This question comes about as a friend of mine owns a BMW X3 and Apple IPhone, and is having a some issues with his set-up. In short, it appears the answer is NO. I’m not going to spend alot of time on this, but the short of it goes like this.
While only an issue with late to 9/06 models, (they claim to have fixed it…) still a great example of a broken GigaWidget! The bluetooth protocol is a standard, and BMW is having trouble following it. What they (BMW) now says is the IPhone is not compatible with the X3 models built before 9/06. The broken implementation occurs on the BMW side. When the X3 continues attempting to pair with the phone, even if the phone is out of range. I liken this to my Treo 650 which alerts me with text, and leaves the back-light on until I acknowledge the alert or the battery dies. Nice work Treo! Anyway, back to the X3. The result is a dead battery. The cost, $900.00 for a new TCU. I suspect a software flash would fix the issue.
Anyone have more info on this?
UPDATE
BMW attempted a flash of the TCU on the X3, to remedy the Bluetooth issues with the IPhone….no go. The TCU would not take a current version of the flash. Sounds like they have more issues at hand than just bad firmware. Changing hardware often has got all kinds of ramifications!
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[...] admin wrote an interesting post today on Is the BMW X3 (E83) compatibe with the Apple IPhoneHere’s a quick excerptI’m not going to spend alot of time on this, but the short of it goes like this. The bluetooth protocol is a standard, and BMW is having trouble following it. What they (BMW) now says is the IPhone is not compatible with the X3 models … [...]
hey great site.
Bump…is there any new word on this scenario?
Kyle