i have not found a way to search nav entries by the name. i can only enter the address or search destinations 'types' in my immediate area.

i would think you could search for a particular restaurant by name, not by address.

 

Yeah, pretty lame huh.... Someone has dropped the ball or not realized this feature is missing. It sounds fairly easy to fix, however getting the word into the BMW team designing the system isn't easy.

My Z4 has the newer look and feel of the 5 and 7 nav system and STILL has search ability for any of the information topics (restaurants, hotels, etc)

 

this is ridiculous. i don't know all of the addresses of the places i want nav to guide me...but i do know the name of the establishment.

 

All it takes is patience turning the knob for as long as it takes. Enter the destination city, start guidance, and do 'info on destination, and then select restaurants and start spinning! Or, if you know an intersection it's near, enter that, start guidance and then the place will be near the top of the list. I definitely agree though; it would be great to have this feature too.

Sam

 

I actually find the whole nav system pretty lame especially when compared to my iPaq-based Mapopolis software (which is based on the same Navtech maps and which I still used when I travel on business). I'm especially annoyed by the inability to search as mentioned above and terrible ETA prediction which is way off and far too optimistic.

Any clues as how to get meaningful feedback into BMW? For the cost, the system should be way better.

 

exactly..if i'm visiting another city, i don't want to thumb through 20 shopping centers to find the nearest target to pick up some stuff.

 

I can tell you that this system is very good - for a navteq...
I've seen Navteq systems on other cars, and the BMW system is great.
But I agree, that it could be better, since there are better systems out there and I would also like to search a specific name.
I'll forward this request to BMW !

 

Iceman, since you're going to the trouble of forwarding an enhancement request to BMW with regard to the nav interface, you might as well ask them to allow the display of additional information on destinations chosen from the database.

For example, I should be able to pick a restaurant from the list and see the phone number, address, etc. (I can select "Call" if I want to call them but I can't actually see the phone number.) Also, they need to add the ability to scroll long names instead of simply truncating them on the display.

I suppose I could go on but for now, that's it.

Thanks!

 

The current X3 and Z4 DVD-ROM nav systems let you do all this... Go figure that the 5 series has these issues.

Does anyone have a 7 series (newer) to compare if it has the abilities the 5 series doesn't?

 

Yep, good you gave me a heads up on that, I allready forgot about it, but I was missing that too.
I'll add it to the list.