Slight swerve of the topic, but do the rivers line up correctly on this version ?
Have noticed that with my curent disk, 2006-01, the GPS can place the car extremely precisely in towns, even down to place in the queue for the lights ! But crossing bridges the rivers in the UK are typically about 100 yards out - regularly. Being a boatie (or anorak if you prefer) I know that the UK Ordnance Survey used a UK specific map datum, OSGB, as opposed to the now standard WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984) and if you get this wrong, the error can be of this sort of scale. Could the map makers have overlayed rivers with the wrong datum?

So a new game for you - spot the rivers during your travels !

 

a German postcode also consists of 5 digits only, but will not break down the area as close as a UK postcode does

 

Hmmm... Need to compare apples and apples.

A full UK postcode as you know is up to AA99 9AA. Pro nav will allow entry of AA99 9 for UK and 99999 for many other territories postcodes. These doubtless have a similar level of accuracy.

Of course if we could (which we don't) allocate all letters in UK up to ZZ99 9 that would give more permutations than 99999 type postcodes with a potential for more "detail" from simply 5 character positions.

ABC

 

Sorry for the late reply. Somehow I missed this.

The UK has a very granular post code structure. More so than any of the other "big 5" European countries. I think only the US gets close (or better) with 9-digits ZIP (or Canada - which has basically the same structure as the UK)

AFAIK LS12 3, or RG27 8, or EC1V 4 cannot be entered. Difficult for me to test, as I have the 2006/2 disc. But with the old 2005/1 I had, entry was restricted to 5 characters including the space, which was compulsory (thanks to the "facilitated" entry system)

Re: the data vs. functionality issue: some things are a bit of a hybrid. I'd like to have good POI info for speed cameras as standard, for example... and that would be in a sense "added functionality"

 

Hmmmmm

That's not the point. The point is that 2 of the biggest, if not the 2 biggest, markets for BMW (Germany and the US) only have 5 digit post/ZIP codes, hence require road and possibly house number entry in addition. Many other markets will not be different, which could explain BMW not being really interested in the UK postcode problem.

 

That would be poor.

ABC

 

It seemed to be you who brought up the point of UK post codes in some guise being "more accurate". I needed to even out the comparison between UK structures and 5 digits.

Additionally, as my earlier post indicates, there is an implementation of 9-digit ZIP codes in US which BMW (or is is it NavTeq data) seems to ignore.

I agree "5 is the magic number". It is for Microsoft Autoroute too as I said earlier.

ABC

 

There is a new version every 6 month (May and November). May version is named "current-year"-2, November version is named "next-year"-1... and so on. Personnaly I only buy the May version just before summer vacations but cost is 320 Euros (410 USD)

 

Hmmm... these Naveteq UK postcode implementations are poor.

I entered the (5 character) postcode of a branch my family in the suburbs of a city and the best it could do was the exact centre of the city. Population almost 400,000.

ABC

 

That's really sloppy. The Post Office provides LatLong data for the 17,000 (IIRC the number) full postcodes, and it's available for relatively low cost. :thumbsdown: