[dotmit]

Originally Posted by Yoro35i

what car are you talking about then? isnt all E9X sat nav old system was 5 digit postcode?

Mine isn't. One-owner full BMW service history bought approved used from Park Lane BMW 2 weeks ago. 2008-2 Premium maps. Doesn't have full postcode input. I should have said it doesn't have 7 digit postcodes, that's what I meant. It only lets you put the first half of the postcode and the first digit of the second half, so if I want to put in WC1E 6BT it only goes as far as WC1E 6... Which might be 250 metres up the street, on a one way street. I suppose that's good enough for the countryside but it's pretty useless if you live in Central London, and isn't as good as any £50 cheapo satnav you can buy in a shop. There's no defence against that at all, not from a premium manufacturer like BMW. The Mercedes COMAND system will tell you what street and number you're on from the dashboard even if you're not navigating anywhere.

Anyway I ordered the 2013 full map DVDs from Cotswold BMW and they arrived today so my navigation should hopefully be a bit better when I get round to doing my update. Cost me £200 though, not too happy about that

[AlanYoro35i]

Originally Posted by dotmit

Mine isn't. One-owner full BMW service history bought approved used from Park Lane BMW 2 weeks ago. 2008-2 Premium maps. Doesn't have full postcode input. I should have said it doesn't have 7 digit postcodes, that's what I meant. It only lets you put the first half of the postcode and the first digit of the second half, so if I want to put in WC1E 6BT it only goes as far as WC1E 6... Which might be 250 metres up the street, on a one way street. I suppose that's good enough for the countryside but it's pretty useless if you live in Central London, and isn't as good as any £50 cheapo satnav you can buy in a shop. There's no defence against that at all, not from a premium manufacturer like BMW. The Mercedes COMAND system will tell you what street and number you're on from the dashboard even if you're not navigating anywhere.

Anyway I ordered the 2013 full map DVDs from Cotswold BMW and they arrived today so my navigation should hopefully be a bit better when I get round to doing my update. Cost me £200 though, not too happy about that

AS i said in the other post, You Need to input all 5 postcode first then it will allow you to select e.g w14 9AA =W14 9 (london) or w14 9( west ken) , you will need to select where ever it is closest to your destination for this instance it is west ken one then scroll over to street name and input street name and building number. THIS will take you to your destination!

[dotmit]

Originally Posted by Yoro35i

AS i said in the other post, You Need to input all 5 postcode first then it will allow you to select e.g w14 9AA =W14 9 (london) or w14 9( west ken) , you will need to select where ever it is closest to your destination for this instance it is west ken one then scroll over to street name and input street name and building number. THIS will take you to your destination!

No it won't. If I want to get to say, 8 Wardour Street, that building has a specific postcode. The navigation has no idea what it is, so if I don't know that it's number 8 and I only have the postcode (which is most of the time because that's what most navigation systems need and it's usually all you need to ask someone for) it will take me to some random location in Wardour Street which is the wrong place. It's then down to me to find which number is where, and follow the one-way system on my own. So I have to use my phone to find it. So I might as well have used my phone for the entire journey.

I don't think you understand how full postcodes work. 5 digits only gives you a general area, not an exact location. You need all 7 digits to get the exact location, regardless of whether or not you have a house number.

If you have a house number, what's the point in using the postcode? You could use the street for that.

As I said before, any cheapo £50 navigation can do this so it's completely pathetic that a system BMW charges the best part of £1500 for isn't able to do it.

Not sure why you're being so defensive about what is a really poor system. I've used Garmin, TomTom and several different apps on my various phones I've had, as well as systems in other cars (old and new). The BMW one is the worst I've seen for actually getting me to where I want to go. It's nothing to do with how I input the destination. It simply won't let me input the exact destination in the first place (not using postcode anyway).

It also insists I exit out of St James Park the way I came in instead of just accepting that I've driven in there now and there is actually a better route to get to the other side of the park than driving 2 miles around it. TomTom and Garmin will route me so as to avoid entering the park but as soon as I enter it they recalculate and send me on my way.

