Hi,

My neighbour as a 545i (lucky bastard! Marvelous machine and what a gearbox!) and his nav system has the perspective view.
My Nav Prof doesn't although the voice recognition system recognises the command.
Is it a question of software version? Can it be upgraded? I read it can be done under thw waranty period, is it true?

Thanks!

Hi FCC and welcome to the forum.

Yes perspective view can be added with a software upgrade. Just tell your dealer you've had problems with the screen going blank etc. to get the free upgrade.

Its rather good whilst navigating round city centes etc as it shows the road like it is. No road names though. :thumbsup:

Hi Merv,

Thanks for the support. Getting into a new forum is always hard with these anoying newbie questions <_<

BTW - my car came with the voice recognition speech still in German (although we asked several times to have everything in english...). Can this be changed without a software update? (something inside of me now wishes it can't o:) )

See you!

Interesting. Have just spoken to my potential service manager (BMW Franchise in the UK) very friendly. He says it cannot be done on an older car sorry!!??!!!. Mine is 2004 525d, with i guess original or close to original software.

Is this screen going blank issue a common problem with these cars? P.s. Do you mean you just have to re-enable it from controller, as if you have commanded the screen to blank? I assume free upgrade was applying to cars in warranty? Is updating software at Mr Bmw relatively trivial in terms of time (cost!)? Anybody UK based?

I don't really want to shove a printout of this thread to convince the service manager the perspective update is possible. (P.s. Is it definitely possible in my cirmustances with Pro Nav factory fitted?) I don't think that approach would help to get him onside.

One other thing - easier one this :) as prob my ignorance. I cannot go to somewhere VIA somewhere. The manual talks about this in the Business nav (I have professional). Once i goto destination my route menu does not have a route via as the manual shows for Business edition only admittedly.

I must be really stupid, because it must be there somewhere..... anybody please??

Anybody, even just the route via bit?

Yes the user can change by using the central menu in the i drive.

I note your car is a 2004 model. Mine is a May 2004 (Touring)

The Nav didn't have perspective originally (and the TMC traffic system didn't work). I had mine upgraded as part of a standrad software update circa 2005 to fix the TMC TMC, and this added the perspective at the same time. It also added the menu of icons down the lhs of the screen.

So I am fairly confident you are being spun a yarn by the dealer, and your car should be able to get the perspective view with an update

I agree...

I don't get why people always try and make up an excuse to get a free software upgrade. If you aren't having any problems with the current version of software, rather than lie, just ask for a price on getting the latest software installed and pay for it. They probably are fed up of so many people coming in and saying that "it's freezing" or "its going blank" blatantly lying and trying to get it done for free, that they turn genuine people away who actually really need an upgrade to fix a problem.

Personally, although the perspective view _looks_ good, it has no road names which sucks, so I leave mine on "overhead". Sure, doesn't look quite as good, but it's much more useful.