BMW satnav and voice control

The problems with the (£2000!!!) BMW system:

...all those problems are outweighed by the fact that the system is constantly working to give you Automatic Right of Way Everywhere (tm).

In message , md1jrw writes

Nor with the Ford I have on a short term lease at the moment. It's got some god awful Bosch system that insists on using metres and kilometres and I can't find out how to change it. I may have to read the manual if I don't work it out soon.

The new ones are, the Ford one is SD card based.

I suspect you have an old in dash system, probably a Kenwood or some such, it's a high price but it's not too far removed from what aftermarket Satnav systems cost when that was current. Besides, it's got a BMW badge on so it's not going to be cheap.

In message , Mark W writes

You forgot the telepathic direction projection system where every other driver automatically knows which way you are going to turn without the inconvenience of you having to use those silly flashing orange things on the corners of the car and also the leasehold on the outside lane of any motorway/dual carriageway.

md1jrw gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I dunno.

But why couldn't you have noticed all these glaring faults before spending two grand on it?

Hi Typical Bimmer;overpriced,over hyped,over rated and over here :-)

The problems with the (£2000!!!) BMW system:

2) It is noisy enough to drive you round the twist, with almost constant whirring sounds from the disc spinning up to speed and the the laser track-hunting. What I mean here is not that the noise is deafening, but it's something you really notice and it really gets on your nerves. Couldn't the unit have been put in the boot?

4) It cannot display more than a single category of "points of interest" at any one time. This is really bad if you want to put on speed camera info and show the different types of cameras separately (i.e. I want to know when I am approaching a mobile speed camera site, with merely a chance of a camera being there versus a fixed position site where the presence of a camera is a certainty.

Am I just being a grumpy bugger, or does everyone else with experience of this system think that it is sub-standard and in essence, a rip- off? I just can't believe how much the option costs for such a dreadful bit of kit. Why couldn't BMW have just licenced something in if they couldn't do it themselves?

Regards, Jim

I was aware of most of the faults beforehand and even now, with a more complete knowledge of them, I would still specify the SatNav. The convenience of having a built in system is something I would not pass over. What I hated about the TomTom was having to pack it away and carry it after parking because as sure as eggs are eggs, if you don't remove it, some thieving scuffer will break into your car and relieve you of it. Aside from that, TomTom is great and IME by far the best.

The point of my original post was my total amazement that BMW would have such a totally crap system in a brand new =A345K car. The car itself is great and enormous fun to drive, which simply serves to highlight how out of place the satnav system is.

Regards, Jim.

md1jrw gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Ah. So it can't be THAT much of a "rip-off", then.

It's so totally crap, yet you'd spend the £2k to tick that box again?

Whatever. Anyway, we ain't BMW customer services - perhaps you'd do better directing your whinge at them? Unless, of course, you really wanted to boast about having blown £45k on a 3-series...?

On Tue, 5 Aug 2008 15:01:59 +0100, md1jrw wrote (in article ):

My Garmin sits on the dashboard in a friction mount. When I park I just put it somewhere out of sight.

What makes Tomtom the best? What other makes have you tried?

I was aware of most of the faults beforehand and even now, with a more complete knowledge of them, I would still specify the SatNav. The convenience of having a built in system is something I would not pass over. What I hated about the TomTom was having to pack it away and carry it after parking because as sure as eggs are eggs, if you don't remove it, some thieving scuffer will break into your car and relieve you of it. Aside from that, TomTom is great and IME by far the best.

The point of my original post was my total amazement that BMW would have such a totally crap system in a brand new £45K car. The car itself is great and enormous fun to drive, which simply serves to highlight how out of place the satnav system is.

And unfortunately you have missed the point. Really, if you were aware of the issues and still spent so much money on you, I'm going to point and laugh.

Which is why some cars are now coming with docks for Garmin / TomTom. My Garmin updates are £60, most OE updates are over £100. Maps go out of date, POIs go out of date. I'd recommend to anyone who drives a lot to get a non-integrated nav.

I notice that Kenwood have licensed Garmin's software for their new head units, let's hope the car manufacturers can do deals with Garmin / TomTom and improve their systems too.

The only differnce seems to be the UI. I've tried several in car ones, a couple of Garmins & a Navman, the tomtom seemed by the far the easiest to reroute on & had the simplest traffic updates. But that was a year ago so it may have moved on. The Nokia maps seems to be the worst.

On Wed, 6 Aug 2008 07:29:33 +0100, Tim S Kemp wrote (in article ):

As much as that? My last Garmin update (City Navigator for all of Europe) was $75. With VAT it came to around £45

I quite agree. My last car which I changed 3 years ago had an integrated sat. nav. It was quite a primitive unit by today's standards and as you say, the map updates were horribly expensive. After 3 years they lost interest and stopped producing updates altogether. That's when I bought a Garmin and I've never looked back.

The point of my original post was my total amazement that BMW would have such a totally crap system in a brand new £45K car. The car itself is great and enormous fun to drive, which simply serves to highlight how out of place the satnav system is.

Yes, I understand your point even if there are a lot of sarky buggers who don't. You're prepared to put up with the bad points because you like the good points - but why have so many bad points? is what you're saying. Rob Graham