A major annoyance for me, and i know for many others, is the lack of ability to change to the M Sport view automatically when activating the m1/m2 presets. With iDrive8, BMW has made this even worse, by making it impossible to toggle to M Sport view directly from the button - the system now requires pressing "m mode" and then interacting with the screen or the idrive controller to select the "sport" view. Even worse, there is also a small delay in the screen appearing, which many times means the first rotation of the idrive wheel is not accepted
If you're like me this means that every time you get in the car there is a whole annoying process of button pressing before you can start driving anywhere.
Finally there is a solution created by a company in South Korea. I saw this product and decided to take a bit of a chance with it and now that i can confirm it is legit, wanted to share the details. Just to be clear - i'm not getting anything for this, i paid full price for the item and quite a bit on top of that for express shipping from Korea.
This is a plug and play box that installs in a few minutes with a single harness underneath your center console gearbox module ( for idrive 8 cars. apparently idrive7 cars require a little additonal wiring.) Once installed, your car will automatically switch to m mode sport whenever m1 or m2 is selected -
If your m1/m2 preset requires a double press because of MDM settings, no problem, it works just as well -
What if you occasionally you want to use m1/m2 but NOT be in sport view? Also no problem, can toggle back to road mode as normal -
Currently afaik this can only be ordered directly from Korea and it's a bit expensive especially when adding in the shipping, but it works perfectly and spending some money for little quality of life improvements like this is well worth it to me. If you're interested in getting one, contact @simracer_kos137 on instagram for the details.
Lastly, here are some photos of the install
The module and wiring harness
Remove center control trim, knee pads, 4 screws to pop out the gearbox module. Large connector removed temporarily for some room to work.
The maroon connector is where the module will connect
module connected
find a spot to place the box, there is plenty of room, i used a little velcro
reinstall the gearbox module
reinstall kneepads and trim, done.
