Most of us actually ordered the 2004 e60 with the knowledge that the rumored bluetooth will be available later with software update or some upgrade equal to all owners of this year's model.... however it seems that only the post March 2004 owners are able to get it easily while the previous owners of the SAME YEAR MODEL got ignored.... c'mon, this is an expensive car, why only certain 2004 owners can get it, while others can't? I cannot see the logic in this....

 

Although I specifically asked about this before buying my car (and they showed me the card as proof) I forgot to ask about seats. Apparently, the seats will be fully available with the 18.3 software upgrade due out in May of 2006.

I agree. This is bull, and I just spent $350 buying mr Belk's cpt9000, $106 the first day at the dealership, another $106 yesterday at the dealership having them fix their own mistakes.

I asked about Bluetooth, Mp3, and SAT when i bought the car. They said 'absolutely'.


Now that I have the phone, that's fine, but still why give us the card if it doesn't work? It doesn't make any sense.

 

You have the card? Did you give them the TS bulletins? I think your dealer is just plain stupid and cannot handle these cars. I think your car is BT compatible.

 

Look inside the drivers side door jam, what is your build date?

 

James,

I can't believe that they had the gall to charge you a second time to correct their incompetence. I would complain to the Service Manager and/or the GM of the dealership. You shouldn't have to pay for them to get over the learning curve. I am glad, though, that the cradle/phone combo now works for you.

As to why the card is there; I'm positive it's there for the exact reason my DirectTivo has USB ports; future expansion that may or may not ever actually get implemented. It irritates me to no end that my Series 2 DirecTivo _could_ support the HMO and other networking features that the standalones do, but I'll probably never see that functionality.

What amazes me is that our cars came off the line probably only a couple of days apart, but my TCU came out of a BT-compatible batch and yours didn't.

Hormazd: I think that there is a certain part number range that is compatible for the BT retrofit. If I'm not mistaken, there are people who had early run (pre March '04 production) e60's that also got a BT passkey card with their vehicles, but unless the TCU P/N is in the compatible range, the BT card is useless. In fact, with the E60 BT, you don't even use the BT passkey on the card anyway.

-MrB

 

James, READ THIS!

MrB,

I know the passkey is useless for pairing. BUT up till now James' dealer has shown such utter incompetence that in my gut I have the feeling he has a BT compatible car. I am not aware of anyone with a BT Passkey who cannot get the retofit. I think as you said the card is placed in the car during final assembly for the future retrofit. They knew what hardware was needed and the card goes with the hardware. This problem has only existed for US spec cars because ASSIST is standard in the US. That is why our European members have been enjoying BT for months. The solution is programming the CCC to allow both ASSIST and BT to work in harmony. This was accomplished as of SW V13.3.

So in short, James should find another dealer who will read the bulletins and is competent enough to code the car. Fortunately there are many young mechanics who do understand this. Unfortunately the older ones are the foremen running the service department and they are still computer illiterate.

Hormazd

 

Thanks guys. I agree with you both. My dealer is nice enough, but they just don't get it.

 

Hopefully, Hormadz is correct. There is so much mis-information at the dealers that you can't rely on their advice for anything related to software or electronics. Your service tech may be good and knowledgeable - but I agree that most service reps and shop managers don't get it. Plus most dealer's management are very sensitive to liability risks when it comes to anything that affect safety features (airbags, Assist etc.) So they actively try to avoid doing this work.

Pick up the phone and call BMW NA, get the rep to pull up your E60's production info and ask if the TCU is BT compatable. This is the only reliable way to know.

We'll all keep our fingers crossed.

 

sounds like an imcopotent daeler if I have ever herd one .