BMW Sat Nav - would you swap?

gIzzE · 05-05-2009, 06:23 AM

Sytners would not take my 320d sport touring in as it didn't have iDrive, that shows how important the system is now.

The new BMW system uses the iGo8 nav software, which is regarded by many as the leader for route selection, I have a Navigon that runs Navigon, iGo8, TomTom and Garmin. I also do 40k miles a year, so I get to see how they all perform.

Garmin is definitely down at the bottom, with TomTom very close, the Navigon os probably my favourite but the iGo8 is very cloise behind and looks so much better while using it.

Now I am just talking about route selection here, the TomTom wins for ease of use, but at the end of the day once you know a system they are all as easy as each other.

Routing wise though the iGO and Navigon are amazing, you can test nav systems on routes you know well, TomTom and Garmin always take you to a main road or across loads of small b roads, where as the others seem to keep you on a main road unless it is a real benefit to take a B road.
In some ways I still prefer the route selection on the pre LCI cars to TomTom routing, I often compared the two, and the BMW nearly always too a better route even if it does feel and look a clunky.

Problem for many now is even cheap Toyotas and Hondas etc. are getting displays for multimedia and nav as standard now, so to not have a decent infotainment system in a £30-40k German car seems ridiculous. I certainly wouldn't buy one with out it.

TMP · 05-05-2009, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gIzzE

Routing wise though the iGO and Navigon are amazing, you can test nav systems on routes you know well, TomTom and Garmin always take you to a main road or across loads of small b roads, where as the others seem to keep you on a main road unless it is a real benefit to take a B road.
In some ways I still prefer the route selection on the pre LCI cars to TomTom routing, I often compared the two, and the BMW nearly always too a better route even if it does feel and look a clunky.

Agree with this - TomTom always seems to route via B roads to get to some main roads.

I am so happy with the Nav in my pre-lci I gave my Dad my old TomTom - didnt see the point in keeping it in the car!

doughboy · 05-05-2009, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magic77

plus cant get use to the second dome on the dash

Can't get used to that weird flat dash without the 'proper' second hump....... ;-)

Quote:

Problem for many now is even cheap Toyotas and Hondas etc. are getting displays for multimedia and nav as standard now, so to not have a decent infotainment system in a £30-40k German car seems ridiculous. I certainly wouldn't buy one with out it.

Nice point gizze. BMWs / AUDI's etc are list ++ options inorder to keep the list price down. They are miles better built and component quality and therefore more expensive than Vauxhall / honda etc.

Its inevitable that to get a same spec BM as a Honda, the BM will cost MORE!!

It drives me mad when people at work say 'my toyota has nav for free', well yes the cheap plastic toyota is cheap and plastic and thus they can add (usually rubbish kit) it in the price easily. The nav in my missus's top of the range honda civic is absolutely horrific.

BM could offer 'free' nav and i-drive by putting up the list price by 2 grand, then everyones dream boggo basic 320d rattler on the company car scheme would move out of their grade.

I drive is a pukka option that is basically an essential to be costed in when buying, i'd wouldn't touch a car without it.

pjs · 05-05-2009, 04:10 PM

Is voice control part of the Prof Nav? Best way to convince plod that you if you've made a phone call that it's a one touch operation.

I'm in the must have camp by the way, seamless integration of so many functions. Would never pay £2k for it though, usually I buy ex demo.

edowen · 05-05-2009, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ant Man

Thanks for all the posts

Many were informative and taught me things I didn't know about or overlooked.

I also do not understand how BMW put such a poor nav system in a car. What improvement does Idrive2 offer?

It is HDD based, so the whole system is fast.

Screen is one of the largest on the market.

Pro Media pack (which is cheaper than just Nav), gives you:

DVD drive and ability to play movies (no picture when moving)
120gb of storage for music which can be sucked off cd's or usb port in glovebox
system will pull track and album info off the web if it doesnt have it on the cd
internet access via built in telematic sim (free for 3 years)
free 24x7 concierge to find places and send to the car/nav/telephone
ability to send desitnations/contacts straight to the car from google on any pc
TMC to show traffic issues and route round them if navigating
terrain mapping
voice control
Bluetooth integration

wales34part · 05-12-2009, 09:09 PM

Having experienced a pro nav unit failure in my previous e90 whilst luckily stillbeing under warranty and then to be told that the work to get all the systems back up and running was well in excess of £2k - ouch!!! Note I lost radio, nav, heating controls, bluetooth, vehicle settings etc etc and left with a danger service light, it does not look good for the future of out of warranty cars with pro nav fitted.

For this reason i sought out my current e92 making sure it didn't have pro nav. Not easy as i wanted a number of other "standard" options ie leather, heated seats, etc etc.

