I love my BMW. I HATE the NAV!!

Originally Posted by Needsdecaf

Bull what, that it doesn't have problems?

I've had my Nav refuse to find an address because I didn't enter the correct town....even though the town it has the destination is does not exist. It's a location, not a town (Baileys Crossroads, VA).

I've had it tell me to get off a highway onto a local road southbound, then make a u-turn northbound...when there was a northbound exit.

I've had the nav flat out refuse to take some roads, even when I've entered a destination on them manually.

I've had the nav try to have me exit the highway about two exits before mine, and take back roads all the way around where I need to go....when simply taking my exit gives me a straight shot home.

The nav in this car really sucks...and I live in the capital of the country.....

I echo this. I've had the same or similar experience. Sounds like the NAV is especially bad in some big cities.

To those that do not like the Nav, Is anyone trying the "Efficient Route" "Fast Route" and "Short Route" features? Also, "Avoid highways" "Avoid Tolls" Etc... Just curious if it gives the same problems when you change these and other similar settings.

Although the BMW NAV is much improved over my last bimmer, I was in my friends new e class last night. We both took delivery the same week and his NAV is so much better. It has integrated traffic status and shows the congestion ahead and calcs the route time based on this. Unless I am missing something, our does not do this.

I have to say, his e is all tricked out with a lot more options than mine. He has sport pack and although I thought MBs were boring, his e350 looks better than mine and is bigger. Finally, he paid less and the lease was better. Kicking myself for not looking at the car.

My Nav notifies me of accidents and traffic congestion. And reroutes....

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW

Although the BMW NAV is much improved over my last bimmer, I was in my friends new e class last night. We both took delivery the same week and his NAV is so much better. It has integrated traffic status and shows the congestion ahead and calcs the route time based on this. Unless I am missing something, our does not do this. .

You are missing something. Our cars do this.

Originally Posted by 2008550I

My Nav notifies me of accidents and traffic congestion. And reroutes....

Correct and mine is a mere 2009 E60 550 with the old style DVD bases system

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW

Although the BMW NAV is much improved over my last bimmer, I was in my friends new e class last night. We both took delivery the same week and his NAV is so much better. It has integrated traffic status and shows the congestion ahead and calcs the route time based on this. Unless I am missing something, our does not do this.

I have to say, his e is all tricked out with a lot more options than mine. He has sport pack and although I thought MBs were boring, his e350 looks better than mine and is bigger. Finally, he paid less and the lease was better. Kicking myself for not looking at the car.

My mother has a 2012 E350 sport. I agree that it is a great looking car but I do not believe it drives even remotely as well as an F10 does. There were some killer deals on the E class in December but there were also killer deals on the F10 in December as well. Now the lease deals on the F10 suck

Originally Posted by PeterC4

Can't say I've had any of these problems, although I don't really understand what you mean in paragraph 2; then again, I don't drive while I'm drinking.

So I'm drinking while I'm driving? Wow, are you going out of your way to be a jerk or does it just come naturally?

Let me explain it carefully for you, as you seem to have been drinking when you read it. I'll even include diagrams:

I was in DC headed out to MD. I was on the Suitland Parkway heading East. I needed to go onto Silver Hill Road going North. This was my first time attempting to make this specific trip and I was not familiar with this route, so I had the nav active. Here's what the Nav told me to do:



Totally Asinine. Here's what Google Maps says to do:



Why would the Nav send me out of my way and have me make a (illegal as it turns out) U-Turn, when I could have just gotten off going Northbound?

Not being familiar with the area, it is very hard to see the Northbound exit, as you are on a curve and there is a low bridge...and the signs suck. That's why I have the Nav, you know, to get me where I'm going quickly and efficiently.

I should say, to answer the other poster, these errors occur regardless of quick, efficient, short or with dynamic guidance on or off.

So, now, am I still drinking while driving?

As owners, is there anyway we can have BMW offer another option/app for nav? I don't use it a lot, but last week I needed it twice and both times it could not find the address. I pulled out my android phone and off I went with great accurate navigation. My boss was in the car and it was sort of embarrassing. My "space" car that he just thought was beyond awesome was unable to deliver when it came to navigation.

When the address is found, the nav has worked well. My problem is the lack of addresses in the database. I would definitely be willing to pay for a better option.

