting the menu item activates 
or deactivates the function.
 The function is activated.
 The function is deactivated.
Example: setting the clock
1.  Press the button.
The main menu  is displayed.
2. Turn the controller until "Settings" is high-
lighted, and then press the controller.
3. If necessary, move the controller to the left 
to display "Time/Date". 4.
Turn the controller until "Time/Date" is 
highlighted, and then press the controller.
5. Turn the controller until "Time:" is high-
lighted, and then press the controller.
6. Turn the controller to set the hours and 
press the controller.
7. Turn the controller to  set the minutes and 
press the controller.
Status information
Status box
The status box at the top right displays the fol-
lowing information:
> Time
> Current entertainment source
> Sound output ON/OFF
> Mobile phone network with strongest 
reception
> Telephone status
> Traffic reports reception
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At a glanceiDrive
Status box symbols
The symbols are divided into separate groups.
Radio symbols
Telephone symbols
Entertainment symbols Other
With the Professional 
navigation system: 
Split screen
General information
Additional information, e.g. from the computer, 
can be displayed on the right side of the Split 
screen.
This information remains visible on the Split 
screen even when you change to another menu.
Switching the Split screen on and off
1.
 Press the button.
2. "Split screen"
Selecting display
1.  Press the button.
2. "Split screen"
3. Move the controller until the Split screen is 
selected.
4. Press the controller or select "Split screen 
content".
5. Select the desired menu item.
SymbolMeaning
Traffic bulletins switched on
HD radio switched on
Satellite radio switched on
SymbolMeaning
Incoming or outgoing call
Missed call
Reception strength of mobile 
phone network symbol flashing: 
network search
No mobile phone network available
Bluetooth switched on
Roaming active
Receiving text message, email
Checking SIM card
SIM card blocked
SIM card missing
Entering PIN
SymbolMeaning
CD/DVD player
Music collection
Gracenote® database
AUX-IN port
USB audio interface
Mobile phone audio interface
SymbolMeaning
Voice instructions are switched off
Querying current vehicle position
Online  Edition  for Part  no. 01 40 2 609  333 - \251  08/11  BMW AG