I'm very happy with my portable Garmin nuvi 710 complete with its bluetooth that works!, 4mb sdhc media player, fm transmitter (media through radio), up to date route maps, touch screen, tms, full postcode nav. portable media player etc etc all for £110

Sounds daft but the best advantage of my nuvi is that it goes straight to map view and speed camera locator without touching a button.

The default brown screen just didn't do it for me!!
Maybe things have moved on though.

Oh BTW it may sound really cheap and excuse the pun "tacky", but after many tries to get a clean look to the nuvi mount i have eventually mounted my nuvi, part over one of the centre air vents (perfect reach line if sight) using nothing but black coloured blue tack. It hasn't budged in 3 months and the nuvi gets removed from its hot shoe regularly. Sounds awful but you really cant see it. even with the nuvi removed.

Please save the "tight git" puns i heard them all lol

Penyfan1960 · 05-21-2009, 08:07 AM

Had Prof Sat Nav in my 320i for 3 1/2 years and found it, all in all, an excellent piece of kit.
However, it was important to define how you wanted to go ie
via Motorway or Non-motorway or fast route or short route or dynamic route
One can always criticise once you know a route because invarible one uses a mixture of motorway + fast route + short route etc.
I found the big dual screen particularly useful. Don't think this is found on many sat navs.
The only prob, I found, with the professional sat nav was, that you could not force a route via say a motorway junction. At least not with 2/07 CD you could'nt. However, this could be done with the Business Sat Nav!! A programing error?
The Prof Sat Nav will definitely be ordered with my 320d m-sport!

Dr Dave · 05-21-2009, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wales34part

Having experienced a pro nav unit failure in my previous e90 whilst luckily stillbeing under warranty and then to be told that the work to get all the systems back up and running was well in excess of £2k - ouch!!! Note I lost radio, nav, heating controls, bluetooth, vehicle settings etc etc and left with a danger service light, it does not look good for the future of out of warranty cars with pro nav fitted.

Sheesh! What was the actual item at fault??

Dougie335 · 05-21-2009, 04:13 PM

Just been down to England for a few days and found that the new HDD iDrive is a pain in the ar* without the speed camera POI. Will take the wifes Tom Tom the next time I go.
Has anyone seen any moves to crack this yet?

wales34part · 05-25-2009, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

Sheesh! What was the actual item at fault??

I don't quite recall but think they referred to it as a ccc? failure.

I know that the nav disc couldn't be ejected as the dealer wanted to charge me for a new one!!!! and the car was out of comission for over a week and as i took the car to them BMW wouldn't offer a courtesy car and the dealer didn't have any available???? Bit of a nightmare really.

TBH i think BMW will have sorted things for the latest gen of idrive but i for sure wouldn't want the long term risks.

feederz · 05-27-2009, 04:16 PM

The iDrive system has the major advantage of being integrated. The main problem I find with the Tom Tom is that it has to be removed when parking for security.

That's essentially where the benefits end as the Tom Tom performs far better in many ways. For ~£200 you get speed camera detection, nicer graphics, faster address lookup (with full postcode support!), touch screen, FM transmitter, portability, bluetooth hands free, cheap and easy updates, extensive customisation and lots more.

In terms of navigation they both seem about as bad as each other to me

I think it's a real shame that so many manufacturers are now designing dashboards which rule out aftermarket entertainment systems. I'd much rather have had the option to leave off the iDrive option and use a top of the range Kenwood or Alpine double-din unit. Seems to me that the manufacturers have you over a barrel now. The beauty of the aftermarket solution was always being able to replace them easily if they fail or become out dated.

05-05-2009, 06:23 AM	#23
gIzzE Major General 361 Rep 5,985 Posts Drives: F11 + 997 Carrera S Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Norfolk, UK. iTrader: (2)	Sytners would not take my 320d sport touring in as it didn't have iDrive, that shows how important the system is now. The new BMW system uses the iGo8 nav software, which is regarded by many as the leader for route selection, I have a Navigon that runs Navigon, iGo8, TomTom and Garmin. I also do 40k miles a year, so I get to see how they all perform. Garmin is definitely down at the bottom, with TomTom very close, the Navigon os probably my favourite but the iGo8 is very cloise behind and looks so much better while using it. Now I am just talking about route selection here, the TomTom wins for ease of use, but at the end of the day once you know a system they are all as easy as each other. Routing wise though the iGO and Navigon are amazing, you can test nav systems on routes you know well, TomTom and Garmin always take you to a main road or across loads of small b roads, where as the others seem to keep you on a main road unless it is a real benefit to take a B road. In some ways I still prefer the route selection on the pre LCI cars to TomTom routing, I often compared the two, and the BMW nearly always too a better route even if it does feel and look a clunky. Problem for many now is even cheap Toyotas and Hondas etc. are getting displays for multimedia and nav as standard now, so to not have a decent infotainment system in a £30-40k German car seems ridiculous. I certainly wouldn't buy one with out it.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

