KariFi

Hi all happy E60 / E61 owners in Europe

We have 2 navigation choices here, Business and Professional. All the pics and comments I've seen are about the Pro version.

If anyone of you have chosen that lighter version, could you please inform what you think of it, and is it worth the ?.

Especially: Does it include map display, or just the arrows?? Can you see your position on the map? My dealer didn't know the that. Some brochures say it has it, others say it hasn't.

Because of the delay in delivery (2 months already), I still have this chance to think my choices over and even change... the map data should cover the whole country at the end of this year, which makes NAV worth considering.

Kari

Doctor Diesel

Basic, or as they call it here, Business navigation has NO maps, just arrows to point out turns, you cannot see your position on a map, only a readout of lat/long and altitude.

ALSO, if you get the basic nav, the cd drive for audio shares the drive for the nav disc so if you want to play a cd, you have to take the nav disc out. (unless you add the 6 disc changer.

ALSO, pro nav gives you the bigger idrive screen which lets you have split screen for nav and entertainment or computer etc etc.

ALSO, pro nav gives you the active idrive controller that has force-feedback to only let you select the correct number of options.

I reckon the PRO NAV is the ONLY way to go but if you factor in the cost of the changer, bigger screen, maps etc going for the pro-nav is a no-brainer, it is much much better

DD

ps, if you like the arrow nav, pro nav lets you have a big map and an arrow guidence using the split screen function

JohanDC

Another advantage is TMC (traffic information displayed on your GPS) which will only work if you get the pro version despide of the fact that BMW brochures claim that the bus version also supports it!

KariFi

Thanks a lot for all information, DD and JDC. It helped me, because there seems to be only two sensible alternatives left; either Pro Nav or no Nav at all. I won't take any system without map, because following it is the funniest part IMHO. Now I just got to decide if it's worth it... 4 290?. Quite expensive toy, if there's not much real use for it.

For a taxi driver or some travelling salesman etc. it would certainly be a must.

Kari

paasan

JohanDC: Is that correct? With the bus. nav. TMC doesn't work in any country?

We have the business nav (living outside of the TMC covered area), and are quite happy with the bus. nav.

Sure, under some circumstances, it could have been beneficial to have the map displayed like we did on our E39 - but it's only missed occasionally. And never have we been unable to navigate due to the lack of a map. The business version seems adequate, at least for our use. IMO the main purpose of the navigation system doesn't lie in the display of the map - rather in functions such as information concerning hotels, restaurants, amusement parks and other relevant locations - and the basic ability to guide you correctly to your destination.

As regards correctness.. both business and professional versions seem to be slightly unreliable at times. Wasn't there a post about a nav. choosing neither the fastest nor the shortest route obvious between two cities - in spite of these criteria having been defined?

I've noticed that sometimes, the preferences/criteria I choose for the route may be misleading, especially within cities where speed limits are varying. Under such conditions the nav's ability to compute the fastest route seems slighly impaired. Either that, or I drive the shortest and slowest routes too fast I would assume this would be the case with the professional nav. too. It may also be caused by the quality of the maps over my city.

Overall, the professional version provides a wider screen, and maybe some increased visibilty. The force feedback may also lead you into looking less at the screen while driving. The map may also be useful. But is it worth the extra euros? Your pocket should decide. The lighter nav. is definitely worth the money. AFAIK it also includes an improved journey computer which is quite useful.


-paasan

JohanDC

When ordering my car I was thinking the exact same thing. The only difference was that I needed it for my work. At first I was thinking about adding an aftermarket unit (PocketPC device with GPS receiver) because the longest time that I've driven the same car was two years and I had a BMW nav in both of my previous cars, so getting it would be again a waste of money I guess. In the end I did order the pro nav because of all the additional extra's and most importantly I wouldn't have to mess up the nice stock look of the dashboard.

JohanDC

paasan - I am not saying that the bus nav is not worth the money, as long as it gets you on your destination it's great.

I have had both the bus as pro nav systems in the past and I found that the bus nav is more than adequate in most occasions. What I however did not liked about this system was that it felt like I was driving in the dark without any light when using it, meaning there is only this arrow that says what to do next without that you know whether the computer that calculated the route didn't make any mistakes (or didn't use the most optimized route).

What I also like about having a map is that you can use it very well when driving on congested roads (e.g. city driving). If I see some queuing in front of me I quickly take a detour and put the map on the screen so that I can see how I have to drive to get back on my route after passing the queue. I must say that I do this really a lot since I have to drive through one of the biggest cities here in Belgium on a daily basis.

paasan

JohanDC: It was simply a response to KariFI's question on whether or not the bus. nav. is worth the money. And - absolutely - when you're driving some place where you know the roads and the traffic is congested, the map is great. However, you'd have to know which roads are one-way and which aren't etc. I would never dare just following the map once in an unfamiliar city. AFAIK we tried it once in Milan - without success

But.. does TMC work or does it not work? I believe I've read mixed reports - some says it's not working in the UK due to a missing agreement - while other claim that it is fully functional in e.g. Germany and continental Europe..


-paasan

JohanDC

Indeed I've read some mixed reports on this too. I think it was working in Germany and it did not work in the UK. Also someone reported that after contacting BMW about this they made a statement that said something like no support for bus nav, pro nav needed for TMC to work!

Doctor Diesel

What you have to decide is wether the pro nav is worth the extra over the business nav, anyone who has had no nav has regretted it. I used to use a garmin streetpilot before this car and although it worked it was a very clunky solution and I think BMW have really improved on their nav interface in the light of idrive.

in the uk, the difference in cost between nav systems is not that great since they took the voice control out of pronav.....only a couple of hundred pounds and as they say, why spoil the ship for a h'penny worth of tar.

I am unsure of the pricing differences in Norway but here

UK bus. Nav = ?1185
UK pro. Nav = ?1650

so for ?465 you get all the benefits of the pro system/big screen/map/forcefeedback controller/TMC/split screen/extra dvd drive etc etc

NO Brainer in my opinion

JT