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To Nav or Not to Nav
So I'm new to the BMW scene. I'm meeting with the dealer this weekend to finalize the options on my 330xi. Can't make up my mind on the nav system though. I've used Garmin for the past couple years, and love it. I just don't think I want the clutter on the dash anymore. Am I going to be giving up a lot of functionality going with the nav system? My biggest concerns is POIs. Does the nav system have the restaraunts, gas stations, and other POIs pretty well covered or will I be disappointed.  I'm looking for some feedback and some experience with the nav from you folks that have been using it. I'd appreciate the help!!! | | Reply » To Nav or Not to Nav |
People, people. When deciding on whether or not to get nav, remember, you are getting a lot more than nav for $1800.
The radio, CD, iPOD, Sirius, MP3, interface with iDrive is much better than the standard system. Also the car configuration, bluetooth phonebook interface, etc.
You will never get this with an aftermarket set up. Those who have it realize what I am talking about.
I must admit I had know idea of the benefits until I had the car for a while. I had the same narrow minded view as many of you. i.e. iDrive=nav. Wrong way to look at it.
I think for $1800 the iDrive/Nav option is perhaps one of the best values in 3 series options. A lot of companies charge $1500-$2000 for Navigation by itself. Also, you will use a built-in nav more than any after market mobile unit. Portable units end up on a shelf in the den until a major road trip. No one leaves them in the car for fear of theft or having wires/suction cups cluttering the cabin.
| | Reply » To Nav or Not to Nav |
Quote: People, people. When deciding on whether or not to get nav, remember, you are getting a lot more than nav for $1800.
The radio, CD, iPOD, Sirius, MP3, interface with iDrive is much better than the standard system. Also the car configuration, bluetooth phonebook interface, etc.
You will never get this with an aftermarket set up. Those who have it realize what I am talking about.
I must admit I had know idea of the benefits until I had the car for a while. I had the same narrow minded view as many of you. i.e. iDrive=nav. Wrong way to look at it.
I think for $1800 the iDrive/Nav option is perhaps one of the best values in 3 series options. A lot of companies charge $1500-$2000 for Navigation by itself. Also, you will use a built-in nav more than any after market mobile unit. Portable units end up on a shelf in the den until a major road trip. No one leaves them in the car for fear of theft or having wires/suction cups cluttering the cabin. | I totally agree. the idrive screen gives you all the benefits that chuck mentioned above. I love that it gives me phonebook information from the bluetooth and car settings and is INVISIBLE. I'm not a big DIY guy and respect those that have that ability or ambition, but to get a aftermarket for 600-800 and then ONLY have nav that isnt integrated as seamlesslessly, and have to conceal wires and make it look as good as the double bubble isn't possible IMO.
Idrive gives you control of many things convienently and clearly IMO. I love my bluetooth/entertainment/nav/car data/ trip computer/ present location in longitude, latitude with elevation.......
I will admit that I don't use the climate function at all and was probably one of those discussions in the engineering room at BMW that went, "what is the next most valuable function to go with the 3 useful ones?"
I still love my nav screen w/ idrive and would definately get it again. But I love cool tech stuff.
| | Reply » To Nav or Not to Nav |
Indeed, now that I've been using it for awhile BMW NAV has more features than expected when I made the decision to purchase it. In this sense it has exceeded my expectations.
At the same time, there are a few basic modes of operation which either I haven't mastered yet, or are just missing altogether. For example, today on the spur of the moment I tried searching for the nearest auto parts store. The points of interest are organized in a tree structure, and I have only found ways to search the terminal (leaf) nodes of the tree. I figured auto parts stores would reside under the "Banking and Shopping->General->Other Merchandise" node, since no other categories seemed to fit. No matches were found, even when I entered specific store names which exist in my area. If the software designers gave us a means for searching intermediate nodes in the tree, such as "Banking and Shopping", it would eliminate a lot of the guesswork in finding points of interest.
Hopefully there's a better way to find POI, and I just haven't uncovered it yet. 
| | Reply » To Nav or Not to Nav |
Quote: Indeed, now that I've been using it for awhile BMW NAV has more features than expected when I made the decision to purchase it. In this sense it has exceeded my expectations.
At the same time, there are a few basic modes of operation which either I haven't mastered yet, or are just missing altogether. For example, today on the spur of the moment I tried searching for the nearest auto parts store. The points of interest are organized in a tree structure, and I have only found ways to search the terminal (leaf) nodes of the tree. I figured auto parts stores would reside under the "Banking and Shopping->General->Other Merchandise" node, since no other categories seemed to fit. No matches were found, even when I entered specific store names which exist in my area. If the software designers gave us a means for searching intermediate nodes in the tree, such as "Banking and Shopping", it would eliminate a lot of the guesswork in finding points of interest.
Hopefully there's a better way to find POI, and I just haven't uncovered it yet. | I think you have hit on perhaps the worst thing about the nav system. POI searching does not exist. However, it is one flaw I could live with. But it would be nice to search.
Maybe BMW figured out if they put every Starbucks in the system, there would have to be a 5 terabyte mainframe in the trunk. 
| | Reply » To Nav or Not to Nav |
Quote: | POI searching does not exist. | Please say it ain't so! 
POI searching is one of the most useful features on my Garmin StreetPilot III, a 5-year old mobile GPS with voice autorouting.
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To Nav or Not to Nav