billries

Hey, all -

First time BMW owner (picked up 2007 525xi three weeks ago), new forum member, first post.

Attended my first meeting of the New Jersey chapter of the BMW CCA tonight, held at Flemington BMW (NJ). Interesting session, and thought I would report a couple of interesting factoids ...


(1) New navigation real-time traffic information (RTTI) features. You've probably read about this at http://www.bmwcca.org/node/5289 or similar. Needless to say, I was curious if my new 5 could do this. Sounds like it might be for 9/06 production or later - still not sure about that.

I can tell you that BMW engineers presenting at this session said that you must have nav version 2007.1 or later. I went right out to check the DVD in my car, and I have 2006.2. Went back in to ask the service manager how to get the new DVD, and he said they haven't even seen one yet. So, I think the advice is just to keep calling until they get it, and then we'll see if it even works in my car.


(2) The BMW engineers presenting at this session were product engineers, and were responsible for analyzing new issues (I guess here in the states), notifying BMW AG of recurrent issues, developing field fixes for immediate use here when appropriate, and working with BMW AG to develop and implement more permanent fixes when needed in production.

It was interesting to hear them say that they notify BMW AG when they see as few as three examples of an issue, and always the first time when it is safety related. Some folks in the crowd seemed skeptical about this, citing examples of issues that took a long time to fix. The engineers suggested that process-related fixes seemed to be the quickest to get into production, and issues with either software or components sourced from other vendors were the longest.


All in all, an interesting session, and quite a big turnout. Alot of slick machines in the parking lot!

Take it easy ...

EBMCS03

Nice thanks for the re-cap.


As for this... it makes sense... process related stuff are under BMW themselves so they have more control... as for SW realated stuff BMW AG gets the notice then they pass it back to the SW contracting company and THEN they fix it whenever they fix it. Contractor SW venders will concentrate on the next release of NEW stuff since those rake in the money and fixes just get fixed whenever they get fixed and incorporated into the next build/release... of course its not as simple as that but you get the gist.

Ricracing

Welcome billries and congrats for the fine car!

I hope that the people at BMW Ag reads this Forum.

ccmun

Welcome, and thanks for the update.

Add your car info to your profile.

jrsamps

Where abouts in Flemington? Are they scheduled?

drjochen

If you read the BMW press release, it claims: "in select 2007 BMW models, i.e. the X5, M5, M6, and the 3, 5, and 6 Series models". I have a 2007 5 series, so I should have it/be able to get it, right?

billries

This particular event was at Flemington BMW, on Rt 202 in Flemington. It's a pretty new dealership, and they did a good job hosting this event.

The NJ BMW CCA events are posted on their site at http://www.njbmwcca.org/.

billries

I thought so too, but right off the bat, mine didn't come with the right version of the nav DVD. I was told that the nav DVD is packaged with the car at the factory, so even if I got the updated DVD, there might be other version issues with the car / nav system / etc. I can't find explicit confirmation of this, but it might be that it will only be offered on the 2007 5's starting with 9/06 production (mine's a 6/06, I think).