Dandle

It didnt include all that in 2005. BMW assist ony became standard with the LCI cars I think(ight have been earlier) and then in Sept 2007 it was changed so both assist and online became connecteddrive and were standard with the media pack.

If theres no SOS button I don't think the car is capable of BMW assist which is the minimum level of connected drive.

BingoBonzo

My 2004 (Imported from Germany) both have BMW Online and BMW Assist.

chris f

I don't have voice control either, the button does nothing.

Dandle

Voice control wasnt standard until the LCI either.

palmer02

My 06 530d has media pack and has all the stuff listed.
6 disc
voice
sos button etc

ingybing

I've also got a 530d M Sport with the media pack and those items, i was told it had voice control however when i press the voice controll button nothing happens... I'm waiting for the trade place i bought it from to send on the sat nav dvd... Palmer02: Does your voice control work / work without the DVD disc inserted? I was wondering if it needs some software on that disk?

sudakoma

Ive got pro sat nav, media pack, sos etc but my voice control doesn't work and never has. Im pretty sure i read on here somewhere that if you get the pro sat nav your voice control is deactivated.

x6apollon

Guys,

I have a 2008 X6 with connected drive and I have similar problems. The service is exactly the same as for the E60/E61 models. I know that for the service to work you need to install a SIM card. The dealer said that the SIM was pre-installed in the ECU unit and it was a UK T-Mobile SIM. I now have removed the car from the UK and want to install a new SIM. Do you know how to do that? What is the ECU unit? Can I do it or do I need a mechanic to do it for me?

Dandle

There isnt actually a sim installed. The TCU (Telecomunication control module, something like that anyway) is coded with the correct mobile operator info to connect and download data, to change it woule rquire the dealer to reload the module with the correct info for the area your in.

Techno79

I recently subscribed to ConnectedDrive with my newly bought 525d (me being the 2nd owner). I was told that I have 3 years of free service and there after it was ?120 a year. I'm not sure if this is because the original owner did not activate it or if you get 3 years free service for each new owner. Either way, I've got 3 years to play with it. First of all, I am truly amazed how useful it is.

First experience:
Planning a trip to Bath, I was able to use Google Maps on my desktop PC at home and send locations from there directly to the car. These would then appear in a message list where I could see details about them (e.g. address, telephone number and my own custom notes), I could navigate to them using the built in SatNav or place a call via the iDrive telephone feature. This worked extremely well.

Second experience:
I was coming out of London and had already set my destination for home (North up the M1 direction). I was running low of fuel so thought it would be wise to fill up before I left London. I wanted to fill up at a Shell station (to get my Shell points ) but had no idea where the nearest one was. So I decided to use the concierge service. Took a while to connect because for some reason it establishes a data connection (might use VOIP, not sure). Once I got put through, I told him I was looking for the nearest Shell station. The concierge was able to location my position as it transmitted my GPS location, he was able to see what route I was already on due to the sat nav already taking me home and was able to find the nearest Shell station along my route (i.e. it was not the nearest one as the nearest one would have taken me deeper into London). They were then able to send a message to the iDrive that contained all the details and I was able to click on an option to set the SatNav to that destination. Simply fantastic.

I'm sure both of these experiences are normal for some people but I'm blown away by how amazing and useful these services are. I'm sure the concierge service will be used only here and there but sending points of interest from Google Maps to the car could be a regular feature use for me.

As far as I know, the car has a built in SIM card that uses the T-Mobile network so it doesn't need to use your mobile phone. You can use both at the same time.

Apparently there is a way to use an RSS feed from the iDrive via the service but I've not used that yet. I've had a play with the built in Google Maps feature and found that it is so slow that it is not usable. I think I was on a GPRS connection so it may be better if it establishes a 3G connection but I don't even know if 3G is supported as I've never seen it indicate that it has. Not a major problem for me as I just use my Android phone to use Google Reader for the RSS feed and Google Maps for mapping.

Anyway, thought I'd share my experiences