BMW Professional Sat Nav
10-08-2007, 02:45 PM
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Hi Guys
I absolutely love my new LCI 535 M Sport Diesal and I love all the extras I ordered (apart from Night Vision).
The one major flaw for me is that I can't stand the BMW Professional sat nav compared to my old Tom Tom 910!!
With my Tom Tom I could rely on it to take me from Central Scotland to anywhere in the UK by voice commands alone but I can't trust my BMW sat nav to do likewise.
On roundabouts I've usually almost passed the exit before the voice promt comes on - it's sooooooooo slow.
Sometimes the perspective view will show the car about to turn left but the arrow direction points right until right at the last second whereby it will switch.
The arrow view counts down the distance again sooooooo slowly that I'm never sure which exits it means.
Even though I've got it set to 'use motorways' it still takes ridiculous routes through Glasgow rather than use the M8 motorway.
I got round not having the ability to do full Postal Code searches by making more use of BMW assist.
Driving somewhere new shouldn't be such hard work - it should be easy. The sat nav should help you instead having you on edge questioning it's speed and reliability!!
How have you guys found it compared to other (much cheaper and easier to use) sat nav solutions out there?
Saf
I absolutely love my new LCI 535 M Sport Diesal and I love all the extras I ordered (apart from Night Vision).
The one major flaw for me is that I can't stand the BMW Professional sat nav compared to my old Tom Tom 910!!
With my Tom Tom I could rely on it to take me from Central Scotland to anywhere in the UK by voice commands alone but I can't trust my BMW sat nav to do likewise.
On roundabouts I've usually almost passed the exit before the voice promt comes on - it's sooooooooo slow.
Sometimes the perspective view will show the car about to turn left but the arrow direction points right until right at the last second whereby it will switch.
The arrow view counts down the distance again sooooooo slowly that I'm never sure which exits it means.
Even though I've got it set to 'use motorways' it still takes ridiculous routes through Glasgow rather than use the M8 motorway.
I got round not having the ability to do full Postal Code searches by making more use of BMW assist.
Driving somewhere new shouldn't be such hard work - it should be easy. The sat nav should help you instead having you on edge questioning it's speed and reliability!!
How have you guys found it compared to other (much cheaper and easier to use) sat nav solutions out there?
Saf
10-08-2007, 02:59 PM
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My Ride: 07' 530d - M-Sport - Titanium Silver / Black Dakota leather
08' 120i - M-Sport - Alpine White III / Black Sensatec
I'm with you, I run TomTom 6 on my HTC 3600, much faster.
10-08-2007, 05:12 PM
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In general, I have been very pleased with the speed of my car?s satnav and I have had several BMWs with CCC.
I?ve driven them both in Central Europe and the States and not found them slow at all.
Perhaps something is wrong with yours?
I?ve driven them both in Central Europe and the States and not found them slow at all.
Perhaps something is wrong with yours?
10-08-2007, 08:31 PM
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My Ride: 2007 530d
2003 X5 3.0A (from new)
Previously 2003 Z4 3.0
My professional Nav is far faster than my Navman portable in recalculating routes, consistently advising new route within seconds if you pass a turn or change your mind.
Is there a problem in your software which is slowing the Nav on your car down?
Is there a problem in your software which is slowing the Nav on your car down?
10-08-2007, 10:16 PM
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If you've had a TomTom, you're never going to be happy with the BMW, or any other factory fit unit. The tomtom is hard-drive based, BMW is DVD based. That will be the main speed different in calculating routes. The TomTom had a fairly decent processor and power, compared to the iDrive computer which quite clearly doesn't.
The fact that the TomTom costs around 1/10th of the price of the BMW fitted version is also quite sickening ... plus no speed camera alerts or ability to download updates, no full postcode search, etc etc.
I feel exactly the same way ... but it's the price you pay for a neat looking inbuilt system.. You have to learn to live with it, or stick an ugly tomtom bracket on your window.
The fact that the TomTom costs around 1/10th of the price of the BMW fitted version is also quite sickening ... plus no speed camera alerts or ability to download updates, no full postcode search, etc etc.
I feel exactly the same way ... but it's the price you pay for a neat looking inbuilt system.. You have to learn to live with it, or stick an ugly tomtom bracket on your window.
10-09-2007, 07:14 AM
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Thanks for your comments Russ.
You've pretty much summed it all up for me.
The lag that I'm experiencing is the fact that the Tom Tom is hard drive based and the BMW sat nav is DVD based.
That was always the feeling at the back of my mind - that this is as good as its ever going to be.
It's so frustrating when driving a 50K car with so many fantastic high end technologically advanced options that this aspect of it is not the best on the market!!