[dotmit]

(Just to add that once I update my maps I'll probably be back praising it and saying it's the best thing ever lol)

[AlanYoro35i]

Originally Posted by dotmit

No it won't. If I want to get to say, 8 Wardour Street, that building has a specific postcode. The navigation has no idea what it is, so if I don't know that it's number 8 and I only have the postcode (which is most of the time because that's what most navigation systems need and it's usually all you need to ask someone for) it will take me to some random location in Wardour Street which is the wrong place. It's then down to me to find which number is where, and follow the one-way system on my own. So I have to use my phone to find it. So I might as well have used my phone for the entire journey.

I don't think you understand how full postcodes work. 5 digits only gives you a general area, not an exact location. You need all 7 digits to get the exact location, regardless of whether or not you have a house number.

If you have a house number, what's the point in using the postcode? You could use the street for that.

As I said before, any cheapo £50 navigation can do this so it's completely pathetic that a system BMW charges the best part of £1500 for isn't able to do it.

Not sure why you're being so defensive about what is a really poor system. I've used Garmin, TomTom and several different apps on my various phones I've had, as well as systems in other cars (old and new). The BMW one is the worst I've seen for actually getting me to where I want to go. It's nothing to do with how I input the destination. It simply won't let me input the exact destination in the first place (not using postcode anyway).

It also insists I exit out of St James Park the way I came in instead of just accepting that I've driven in there now and there is actually a better route to get to the other side of the park than driving 2 miles around it. TomTom and Garmin will route me so as to avoid entering the park but as soon as I enter it they recalculate and send me on my way.

lol don't worry i thought you had the CCC like i do so that's where all the confusion was from!! I full well understand how post code works but in this isntant i'm talking about the Pain in the ASs of CC navigation and how to get the best of it really.

[dotmit]

I'll be running the update today, will report back once I've had a chance to use it in anger (no pun intended)!

[MPD78]

Dotmit, I'm really not defending the iDrive satnav here as I think we all know that it's pretty poor and should be a lot better but it is very rare that a 7 digit postcode will refer to just one building, unless it is one massive building in central London!! Half a street will often share the same postcode. On my TomTom, after I've entered the full postcode it will then give me all the house numbers and/or building names within that postcode to choose from. As I said, I'm not defending the iDrive satnav and find it crazy that it can't take full postcodes.

As for the updated disc, I'm going to get one too as mine still has the original one from new so there have been a few times when it's got me down as driving through fields!

[dotmit]

Originally Posted by MPD78

Dotmit, I'm really not defending the iDrive satnav here as I think we all know that it's pretty poor and should be a lot better but it is very rare that a 7 digit postcode will refer to just one building, unless it is one massive building in central London!! Half a street will often share the same postcode. On my TomTom, after I've entered the full postcode it will then give me all the house numbers and/or building names within that postcode to choose from. As I said, I'm not defending the iDrive satnav and find it crazy that it can't take full postcodes.

As for the updated disc, I'm going to get one too as mine still has the original one from new so there have been a few times when it's got me down as driving through fields!

My building with 15 flats over 5 floors has its own postcode. The shop on the ground floor has a different postcode to the flats. The buildings on either side next door and across the road each have their own postoode, as do most of the other buildings on my street. In Central London it's common for each building (and even companies within those buildings) to have their own postcode. If you combine that with an abundance of one way streets you have a completely useless satnav if it can't take you to the spot you need to be at. I appreciate that on a TomTom if you enter the postcode it gives you a list of addresses. That's partly my point. Why can't the BMW one do that? My old Garmin-based one did that too, and if you didn't bother entering which house number it still got you to where you needed to go within a few metres, not within a few hundred metres like the BMW one.

It's different in the suburbs and the countryside where it might refer to an entire street or development of houses but around where I live, my postcode is different to everyone else around me and you need that level of accuracy or you might as well not have it. This is only a problem on the BMW satnav. The satnav I used in a 2003 Toyota Avensis was able to direct me better than the one in my 2009 BMW.

Anyway, I have high hopes for my 2013 premium map update!

[MPD78]

Originally Posted by dotmit

My building with 15 flats over 5 floors has its own postcode. The shop on the ground floor has a different postcode to the flats. The buildings on either side next door and across the road each have their own postoode, as do most of the other buildings on my street. In Central London it's common for each building (and even companies within those buildings) to have their own postcode. If you combine that with an abundance of one way streets you have a completely useless satnav if it can't take you to the spot you need to be at. I appreciate that on a TomTom if you enter the postcode it gives you a list of addresses. That's partly my point. Why can't the BMW one do that? My old Garmin-based one did that too, and if you didn't bother entering which house number it still got you to where you needed to go within a few metres, not within a few hundred metres like the BMW one.

It's different in the suburbs and the countryside where it might refer to an entire street or development of houses but around where I live, my postcode is different to everyone else around me and you need that level of accuracy or you might as well not have it. This is only a problem on the BMW satnav. The satnav I used in a 2003 Toyota Avensis was able to direct me better than the one in my 2009 BMW.

Anyway, I have high hopes for my 2013 premium map update!

Well it sounds like you live in the middle of a proper concrete jungle! Fair enough though, the BMW satnav seems pretty useless for you. Let's hope the update sorts it.........

[Hotcoupe]

Has the OP left the building?

Did he pay the bill for all the advice,or did he leave a forwarding address for the invoices?

Originally Posted by dotmit

My building with 15 flats over 5 floors has its own postcode. The shop on the ground floor has a different postcode to the flats. The buildings on either side next door and across the road each have their own postoode, as do most of the other buildings on my street. In Central London it's common for each building (and even companies within those buildings) to have their own postcode. If you combine that with an abundance of one way streets you have a completely useless satnav if it can't take you to the spot you need to be at.

Do you get lost often?Then have to ring home to get directions?

I'd wear a tag around your neck with your address on,just in case, you understand

[dotmit]

Originally Posted by Hotcoupe

Has the OP left the building?

Did he pay the bill for all the advice,or did he leave a forwarding address for the invoices?



Do you get lost often?Then have to ring home to get directions?

I'd wear a tag around your neck with your address on,just in case, you understand

No, I'm hardly ever lost, don't really need the satnav except as a last resort for the last few hundred metres and that's when the BMW one fails me

lol @ OP comment. I think he got lost somewhere on the way

[Sir_Pigley]

Originally Posted by dotmit

No, it's because it doesn't have full postcodes so if you try to put one in you're forced to approximate to where it thinks you should go. If you knew precisely where you wanted to navigate to, you wouldn't really need navigation would you?

Full postcodes are often imprecise anyway so it's not 100% reliable way of defining a destination.

You can define your destination precisely by using the full address or by defining the place you need to go using the "point on a map function".

The key phrase you use is "you're forced to approximate to where you (rather than it) thinks you should go". It's not the sat nav making the approximation it's you!

However I accept your point that if you don't know the precise location the satnav does not give you an easy way to define it.

Originally Posted by dotmit

If you knew precisely where you wanted to navigate to, you wouldn't really need navigation would you?

Not true. You use the navigation to tell you how to get there from where you are.

The problems you allude to are most prevalent when visting a business address where you don't really have a street name and number to go to.
In which case postcodes actually are the best way of defining the destination point. However whilst they are getting better, occasionally they can be wrong and hence you end up being late for a meeting because you've ended up a quarter of a mile from the actual place you needed to be.

This has happened to me whether I've used Tomtom, BMW satnav, Copilot or whatever else, so it's not a problem of only the BMW system. However because BMW don't have 7 digit postcodes then it does make life more difficult.

That's why if I am going to a business meeting I always check out precisely where I am due to go, using a PC/Streetview/Google Maps and then program the destination on the BMW satnav. If I could be bothered to pay the extortionate £120 annual fee to send it directly from my PC to the car life would be even easier.

[Sir_Pigley]

Originally Posted by Hotcoupe

Has the OP left the building?

A most effective way of making yourself look like a childish brat:

1) Make a contentious post on a forum.
2) Get offended when not everyone agrees with you.
3) Get all defensive.
4) Delete all your posts by replacing everything you wrote with an "M".
5) Go off in a huff like a big girl's blouse.

[dotmit]

Originally Posted by Sir_Pigley

Full postcodes are often imprecise anyway so it's not 100% reliable way of defining a destination.

You can define your destination precisely by using the full address or by defining the place you need to go using the "point on a map function".