Originally Posted by Needsdecaf

So I'm drinking while I'm driving? Wow, are you going out of your way to be a jerk or does it just come naturally?

Let me explain it carefully for you, as you seem to have been drinking when you read it. I'll even include diagrams:

I was in DC headed out to MD. I was on the Suitland Parkway heading East. I needed to go onto Silver Hill Road going North. This was my first time attempting to make this specific trip and I was not familiar with this route, so I had the nav active. Here's what the Nav told me to do:



Totally Asinine. Here's what Google Maps says to do:



Why would the Nav send me out of my way and have me make a (illegal as it turns out) U-Turn, when I could have just gotten off going Northbound?

Not being familiar with the area, it is very hard to see the Northbound exit, as you are on a curve and there is a low bridge...and the signs suck. That's why I have the Nav, you know, to get me where I'm going quickly and efficiently.

I should say, to answer the other poster, these errors occur regardless of quick, efficient, short or with dynamic guidance on or off.

So, now, am I still drinking while driving?

I've had three cars with Navigation and I use a Garmin too. I've had instances in each where the route chosen by the NAVI has been less than optimal, but not many. It's clear some roads and routes are not recognized. My Acura had a very easy system to use, but it had anomalies now and then. I've never used one that's perfect. I think we're expecting too much from the thing. One thing I do like in this car is that a map was included with the specific townships in rural areas to help get the guidance system directed properly.

I think there's an issue when a free google maps app on my Droid Razr is better than the nav in my 60K car. We have very advanced cars, the nav should update itself periodically just like my mobile phone in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Needsdecaf

You are missing something. Our cars do this.

+1. And they do this extremely well, IMO. My ETA is continuously updated, not just based on my progress, but it jumps by chunks of time when a new traffic item shows up (or clears).

Does it automatically monitor traffic or do I need to turn something on?

Originally Posted by sdg1871

My mother has a 2012 E350 sport. I agree that it is a great looking car but I do not believe it drives even remotely as well as an F10 does. There were some killer deals on the E class in December but there were also killer deals on the F10 in December as well. Now the lease deals on the F10 suck

I am confident our cars drive better, but it seems the E class is so much more of an overall car for the money. The interior is nicer, back seat bigger, the exhaust on the mere e350 has the rectangle pipes. I am happy, but wish I took a look.

Sorry to hear that a lot of folks are having bad experiences. I've had pretty solid results across much of CA and OR. I do really like the ability to email addresses from Google Maps to the car, and the Nav seems to be pretty robust in re-routing on the fly and adding intermediate waypoints. This is my first car with a Nav, so perhaps I'm an easily-impressed simpleton.

Originally Posted by SLO_AERO

Sorry to hear that a lot of folks are having bad experiences. I've had pretty solid results across much of CA and OR. I do really like the ability to email addresses from Google Maps to the car, and the Nav seems to be pretty robust in re-routing on the fly and adding intermediate waypoints. This is my first car with a Nav, so perhaps I'm an easily-impressed simpleton.

Pretty much my experience here in Houston. All in all I'm satisfied with my NAV.

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW

Does it automatically monitor traffic or do I need to turn something on?

Some people state that they see the traffic indicators even when guidance is not engaged, but I only see the traffic triangles on my route when I'm actually in guidance mode. You'll see small grayish triangles shown on the map where traffic congestion is located. You'll also see yellow diamonds with various icons, like multiple cars, or an accident on the map. For very heavy traffic, a "Traffic Jam!" light will show up on your multi-function display. Traffic info is a function of an FM station that your radio monitors whether or not the radio is actually turned on. This information is then integrated into the map view. You can see the detailed traffic item information by pressing the iDrive knob on the Nav screen, and scrolling up 3 clicks to the triangle icon. If the icon is red, it means there is at least 1 traffic item related to your route. If the icon is gray, nothing is listed. People rave about their Acura nav systems, but having just bought our 4th Acura, the 1st with Nav, the BMW interface is far and away superior as far as ergonomics and logical layout of the various functions.

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW

I am confident our cars drive better, but it seems the E class is so much more of an overall car for the money. The interior is nicer, back seat bigger, the exhaust on the mere e350 has the rectangle pipes. I am happy, but wish I took a look.

The interior is a subjective matter. I tested an E350 before driving the F10 535i, and for me, the F10 interior is much nicer. The drive is where it all changes, the E350 can't touch the 535i, IMO. 528i might be a different story. As for the tail pipes, I'm guessing you really like the gargantuan LS460 pipes?