05-05-2009, 04:10 PM	#26
pjs Colonel 284 Rep 2,774 Posts Drives: i8 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: NORTH iTrader: (1)	Is voice control part of the Prof Nav? Best way to convince plod that you if you've made a phone call that it's a one touch operation. I'm in the must have camp by the way, seamless integration of so many functions. Would never pay £2k for it though, usually I buy ex demo.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

05-12-2009, 09:09 PM	#28
wales34part wales34part 0 Rep 5 Posts Drives: 330d M sport (Electric Red) Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: UK iTrader: (0) Garage List 2007 E92 330d M sport [0.00] 2005 330d M Sport [0.00]	Having experienced a pro nav unit failure in my previous e90 whilst luckily stillbeing under warranty and then to be told that the work to get all the systems back up and running was well in excess of £2k - ouch!!! Note I lost radio, nav, heating controls, bluetooth, vehicle settings etc etc and left with a danger service light, it does not look good for the future of out of warranty cars with pro nav fitted. For this reason i sought out my current e92 making sure it didn't have pro nav. Not easy as i wanted a number of other "standard" options ie leather, heated seats, etc etc. I'm very happy with my portable Garmin nuvi 710 complete with its bluetooth that works!, 4mb sdhc media player, fm transmitter (media through radio), up to date route maps, touch screen, tms, full postcode nav. portable media player etc etc all for £110 Sounds daft but the best advantage of my nuvi is that it goes straight to map view and speed camera locator without touching a button. The default brown screen just didn't do it for me!! Maybe things have moved on though. Oh BTW it may sound really cheap and excuse the pun "tacky", but after many tries to get a clean look to the nuvi mount i have eventually mounted my nuvi, part over one of the centre air vents (perfect reach line if sight) using nothing but black coloured blue tack. It hasn't budged in 3 months and the nuvi gets removed from its hot shoe regularly. Sounds awful but you really cant see it. even with the nuvi removed. Please save the "tight git" puns i heard them all lol
	Appreciate 0 Quote

05-21-2009, 08:07 AM	#29
Penyfan1960 Trooper 10 Rep 174 Posts Drives: 320D M-Sport Le Mans Blue Join Date: May 2009 Location: S E London iTrader: (0)	Had Prof Sat Nav in my 320i for 3 1/2 years and found it, all in all, an excellent piece of kit. However, it was important to define how you wanted to go ie via Motorway or Non-motorway or fast route or short route or dynamic route One can always criticise once you know a route because invarible one uses a mixture of motorway + fast route + short route etc. I found the big dual screen particularly useful. Don't think this is found on many sat navs. The only prob, I found, with the professional sat nav was, that you could not force a route via say a motorway junction. At least not with 2/07 CD you could'nt. However, this could be done with the Business Sat Nav!! A programing error? The Prof Sat Nav will definitely be ordered with my 320d m-sport!
	Appreciate 0 Quote

05-21-2009, 04:13 PM	#31
Dougie335 Private First Class 32 Rep 188 Posts Drives: Audi S5 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Glasgow iTrader: (0)	Just been down to England for a few days and found that the new HDD iDrive is a pain in the ar* without the speed camera POI. Will take the wifes Tom Tom the next time I go. Has anyone seen any moves to crack this yet?
	Appreciate 0 Quote

05-27-2009, 04:16 PM	#33
feederz Private 1 Rep 76 Posts Drives: 335i coupe Join Date: May 2009 Location: UK iTrader: (0)	The iDrive system has the major advantage of being integrated. The main problem I find with the Tom Tom is that it has to be removed when parking for security. That's essentially where the benefits end as the Tom Tom performs far better in many ways. For ~£200 you get speed camera detection, nicer graphics, faster address lookup (with full postcode support!), touch screen, FM transmitter, portability, bluetooth hands free, cheap and easy updates, extensive customisation and lots more. In terms of navigation they both seem about as bad as each other to me I think it's a real shame that so many manufacturers are now designing dashboards which rule out aftermarket entertainment systems. I'd much rather have had the option to leave off the iDrive option and use a top of the range Kenwood or Alpine double-din unit. Seems to me that the manufacturers have you over a barrel now. The beauty of the aftermarket solution was always being able to replace them easily if they fail or become out dated.
	Appreciate 0 Quote