gpfarrell

Just got our 535xi wagon yesterday. We bought it because its Green/Tan like our beloved 528it from days gone by and more importantly because, also like our E39, it's a stick! Gotta love grabbin' gears in the grocery getter!

We traded out of a 2008 Jeep GC SRT-8... one wild ride... which had an impressively refined touch-screen Navigation system. I knew BMW's wasn't as user-friendly... but one of my favorite features in the Jeep and the Garmin in our other car is the POI - Points of Interest screen.

Am I missing something or doesn't BMW include POI's?

Is it available in an update? Our car was build in January (before the current Dinan cut-off )

Cheers,

Greg

Moopai

POI are available but you have to go in NAV, Information, choose a city then it will prompt you for all kinds of things such as gas stations, restaurants etc. Once you choose a category you will see on your map icons for that category. I'm not sure how Garmin works but the BMW Nav does have the POIs.

Rudy

Greg, congrats on your purchase and welcome to the forums -- another Pittsburgher!

As Moopai said, the system does have POIs but they're kind of hidden. I think, once you find them, that they're not as useable as the system in the Jeep (or pretty much any other car) but I will say that after using the system in the E60 for some time, you'll come to appreciate that the iDrive controller is much simpler to use (while driving) than any touch screen interface...

gpfarrell

Thanks!

I poked around a bit and did find it... wonder if I'll ever be able to find it again!

Thanks for the welcome... we're thilled to have the car.

JSpira

Not sure why you say it's not as user friendly. Having extensively tested about 20 diff. nav systems (incl. the myGIG), I've found that BMW's satnav is very user friendly, once you get past a small initial training curve, as compared to other systems.

Important criteria are how it's accessed when you are driving v. standing still and how information is displayed.

For example BMW is (almost) unique in displaying satnav turn by turn info via HUD (and if that is not available, via the Assist Window). Without HUD, the two-screen concept is much easier for the driver to follow than single-screens systems.

Another important attribute is the ability to have information remotely downloaded to the system (the address of your destination plus phone number) - very useful feature and extraordinarily user friendly.

luigi524td

I also find that turning the NAV voice instruction off (if you're on a phone call the directions can be annoying because they can be heard on the phone call) but programming one of the steering wheel buttons for NAV instruction can be very handy.

Punch the button when you need to be told what to do next! It's like having your wife right there ... but without the "I told you so!"

JSpira

That's a great idea!

Rudy

I leave my nav voice off all the time since the HUD arrow display is pretty hard to miss...

gpfarrell

Well the first time I got into the Jeep I could mash my fingers on its intuitive touch screen and be ready to go. That seemed pretty user friendly to me. The appearance of the MyGig is much more current... our new I-drive screens look very dated in comparison.

I don't care... we bought an awesome wagon that came with a NAV system not a NAV system wrapped in a station wagon.

A manager at the BMW dealer where we traded our Jeep in commented that he wished the 5-series had the Jeep's system.

I haven't tested many others (aside from our easy to use Garmin) so I don't know/care how the BMW system compares to the rest of the universe.

The Jeep's system wasn't perfect but it was one of the reasons we bought the Jeep. We bought the 5er in spite of the radio/NAV formatting. That would be why I said it wasn't user friendly.

stanatl

How do you turn the NAV voice off all the time. I know you can make it lower by using the volume knob but that only seems to take the volume down just so far. I find the directions on the HUD to be all I need as well.