Originally Posted by markl53

Some people state that they see the traffic indicators even when guidance is not engaged, but I only see the traffic triangles on my route when I'm actually in guidance mode. .

It does work when not in guidance mode - just had this happen yesterday on BW parkway and saw traffic triangles when guidance was exited. May be a setting?

Originally Posted by PeterC4

I've had three cars with Navigation and I use a Garmin too. I've had instances in each where the route chosen by the NAVI has been less than optimal, but not many. It's clear some roads and routes are not recognized. My Acura had a very easy system to use, but it had anomalies now and then. I've never used one that's perfect. I think we're expecting too much from the thing. One thing I do like in this car is that a map was included with the specific townships in rural areas to help get the guidance system directed properly.

I've had 4 cars with Nav. A 2001, a 2004, a 2007 and now a 2011. I concur, the Nav is never going to always get it right. Especially in areas that you know well and you can outsmart the logic knowing what's really faster. However even my 2001 Pathfinder got it more right than the 2011 BMW does. Technology is supposed to get better in a ten year span, not worse.

Having me exit southbound, make a u turn to go Northbound when there was a Northbound exit is getting it desperately, desperately wrong. That's not just choosing the longer way, that's not recognizing the roads and making bad choices.

I have had other instances where the logic is just "duh". Almost like it doesn't know exits exist.....despite the fact they're clearly shown on the map. For instance, as I'm coming home, here is the easiest route when coming on 395 South:



Yet the Nav will NEVER show this as an option, even when looking at the "other" routes. It will always show either this:



or this



Both of these routes are not only longer, but they offer significantly more surface roads with lights than simply taking the highway to the exit as shown in the first option. No, I do not have avoid highways or whatever it's called checked on the car. No, no traffic is shown causing a re-route.

It is stupid logic like this that's very frustrating. The interchange is fairly new, but it is about 5 years old now and more importantly, it IS on the map. The absolute WORST part is that once I bypass the two options above and drive past the Edsall Road exit shown in the second map, the nav will automatically re-route me on the remainder of the route that's shown in the first map.

What the ????/

Interestingly my NAV worked quite well in Germany, France, and Switzerland during my post ED trip. Even guided precisely down obscure shared pedestrian / one way streets in small French towns.

Not so in the US. I have many examples like Needsdecaf of bizarre routing, missing / inaccurate town names (like my own), simple inability to even calculate a route off of Hilton Head. Drove 4 various model 2012 BMW's at the recent BMW sponsored Concours de Elegance car show at Hilton Head and none of them could provide a route off the island.

Possibly, like France, the maps and routing algorithms are better in Canada?

Originally Posted by markl53

Some people state that they see the traffic indicators even when guidance is not engaged,

Yeah, they're there event with guidance off.

I am happy with the nav overall...I would recommend people use the send to car function on google maps or consider trying voice commands for input. I find it to be quite good with the google maps...if you are in the car already then try the voice commands, input is much easier and more efficient.

I like the Nav system but it certainly has issues, no question. First, there's no traffic status where I live. Just isn't part of the offering in Canada I guess. We're in Florida for the winter and it doesn't work here either so the actual software is different on the Canada cars. My little Garmin provides the posted speed and current speed of the car with a warning when you exceed the limit. BMW nav doesn't do this. It should as it's a very useful feature. Another problem is the consistently high distance estimates to the next turn causing overshoots. Biggest issue with the system though is the routing errors, as illustrated in this thread. I had a beauty last week going from Longboat Key to Ellenton. It's not a long drive but it was made much longer by the Nav system. It took us on a ridiculous route complete with wild swings out of the way and a completely bizarre overshoot with u-turn as we approached our destination. On the way back I drove the way I thought would be best to see if there was some problem with it but there wasn't. The system is just stupid sometimes. I don't want to over-state the problems though. The system does get us where we want to go and works when we're lost - when we've really needed it. It also has a beautiful display and many useful features.

Hey - I just thought that I would add a comment to those that are reading this thread before buying - and are thinking of not getting Nav based on all the comments:

The nav option brings the hard drive with it. If you don't get nav, then you don't get music storage, decent voice command, phone number or address local storage, and probably a bunch more that I don't know about. so even if you never use the thing, it might still be worth it to you.

Regards -