Is it me, or are my '05 X5's heating and defroster settings as baffling as I find them? When I push the Defrost button, the defrost fan comes on at maximum power and automically jumps to that setting on the fan "thermometer" screen. Fine. But as soon as the windshield is clear and I try to scroll the fan setting down to, say, midway, the entire defrost fan shuts off completely. No midrange settings??

Secondly, when I try to set the lower and upper vents to blow hot air (which is what I'll want when those very cold mornings start soon in CT), I tend mostly to get warm air coming from the lower vents and COOL air blowing out of the upper vents. This is not cool! Am I doing something wrong, here? I called my dealer and he said "BMW designs it that way because hot air blowing in your face will make you sleepy." That's fine, I like cooler air blowing on my face--but FIRST I want to make the interior of the car warm up!

I have the same issue in my 04 x5. basically i have been using the lower and upper vents and setting the warm tempatures manually. as for the cool air blowing in your face, there should be a manual knob at the vent openings that control hot/cold air in addition to the climate control system. it will range from 3 blue dots (meaning cold) to 3 red dots (meaning warm). i just keep those on 3 red.

+1