I am new to this forum, thanks for all the good information. It seems Roadfly's has turned into a p*ssing contest. My question concerns voice recognition on my 545i. The dealer tells me it only works with the phone not other features, like CD, air supply, radio. Is there agreement on this? I don't have navigation. My manufacture date is 2003/09. To be honest, the voice doesn't seems to work very well with the phone. It doesn't seem to recognize names in my phonebook for example. It won't bring up my Top 8 list either.Should I be requesting a upgrade in software? Thanks again, any information is appreciated.
Silver Grey, 6-speed, sports package, premium sound, shade and loving it.

 

Welcome to the forum. I think you'll find that over here we don't get into the silly battles that the other site is so famous for.

To answer your question, I'll ask you two questions first: How many buttons do you have just below the iDrive knob? and Where are you located?

I'm not sure but I thought that voice control of the car features (not just phone features), depending on where you live, was only available with navigation.

If you car is capable of having voice control, I think you'll have two buttons below the iDrive knob. Button one is for "menu" and button two would activate voice.

I'm sure others will chime in with additional details.

 

Rudy:
Thanks for the welcome. I have one button below my iDrive - Menu. I have the voice recognition button on my steering wheel next to my phone button. I have limited voice features - it will dial a # I say or redial the last # if instructed ("redial last number). It seems that voice should work for CD, Radio and other features. My car is in California.

 

I think but am not sure, that the voice recognition of the phone is something that is a feature of the phone only. When they installed the phone, they installed an "SES" module (or something like that) that is used for the phone voice commands.

The voice activation for the entire car is something they package with navigation here in the US. If I remember correctly (Francois can help out if he's around), the non-nav cars use an entirely different data bus than the nav cars.

Again, my recollection of the details is sketchy at best. I'm hoping someone else can chime in here and help me out!

 

Rudy,

You are correct. The voice commands for the entire car functionality only work if you purchase the navigation (at least here in the states). The car I test drove did not have it, and when I got home with my car, it was a neat surprise.

James

 

Many thanks, that is a big help. I am convinced that some dealer techs know less about these cars than you folks. The information is greatly appreciated.
545i, 6-sp, premium sound, sport package, rear shade, PDC, red reflectors & voice for phone only