I was sitting in a friend's new Audi A6 today and admiring the fact that it came equipped with a knob that functions like BMW's iDrive (a knob that acts like a mouse on the nav screen; see http://www.bmwworld.com/technology/idrive.htm). The screen was very low-res, so I have even a greater appreciation of the '06 Prius hi res screen. However, I was jealous of the knob: both to protect the screen (you don't have to press it) and for convenience (you don't have to reach for the screen but you can simply manipulate the knob that was nicely placed in front of the armrest area). This is one mod that I would spend some money on. It would require both a software (to allow highlighting of buttons) and hardware modification. Does anyone think this is possible?
iDrive has been panned by critics as a very poor user interface. Audi's version is an improvement, but both require diverting more attention from driving than the Prius touch screen.
Having recently owned a BMW 745- I can tell you- the Prius screen is better. I drive really not that impressive. To get to the "Z" in the phone book- you have to go through all the alphabet! No indexes! We are better off.