Even more frustrating is, as you mentioned, that there is something so much better available at a 1/10th of the price but would look totally out of place on a car in this price range.
I'll just have to get used to my sloooooow motion sat nav.
Saf
You've pretty much summed it all up for me.
The lag that I'm experiencing is the fact that the Tom Tom is hard drive based and the BMW sat nav is DVD based.
That was always the feeling at the back of my mind - that this is as good as its ever going to be.
It's so frustrating when driving a 50K car with so many fantastic high end technologically advanced options that this aspect of it is not the best on the market!!
Even more frustrating is, as you mentioned, that there is something so much better available at a 1/10th of the price but would look totally out of place on a car in this price range.
I'll just have to get used to my sloooooow motion sat nav.
Saf
10-09-2007, 07:36 AM
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Originally Posted by Saf' post='479523' date='Oct 9 2007, 09:14 AM
I'll just have to get used to my sloooooow motion sat nav.
!!It is a shame that BMW can't team up with somebody like TomTom. I always thought the E60 should have a 60Gb hard-drive tucked away in the dash board. 20Gb for worldwide GPS maps, 5Gb for points of interest / speed cameras, and 35Gb for MP3's which would be linked in to the iDrive in the same way the new USB option is. Maybe the F10 will get it right... !
10-09-2007, 07:38 AM
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Originally Posted by Russ1974' post='479531' date='Oct 9 2007, 11:36 AM
I actually took the TomTom 910 out of my E60 about 4 weeks ago, as I have a 535d on order with built in satnav. I thought that if I forced myself to live without satnav at all for a month, when I picked up the E60 it would be a huge relief to get it back, plus I won't be jumping straight from a TomTom to the E60 satnav so hopefully won't notice the different quite as much !!
It is a shame that BMW can't team up with somebody like TomTom. I always thought the E60 should have a 60Gb hard-drive tucked away in the dash board. 20Gb for worldwide GPS maps, 5Gb for points of interest / speed cameras, and 35Gb for MP3's which would be linked in to the iDrive in the same way the new USB option is. Maybe the F10 will get it right... !
!!It is a shame that BMW can't team up with somebody like TomTom. I always thought the E60 should have a 60Gb hard-drive tucked away in the dash board. 20Gb for worldwide GPS maps, 5Gb for points of interest / speed cameras, and 35Gb for MP3's which would be linked in to the iDrive in the same way the new USB option is. Maybe the F10 will get it right... !
10-09-2007, 07:41 AM
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My Ride: 520d Black & SL350
Originally Posted by Saf' post='479523' date='Oct 9 2007, 04:14 PM
Thanks for your comments Russ.
You've pretty much summed it all up for me.
The lag that I'm experiencing is the fact that the Tom Tom is hard drive based and the BMW sat nav is DVD based.
That was always the feeling at the back of my mind - that this is as good as its ever going to be.
It's so frustrating when driving a 50K car with so many fantastic high end technologically advanced options that this aspect of it is not the best on the market!!
Even more frustrating is, as you mentioned, that there is something so much better available at a 1/10th of the price but would look totally out of place on a car in this price range.
I'll just have to get used to my sloooooow motion sat nav.
Saf
You've pretty much summed it all up for me.
The lag that I'm experiencing is the fact that the Tom Tom is hard drive based and the BMW sat nav is DVD based.
That was always the feeling at the back of my mind - that this is as good as its ever going to be.
It's so frustrating when driving a 50K car with so many fantastic high end technologically advanced options that this aspect of it is not the best on the market!!
Even more frustrating is, as you mentioned, that there is something so much better available at a 1/10th of the price but would look totally out of place on a car in this price range.
I'll just have to get used to my sloooooow motion sat nav.
Saf
I can't really agree with that. I went from Tomtom to BMW pro satnav at the start of September and I find it much better. There's no chance of missing a turn off with BMW as it has a little progress bar indicating exactly when it is time to turn. It's very quick to calculate (and recalculate) a route (at least as quick as Tomtom), taking literally a few seconds each time. I drove up north from Northampton during a day of huge tailbacks on the M6 and it flagged up the tailbacks, highlighted them on the screen, and quickly routed me round them. Admittedly, I did have to go near Crewe but hey, you can't have everything. The system was right about the tailbacks as I could see miles of non-moving traffic as I drove over the motorway flyover.
I honestly think there must be something wrong with your system. I don't think the HDD v DVD thing is an issue as the system actually has a large memory cache. Try taking the DVD out after planning the route - it still works just fine.
Martin
10-09-2007, 09:01 AM
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Originally Posted by Saf' post='479352' date='Oct 8 2007, 11:45 PM
I got round not having the ability to do full Postal Code searches by making more use of BMW assist.
How do you use BMW assist to overcome not having full Postal Code search?