Unfortunatelly, I have found myself mislead by the BMW sales person that told me that my jan 2004 build 530i would be able get the nav retrofit.

I now find myself looking for other options. I know that the the prevalent options are the magellan 700, garmin 2620 or the NavMan icn 650.

Who has these and what are your finding on these three models for the 530? I am leaning towards the magellan as it seems like a cleaner interface and will not overwhelm the interior. How well does it function though.

-- Thanks
Nestor

 

Magellan 700 is pretty good.. it's touch screen..

Well, my buddy Magellan700 just got stolen. Somebody break his 330ci' driver's window and took it away.. On that day 4 cars was broken in at his apartment.. Now he's getting a AVIC N1 though..

 

Check out the "TOMTOM" (TOMTOM.com) navigation unit...popular unit from Europe arrived in US last summer, I think. I bought this unit for about $500, as I remember, and find extremely simple to use. No buttons, aside from power and eject, and controls are touch-screen. Great audio, graphics, 3D, etc. Maps are loaded on a SD Memory card with Europe available. Anyway, my .02. :'(

 

I have the Garmin IQUE (combo of PDA and NAV). I had bought it for my E39. Frankly, this NAV system is MUCH bteer than the built in system in my E60. Tje map display is much more detailed, it has more small roads, and calculates faster.

 

I'm going to get the Garmin C320 or C330 next month when it coemes out. I thought about getting the 2620 but decided to wait for the 330 because the screen is bigger and it has 3D view for the new C series.

 

My wife had a magellan roadmate 700 - it's very good - except she left her car unlocked one night and next day it was gone - less than a month after we bought it

 

Garmin is the best quality and reliability you can get, but the 2620/2610 gets a little outdated by now concerning the screen and portability (it's not portable because it hasn't got a battery pack). Although the screen resolution is outdated it is still very good in all lighting conditions because of it's coating it's therefore alway readable. It also has the shortest gps fix time of all brands which is very very important imo

Navman is OK but doesn't even come near the Garmin in terms of built quality. I own an ICN510 for portability and because it's got a battery. Screen resolution is much higher than the navman but since it lacks a coating on the screen it's barely readable in direct sunlight. And that is one big problem in my car since i've got the panoramic roof. big disadvantage: needs a few minutes to get a gps fix.

TomTom has a very good interface and a very bad reflecting non coated screen. Since it has no pen like the navman this gets even worse with sticky and greasy fingers all over the display! disadvantage: without external gps antenna it needs ages for a gps fix (got better in latest software)

Haven't used the magellan..

 

gamin is proven to be reliable, easy to use and have an incredible looking interface.
their voice guidance and redraw is nothing less than amazing.
they also have a larger auto following, therefore support and backup is more readily available.
the new streetpilot will have 'bird's eye view', wow!

 

I wonder does any of those external nav units have outputs for say may the nav-with tv hook up. That would be very sweet as then it could project onto the idrive screen and then use the voice activation of the unit to direct yourself. Please say it is possible