Bmw Navigation Question

[GusterDMB]

I'm very close to buying a 2005 325 i/xi (havent decided)....

I'm considering the Navigation system as an option. What is everyons opinion on it? Ease of use? Points of Interest?

I've heard its not that intuitive and is diffucult to enter destination, is this true?

How is it compared to other systems (like Acura - Touch screen, keypad, etc..)

I would like to get the factory Navi, as long as its a fairly good system. Thanks

[x94x]

I purchased a 2004 330xi in July with the factory installed navigation system. While it functions as it should, it is not very easy to use.

* no touch screen input; you must use a dial to sequentially input letters
* outside of major metropolitan areas, many secondary roads are not digitized
* you can't integrate an ipod into the car if you have a factory installed nav system (according to the ipodyourbmw site).
* unless you know the exact locality of a point-of-interest, the point-of-interest is (at times) difficult to locate on the system.

Having said that, I'd much rather have my car with this navigation system than with no navigation system at all. For all of the drawbacks listed above, the system has helped me navigate around traffic jams, road closures, and poorly marked streets.

There are much better SAT NAV systems out there, and BMW is currently falling short on this system. But, the 330xi is such a pleasure to drive that the shortcomings of SAT NAV is truly a non-issue for me.

I hope that this helps!

Originally posted by GusterDMB@Dec 10 2004, 04:12 PM
I'm very close to buying a 2005 325 i/xi (havent decided)....

I'm considering the Navigation system as an option. What is everyons opinion on it? Ease of use? Points of Interest?

I've heard its not that intuitive and is diffucult to enter destination, is this true?

How is it compared to other systems (like Acura - Touch screen, keypad, etc..)

I would like to get the factory Navi, as long as its a fairly good system. Thanks

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[2001BMW325xi]

I would advise you to save that 1200 on the NAV and leave the car as is. BMW sat nav systems are crazy and far behind industry standards......Honda accords have better NAVS.

Anyways as I said skip the in dash nav....and go for a handheld Garmin GPS system that you can instally in minutes in the car and use more easily that any car GPS system.

Advantages:

You can use it in any car.....if youre renting a car say in San Diego...just carry the NAV with you and you dont have to worry about printing maps finding yellow pages etc.

Easier Input availability

Easily updatable unlike car GPS especially the BMW DVD costs a bunch to upgrade

Anyways the final choice is yurs....but YEAH MUST HAVE A GPS....ITS A LIFESAVER AT ALL COSTS

[yubyub]

I would agree -the BMW NAV is not very good. I've got one in my 330xi, and while it's nice to have, it's a real pain to use. Very disappointing.