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      12-11-2012, 04:18 AM   #96
dotmit
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Drives: E93 325i | K46 S1000RR
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: EC3

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Quote:
Originally Posted by MPD78 View Post
Dotmit, I'm really not defending the iDrive satnav here as I think we all know that it's pretty poor and should be a lot better but it is very rare that a 7 digit postcode will refer to just one building, unless it is one massive building in central London!! Half a street will often share the same postcode. On my TomTom, after I've entered the full postcode it will then give me all the house numbers and/or building names within that postcode to choose from. As I said, I'm not defending the iDrive satnav and find it crazy that it can't take full postcodes.

As for the updated disc, I'm going to get one too as mine still has the original one from new so there have been a few times when it's got me down as driving through fields!
My building with 15 flats over 5 floors has its own postcode. The shop on the ground floor has a different postcode to the flats. The buildings on either side next door and across the road each have their own postoode, as do most of the other buildings on my street. In Central London it's common for each building (and even companies within those buildings) to have their own postcode. If you combine that with an abundance of one way streets you have a completely useless satnav if it can't take you to the spot you need to be at. I appreciate that on a TomTom if you enter the postcode it gives you a list of addresses. That's partly my point. Why can't the BMW one do that? My old Garmin-based one did that too, and if you didn't bother entering which house number it still got you to where you needed to go within a few metres, not within a few hundred metres like the BMW one.

It's different in the suburbs and the countryside where it might refer to an entire street or development of houses but around where I live, my postcode is different to everyone else around me and you need that level of accuracy or you might as well not have it. This is only a problem on the BMW satnav. The satnav I used in a 2003 Toyota Avensis was able to direct me better than the one in my 2009 BMW.

Anyway, I have high hopes for my 2013 premium map update!
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