newbee question:
What is the difference between a business and professional nav and how can you tell which one you have? and what is LCI? I here talks about LCI or pre-LCI...

thanks

I try to post this in the FAQ section of the forum but was denied access. Admins, please move.

 

Welcome jagbagri

Hope you soon get rid of the "jag" part.

Business nav has a smaller screen vision (not common in the US) and the professional nav a wider one.
Easy to see.

LCI means a improved facelift model (starting from MY '08 for the E60/61), Life Circle Improvement.

 

the differences are a lot more than the size of the screen

pro nav (8.8 screen) had 3d navigation, voice activation, supports head up display, far better radio, and a huge choice of i-drive options, plus loads more.including electrically driven idrive controller (business has a mechanical knob

 

Business = Single drive, smaller screen, no maps (LCI has 2D maps), no extended voice.

Pro = all of the above.

 

Firstly, I believe (and sorry to contradict the earlier post) that LCI = Life Cycle Impulse, not Life Circle Improvement, but either way it is marketing speak for facelift, which occurred in January 2007.

To but it bluntly, pre-LCI business nav is an utter waste of time and an eternal embarrassment to BMW, who had a perfectly good satnav capability with maps several years before. I had it in my 2000 E39 540i and it was really quite good. If you have ever had satnav with maps (which of course costs next to nothing with third-party solutions line Garmin, Tomtom, and Navman) then you will HATE business nav. It is truly terrible. Yes, it will just about guide you to a destination (assuming you can locate it with the awful 4-character postcode support, when every half-decent system supports full postcodes) but the instant you want to visualise where you are, and where you need to get to (for example in bad traffic) then forget it.

If you are buying a pre-LCI model and want built-in satnav, then get professional. It is that simple.

Post-LCI business nav apparently has 2-D maps, whereas professional has 3-D. I haven't used them so can't comment.

 

Jagbagri

I got my new E60 8 days ago with Business Nav.

The screen is smaller but still more than adequately large. The larger Prof Nav screen is used to be able to display two things at the same time, eg entertainment and directions.

The 2D maps on my Bus Nav are fine. The real positive is the clarity of the arrow instructions next to it.

I'm in the UK and get TMC which is amazing. The satnav tells me how much delay any traffic disruption would cause that's on my route and I have an opportunity to take that delay into account to calculate a new route (which could still end up being the same route).

The big negative with Bus Nav to me is if you want to play MP3 on a disc you have to share a single slot between the MP3 CD or DVD, swapping to Sat Nav when needed. The CD changer is not MP3 compatible. Not an issue if you buy USB interface.

I'm satisfied overall because in the UK you get the CD changer and business nav for only ?350

 

Well it is good to know that the business nav is finally up to scratch, if not exactly at the forefront. I should also mention that a fellow member of this forum who, like me, has pre-LCI business nav (no maps) has been told by his dealer that it can be upgraded to show maps for ?125. He is taking it in for the upgrade today, and will let us know the outcome. We are both skeptical, as this contradicts all other available information (i.e. you need to upgrade to Professional at huge expense to get maps) but we'll see.

Regarding the TMC, I have this also and have to say I'm a bit dubous about its accuracy. On at least two occasions it has warned me of upcoming congestion with apparent great accuracy ("4.8 miles of traffic with an average speed of 13mph 15 miles ahead on the M1") but when I got there (having no alternative route) everything was fine. I don't know how the data is gathered, or how frequently it is updated, but for now I don't feel I can rely on it.

 

i have TMC on my proffesional nav and it workes great

i have had no nav..business nav...and proffesional nav all on the same car, and its like evolution

no nav was nasty & boring
business nav was very good compared to not having it
proffesional nav is superb, best mod i have done (and so easy-----forget what some say, its almost plug and play )

 

May I ask how you got from business to prof nav, and what year and model you have? I've been quoted between ?1,250 and ?2,500 for this upgrade as it involves swapping my M-ASK control unit for the more powerful CCC unit with the wide screen.

Thanks.

 

The true crime of the pre-LCI Business nav is they charge 900+ USD for the damned CD. You can buy one hell of a 3rd party nav system for 900 bucks! It's criminal.