calpalmer

I was under the impression that cell phones could be snapped into a cradle in the center console in the '08 550i. Is that not correct? I didn't see it as an option and somehow came to believe it was standard.

Thanks,

Cal

BTW, for the first 12 hours, the car exceeds all my expectations -- awesome!

wees75

Congrats on the 550. It is a monster Engine Enjoy!!

There is no cradle for bluetooth phones. All you need to do is link the phone to the I-Drive and... Voila ... you have all the controls you need on the steering wheel.

BTW... you will need to check your phone compatibility as not all the phones are fully compatible with BMW.

calpalmer

Thanks, it sure is. On the phone, I have it paired, all's good there, works like a charm. I had seen a BMW brochure and posts on this forum or at bimmerfest.com to mount the phone under the lid to the center console which is what I mistakenly thought was a standard fixture on this car. Stream provided me a link to a DIY for it with BMW part numbers etc. Thanks,
Cal

doug_999

There are cradles made for certain phones (RAZR and iPhone) - they allow the phone to use your car's antenna and charge the phone at the same time. I liked my RAZR like that a lot - except that I kept forgetting it in the car! I intend to get a new one for the iPhone now too. They are not cheap - I think originally I paid something like $450 for the full thing installed.

Go here for more details.
www.wireless4bmw.com

luigi524td

There are snap-ins for various cell phone models. They are not cheap and the real problem is they are "phone specific" and the darn cell phone configurations change every other month.

If you decide to upgrade your phone more often than you upgrade your car - no problem! BT works fine w/o it.

calpalmer

Yep, phone specific snap-in adapters... in fact while waiting for the car to be delivered, I ordered one from an English company specific to the Blackberry 8130. It came, it's cool, and I figured I'd just "snap it in" to the console location, thinking somehow the 550i was already set up with the base wired up and ready to go. No way. I have now ordered the two additional components it misses, and will wire it up in accordance with Stream's great DIY post on bimmerfest.com.

Thanks,

Cal

Rudy

Don't forget mrbelk's DIY post on the same subject -- it's probably the post that inspired the one on bimmerfest...

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=1438

calpalmer

Thanks Rudy, I'll review this.... looks less simple than I thought it would be. Didn't occur to me there is TCU reprogramming involved.

Cal