Dr. George

My 04 545i says I still have to drive for another 150 feet when I am in front of my house...

Is there a way to make the navi more exact? The dealer considers 150 feet "good enough".

Will 07 version of the dvd help? Has anybody done it?

Thanks for your help.

Rudy

Is it accurate at intersections, etc. or is it off by 150 feet everywhere?

Specific house numbers are not very accurate in the database so if the road intersections, etc. are working well, then there's nothing wrong with your car. The database is provided by NavTeq so all BMW is doing is tapping into the data provided by them. Most cars use the NavTeq data so you really can't blame BMW for the error either.

Also, newer versions of the database don't always help -- for example, the older version I had on my E39 had the correct house number range for my street in the database. Now, for some reason, on the newer databases (both on my E60 and on a Honda) the range of house numbers for my street is completely wrong. It just goes to show you that newer isn't always better...

Member545

Is it always off by 150 feet for all destinations or just your house? It could be the map data is off for your location. I have noticed that sometimes it is dead on and other times it is off a little.

geokr1

If you programmed in your house address then you programmed in an approximation. Street and road addresses in just about any nav system are approximations and can vary wildly from the actual address locations due to the interpolations that the nav algorithms use to establish the numbers along the road between major streets - 1st St. starts at 100 and 2nd St starts 200 and everything in between is approximate based on the distance between the two. If you live out in the country where the distance between house addresses varies a lot you will really see what I mean. If you can, program the location the nav system sees when you're sitting in your driveway as your street number or "Home" address and you'll be within 30 feet or less. If you need better than that then you need more than a standard GPS system to find your front door.

Dr. George

It seems to be off at the buildings, not just my house. I also was thinking it is the navteq data, not the sattelite/car issue. Thank you.

Member545

You can report inaccurate data here http://mapreporter.navteq.com

Rudy, it looks like the 2007.1 version has updated data for Pittsburgh.

Rudy

Yeah, but it's probably already out of date already. Although I do use the nav system a ton around town, I'm aware of most of the major discrepancies between the database and reality so it's really not too much of a problem. I'd be more concerned about other cities, I suppose since I'd be more likely to get lost in an unfamiliar place.

I suppose I'll just get a new disc with my next car and see how that goes...