@ Tracus,
You know the funny thing is that I tried the old cable out, played the iPod for about 3 minutes until the album art came back up, then removed it & put the new cable back on the iPod & then the album art came up!?
I thought okay it's back, turned the car off. Came back an hour later to go get some dinner & the art was gone & didn't come back again the whole time I was away driving around.
I'm going to do a reset of the iPod. Maybe my year "Classic" iPod is too old? My wife has an iPod touch so I'm going to try that as well.
I'll keep you posted
PS oh yeah iDrive seems okay, everything is functioning.