I love my BMW. I HATE the NAV!!

Originally Posted by markl53

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?

Nope, I like the m-sport 550i tailpipes which are very much like the e-class sport (e350 or 500) pipes. Why the m-sport 535 has different pipes than the 550 is beyond me. Kind of lame on BMW IMHO.

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW

Nope, I like the m-sport 550i tailpipes which are very much like the e-class sport (e350 or 500) pipes. Why the m-sport 535 has different pipes than the 550 is beyond me. Kind of lame on BMW IMHO.

I looking forward to getting rid of my trapezoid tailpipes! They are too Lexus for me.

The best traffic info is displayed when uising gray scale maps. It indicates the side of the road and the severity of traffic: white, yellow, orange, red. The traffic info is provided whether you are in guidance mode or not, most of the time the odd routing is due to a traffic ahead. There are also, numerous other symbols for road closures, accidents, construction, and such. I find the system to be quite helpful, even in my everyday commute.

As far as routing information, under Route Preferences I choose Efficient Route. In this mode there are usually two or three alternate routes that may be selected if you don't like the first route offered.

Going back to my Mercedes, if I ignored the suggested route by making non-suggested turns enough times, it would stop providing guidance until I turned off and restarted the car - I tell you we got it good!

[QUOTE=dunderhi;6610340]The best traffic info is displayed when uising gray scale maps. It indicates the side of the road and the severity of traffic: white, yellow, orange, red. The traffic info is provided whether you are in guidance mode or not, most of the time the odd routing is due to a traffic ahead. There are also, numerous other symbols for road closures, accidents, construction, and such. I find the system to be quite helpful, even in my everyday commute./QUOTE]

The info on the full color map is the same, however it's easier to read on the gray map. The "triangles" are either gray, gray with orange outline or gray with red outline, corresponding to the colored lines on the gray map.

My Nav works just fine. I entered Mitt Romney, and a Cayman Island map popped up, with directions to a bank...

Originally Posted by Quacker

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 -

Plus you get this stupid stupid stupid small screen that looks sooo cheap and out of place, it's like something is missing.... Arrrghh.... I am so glad the disaster in Japan took the factory down, otherwise I'd be looking at that POS screen every day. Nav screen with all add-ons described above is the way to go.

Originally Posted by dunderhi

I looking forward to getting rid of my trapezoid tailpipes! They are too Lexus for me.

I don't know if they can be retrofitted to 535, if so I would buy them.,,
Last time I checked, the tailpipes are fixed to the exhaust so entire exhaust to be replaced?

Originally Posted by PeterC4

Hold on. You input the specific city-town you have the exact name and it goes to a different city??

YES!!!

Here is the specific address I enter with the # left off just in case their is a nut out there:

XX Chestnut Street, Hicksville NY

It routes to:

XX Chestnut Street, Massapequa NY


I can duplicate this over and over again. The only way to get to my intended destination is to use street and intersection.

Originally Posted by pdroth

YES!!!

Here is the specific address I enter with the # left off just in case their is a nut out there:

XX Chestnut Street, Hicksville NY

It routes to:

XX Chestnut Street, Massapequa NY


I can duplicate this over and over again. The only way to get to my intended destination is to use street and intersection.

What happens when you send the correct (Hicksville) address to the car via Google maps?

I think I've used Google maps once. Typically I take the address off of my phone contact.

But for this address, no matter how I type it or enter it, it sends me to wrong town.

I will try to send via web and see what happens, but that isn't how I'm supposed to enter addresses I want to navigate to. It's a very nice alternative that happens to be very convenient to some, but it isn't designed to be the primary method.

Ha ha... just tried to use google maps on web and it is unable to send to car. "Sorry, we were unable to send this message at this time. Please visit the help page."

So if anyone can confirm if they are able to send to theirs it might save me another phone call to BMW.

Originally Posted by pdroth

Ha ha... just tried to use google maps on web and it is unable to send to car. "Sorry, we were unable to send this message at this time. Please visit the help page."

So if anyone can confirm if they are able to send to theirs it might save me another phone call to BMW.

I think that's the way to go at this point. But I'd go down to the car and call them using the SOS button in the roof assembly. Let them reinstall your email account and send you a test destination. Should show up at you car within no more than a minute or two. Then just go into office>messages and it should be right there to click on as a new destination. Once you get it up and running it's incredibly easy to use. I always use this method before I leave the house as I almost always know where I'm heading off to.