The key phrase you use is "you're forced to approximate to where you (rather than it) thinks you should go". It's not the sat nav making the approximation it's you!

However I accept your point that if you don't know the precise location the satnav does not give you an easy way to define it.

Not true. You use the navigation to tell you how to get there from where you are.

The problems you allude to are most prevalent when visting a business address where you don't really have a street name and number to go to.
In which case postcodes actually are the best way of defining the destination point. However whilst they are getting better, occasionally they can be wrong and hence you end up being late for a meeting because you've ended up a quarter of a mile from the actual place you needed to be.

This has happened to me whether I've used Tomtom, BMW satnav, Copilot or whatever else, so it's not a problem of only the BMW system. However because BMW don't have 7 digit postcodes then it does make life more difficult.

That's why if I am going to a business meeting I always check out precisely where I am due to go, using a PC/Streetview/Google Maps and then program the destination on the BMW satnav. If I could be bothered to pay the extortionate £120 annual fee to send it directly from my PC to the car life would be even easier.

Points taken. As I said my frustration is that the BMW system is nowhere near as good as systems from other manufacturers or a cheap TomTom or whatever. It's only using this particular system that I have had these problems.

And I disagree with your point about me making the approximation. It's not me making the approximation at all. It's me wanting to enter a full postcode and having to accept the 5 digit one I am given by the BMW system, and having to choose that instead of the considerably precise one I would have got from a 7 digit postcode. I only use navigation when I don't know where the place is. If I knew where the place was on a map, I wouldn't really need the navigation...

Anyway, in my first post in this thread I said I'd still get one with navigation built in if I were choosing again. If the map updates solve the postcode problem it's actually a pretty good system overall, but the postcode issue completely kills it for me!

[xenon]

Are you talking about the CCC or the CIC system here? I'm assuming the former as the CIC has always had 7 digit postcode.

The CIC system is great - try the latest version. Admittedly the CCC version was a bit pants.

[dotmit]

Originally Posted by xenon

Are you talking about the CCC or the CIC system here? I'm assuming the former as the CIC has always had 7 digit postcode.

The CIC system is great - try the latest version. Admittedly the CCC version was a bit pants.

I have an iDrive with a bunch of buttons on it for nav, CD, radio etc. And there are songs on the multimedia system from the previous (and only other) owner. Only one cd/dvd slot on the dashboard, and I have split screen. But only 5 digit postcodes... go figure!? 2009 pre-LCI according to realoem.com...

The £200 for the 2013 maps I ordered was about £15 for DVDs and £185 for activation code...

[xenon]

Do you just have the business Nav as opposed to Professional Media?

Bit late now but you can download the three DVDs for free or pay £25 from the dealer. You can get the FSC code on-line for $50.

[dotmit]

Originally Posted by xenon

Do you just have the business Nav as opposed to Professional Media?

Bit late now but you can download the three DVDs for free or pay £25 from the dealer. You can get the FSC code on-line for $50.

According to bmwvin.com I have professional navigation...
http://www.bmwvin.com/?vin=J005833

I knew about the $50 code and they said they would make ISOs available to me by FTP if I needed them, but my car is still under warranty with the remainder of the service pack left so it's not straying from a dealer any time soon. I didn't want to get caught out in case of stuffing something up and by ordering from the dealer I can at least get a refund if the map update doesn't have the postcodes they said it would!

[xenon]

Fair enough. I've updated twice though and the cars not even two yet. It's risk-free.

[dotmit]

I'll bear that in mind next time! Thanks for the advice

[AlanYoro35i]

Originally Posted by xenon

Are you talking about the CCC or the CIC system here? I'm assuming the former as the CIC has always had 7 digit postcode.

The CIC system is great - try the latest version. Admittedly the CCC version was a bit pants.

I'm going to get all nippy and defensive here now how dare you not agree with CCC nav!! and u called it pant!!

[Mwp4me]

Originally Posted by Yoro35i

I'm going to get all nippy and defensive here now how dare you not agree with CCC nav!! and u called it pant!!

They keep saying you need a Tom Tom. Why will this nightmare thread not die!!!!!!!

PS. for god sake don't mention iDrive. Seriously just don't.