I'm thinking of getting Bluetooth retrofitted and was wondering how people's experiences were with Bluetooth and non-nav equipped cars.

From what I have read here, voice commands are NOT possible with Bluetooth unlesss you have Navigation? This seems strange since you can use voice commands with the CPT9000 crapola phone even if you don't have Nav. Can anyone confirm the absence of voice commands with Bluetooth if you don't have Nav?

Also, any comments or how Bluetooth works exactly without voice commands (if indeed true) in a Non-Nav equipped car would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Hi, You can have BT without NAV and you can use voice commands as well. In my case, i can not use the voice commands to dial entries that I had stored on my phone which transferred over to the iDrive. You can dial these by selecting them on the iDrive and click on dial. To use voice commands, I did a save name (with the associated number). So in essence it appears that you have two phonebooks, one in the iDrive and then one that you create in the car.

 

That's right!
No NAV around here but the blouetooth works fine and the voice commands are working too since last software upgrade.

 

Voice command does work for BT without NAV, however, all you get is basic set of commands for the phone only. I think NAV is required if you want to use voice commands for other controls (climate, etc.) I am curious if this purposely degredaded by BMW? maybe enabled in a future software upgrade? or is more computing power required?

I have the same experience as Arno with phone book - there are two - phone and I-Drive. A disappointment not to be able to use the voice dial names already programmed into your phone, but maybe this is something for a future software upgrade.

If you have no trouble navigating I-Drive, BT works great without voice commands and is certainly worth the time and money to get installed.

 

Ok, so at least you can program I-drive to recognize voice commands like push the phone button on the steering wheel then speak "Call Wife Home"? And this is independent of what phone voice dialing you have? I'm just trying to get a feel for how Bluetooth actually works in Non-Nav cars......

 

Yes, you push to talk button, say Save Name, say the name, it asks for the number, you say that, then Save Name again, and it's in theiDrive book. Then , you hit the talk button and say Dial name and say the name.

It's a lot like a regular voice dialing system, though it does seem to be a separate process from the phone you plug in. My address book in the phone is in iDrive, but I can't voice dial it. I can access it and dial it using iDrive, but to voice dial it, I need to re-record it into iDrive.

Not too bad, but not the best, either.

I'm on a Motorola v551.