Originally Posted by PsychDoc1

I think that's the way to go at this point. But I'd go down to the car and call them using the SOS button in the roof assembly. Let them reinstall your email account and send you a test destination. Should show up at you car within no more than a minute or two. Then just go into office>messages and it should be right there to click on as a new destination. Once you get it up and running it's incredibly easy to use. I always use this method before I leave the house as I almost always know where I'm heading off to.

Thanks but I know all of this already - I simply asked if someone else can see if the site is working or if it's a problem with my acct. Either way, it doesn't fix my problem which is that the system routes me to the wrong town.


UPDATE: Just tried again and this time it seems to have gone through. So I'll know in a little while (when I leave work) if it routes me to the right town or not.

Originally Posted by pdroth

YES!!!

Here is the specific address I enter with the # left off just in case their is a nut out there:

XX Chestnut Street, Hicksville NY

It routes to:

XX Chestnut Street, Massapequa NY


I can duplicate this over and over again. The only way to get to my intended destination is to use street and intersection.

I had a similar problem like this recently. I don't remember the exact town I was trying to route to, but when I entered the street it brought me to the same street in a different town. I ended up taking out my Android phone and doing the routing that way.

Originally Posted by alewifebp

I had a similar problem like this recently. I don't remember the exact town I was trying to route to, but when I entered the street it brought me to the same street in a different town. I ended up taking out my Android phone and doing the routing that way.

Again, are you guys entering the city first, then the street name? That is how you are supposed to enter addresses.

Originally Posted by PsychDoc1

What happens when you send the correct (Hicksville) address to the car via Google maps?

Update - If I send to car via Google Maps, it routes to correct town.

Entering manually by voice and/or iDrive, or pulling address from contact on phone sends me to wrong town.

And since the Send To via google works, I'm just going to save the message in the car forever and keep using that one as my route-to destination. So I have a workaround!!

But I still hate the Nav.

Do you have to have the Conceirge package to use google maps or to send addresses from google maps to your car?

I just tried sending to car using google maps and the option is not under the send function anymore. I only see email as an option, not car. Anyone else having this problem?

And now it is working. Fickle site....

Originally Posted by pdroth

So does anyone at BMW actually care about this?

I program in an address which happens to be a common street name (Chestnut Street), and the NAV begins routing me to the address in a completely different town 10 miles away.

I called BMW and they said they couldn't do anything about it. No recourse, no clue about if/when they can fix that - nothing.

Sorry for the vent...

Works great and updates on many new models are free!

I could live with the suspect routing if the UI was better. The colors are awful.

Drive in a current Acura or Nissan/Infiniti and tell me how it compares to BMW and M-B.

Send-to car from Google makes it usable; the CIC/iDrive update seems to have recently used street/town pairs.

Originally Posted by Emilner

And now it is working. Fickle site....

Actually it depends on whether you send an address / business from the Search box or Directions. Some business listings refuse to send; sometimes I can send searched locations but I can always send directions.

Never had routings down power line paper roads before. Can't imagine why these paper roads would even be in the database. Also the refresh rate is very slow so you can't count on the distance to the turn from an accuracy standpoint. More often than not it tells you turn in 200' and turn is right there or just behind position of car. Pretty looking but totally inferior compared to the old E39 system.

Originally Posted by lindros2

I could live with the suspect routing if the UI was better. The colors are awful.

Drive in a current Acura or Nissan/Infiniti and tell me how it compares to BMW and M-B.

My 535i is my first car with nav, and I am happy with its operation and display. We just leased our 4th Acura, the first with nav. I don't like it, mostly because I think I'm not used to it.

1. The traffic indicators on the Acura are much harder to discern than my BMW. The thin green lines indicating clear traffic are nearly invisible against the blue route line. I prefer the gray triangles (and the white route line) on the BMW display. The yellow and red lines are almost as bad.

2. The Acura interface is not as good as the BMW. Entering an address manually is more difficult, IMO. I usually don't use voice commands for nav. I think this is due to the different design of the alphabet display. The round dial in the BMW makes it very simple and quick to turn the iDrive dial. The Acura has the letters in a long line and it seems to take longer to turn the dial. Maybe not a huge difference, but I like the BMW better.

3. The guidance information in the Acura is not as well integrated as the BMW. I'm talking about exit ramp information. Also, at times, the guidance instruction with the Acura is delayed when two quick successive maneuvers are needed, we nearly missed a turn because we got off the highway exit and had to make a left in about 1/4 mile. We were almost past the turn before the voice mentioned the turn.

4. I haven't used the Acura system enough to determine if the overall guidance is better, but for now, I don't think it's a night and day difference over the BMW.