simba

Spent a few days in Munich this week and a colleague had rented the MB saving us taxi fares to and from the hotel... Anyway, the navigation and general COMAND function (similar to BMW iDrive) is superior. The Navi function allows the user to search POI's whilst en route so filling stations, hotels etc are highlighted and you simply select the one you need and re-direct the route. There were also lots of POI's very nicely categorized and easy to search and select for navigation. The navigation functions inc TMC were more than adequate and gave directions for turnings etc very well. It's also quick, has a big screen that automatically changes colour between bright and 'shaded' during night time driving(the change is automatic e.g. in tunnels), has a built in HDD, built in SD card reader, a 3.5mm jack for mp3 players etc in the glove box, radio display similar to BMW and the BT is fantastic and synch'ed with any of the various mobiles we had without problems. Every time the car was switched off the whole COMAND would dissappear nicely into a auto folding slot. The steering wheel also had buttons to control the COMAND and you could do the same with voice commands but possibly some settings needed to be changed somewhere but since all the manuals were in German, I couldn't find out...
What I didn't like was the Navi commands would not auto reduce the radio/CD levels when being spoken so it could become difficult to hear sometimes. The default control is similar to the iDrive wheel and placed where the driver could comfortably reach and use it. Interior and layout in general was very nice although being a C class, it was smaller than the 5er.

Another observation: majority of BMW's I saw there were de-badged. Loved the motorway bits without speed limits . The car proved very stable and refined at speed and took it past 200kph. Looks wise, not a bad looking car either and the car was pretty new.

Driving wise and in general, I still prefer my 5er but I must say I wish BMW would sort out themselves with the iDrive(I don't have v25 btw...)