gdavis

isbell,

did your dealer just do the things that pharding listed out as the steps? my dealer still tells me it is not possible for cars built prior to 9/04 according to the BMWNA bulletin. I told him to call Pharding's dealer and get the story direct from them. But it's like pulling teeth to get them to do this for me!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just want to get my car in and have it done!!!!!!!!

isbell

Yes. My car was built 6/14/2004. They just called Motor Werks and went from there. It took them a week to become convinced. It took them one day to do it. There were, apparently, no problems.

Peace.

jksanford

Well, I bit the bullet and just bought Mr. Belk's CPT 9000. He made me a good deal, and pointed out a couple of installation tips. He's the man!

Phone crade and everything installed without a problem. Now, I need to activate the phone and get it to BMW for the software.

I still want the Bluetooth, but this should do me for awhile. It just stinks that I was sold a car, told it had bluetooth (because I specifically asked!), was given the bluetooth card with my car, and now it isn't really there. My wife asked me if I checked the AC when I took delivery. I said i 'no', because I saw the button. She said it's the same with the bluetooth. I took it for granted because the dealership said it was there, the bluetooth card was there. Same for SAT, same for MP3, etc.

3rd BMW, but after this, I'm down on them. I'm sure that will change, but it doesn't make me feel anybetter.

Buyer beware.

gdavis

jk,
I totally feel what you feel. It isn't fair to say it has something, and then not deliver. They need to get their act together on a lot of these issues. If you may not be able to get something resolved, then don't say it is 'included'.

jksanford

Exactly!

mrbelk

It seems to me that the problem lies much more with the individual BMW centers and their sales staff than with BMWAG or BMWNA. I just think that the dealers and sales advisors are completely uninformed about the product; and it adversely affects the image of the marque. Now, some sales advisors are very well informed, since they take it upon themselves to do the research and read up on the latest bulletins, etc. I've found that they are also the BMW enthusiasts like ourselves.

I remember earlier this year when a confidential memo was leaked that provided a sort of road-map/timeline to some of the features that were omitted in the first production vehicles. BMW is generally making good on those promises; since they were, in fact, able to get the BT stuff working on some MY04's when there was never any official literature (that I saw, at least) claiming that it would work on the MY04 production run. The MP3 stuff is mentioned in the manual, but methinks that the marketing people did what they do best and opened their mouths about a feature without talking to the engineers as to its feasibility; those same engineers issued a bulletin/errata to the manual stating that MP3 support was not currently present. Now, if a salesman doesn't take the time to read that particular errata, and touts that as a feature to prospective customers, it makes BMW look bad, when, in fact, the onus is on the salesman to stay up to date on his product.

The Sirius/NAV conflict is probably the most troubling of all, although Sirius support was only ever available as a factory Pre-wire. I just can't figure out what the conflict is there; since the MOST optical entertainment bus _should_ be able to accomodate any number of compliant devices. Why the NAV version of the iDrive system can't support it is beyond me, since theoretically all that stuff is somewhat object oriented. If the NAV version of the iDrive system can accomodata a MOST-based cd changer, then a MOST-based satellite radio receiver should just be an exercise in mounting the thing and hooking it up to the MOST bus. Theoretically, a MOST-based MP3 player that used CF-cards or MemorySticks or SD cards could be produced by some 3rd party like Alpine or Sony or Pioneer and it would again be a simple exercise in mounting and wiring.

Anyway, I got my 545 to drive, and it drives like a champ. All the extras just add to the driving experience.

-MrB

gdavis

mrB,

I was wondering if it has more to do with the antennas (antennae?) than it does with anything else. If the receiving of sat. signals is screwed up by the transmitting of BMW assist calls simply by frequency and RF issues, maybe they have some kind of fix that needs to manage that in some odd way. Just a thought, but between GPS receiving, AM/FM/WB receiving, ASSIST transmitting, and maybe even cell phone via cradle transmitting, and SAT receiving, they could have their hands full in the antenna/RF signal department.....

Maybe they've been trying to work out conflicts via software that would allow these things to straddle or avoid one another.