[PaulDee12]

I've just placed a factory order for a new BMW 320d. Innovations and Sport packages. Went for the Business Navigation rather than Professional and saved myself $4,000. Can anyone convince me to go the extra $4k for the Professional - I know its the new iDrive version CCC - but is it a significant improvement over the Business Navigation system?

[KingClifton]

You get 3D maps and an improved onboard computer - gives you a 3D view of the car when checking things like oil, tyres etc. Also gives you hard-disk based nav and music. Bear in mind on a 320d you may not get that extra $4K back at resale time, whereas Innovations should be a popular option when you come to sell in the future.

[zenderm3]

Gents... I'm leaning towards Pro Nav.. mainly because in 4 years times, nav systems will be even more sophisticated then they were... you may not recoup all 4k, but I would say that you would still yield some payback. Besides.... for the benefit of a HDD in the nav system.... Just my $0.02

[brettnshirley]

Is there a possibility for 3d maps to be included in a future software update? Just curious as I have the business nav in my 320d.


Brett

[VGR00]

If you think it's worth 4K then go ahead. It needs to make sense to you. Personally, I don't think it's worth an extra 4K and it certainly wont yeild any of that back after 3 to 4 years that you have had your car. Good chance that within 12 months, Bus nav and TV will be a free option as a last horay to the E90 before the replacement model comes. They did that with the E46.

[PaulDee12]

Thanks for the feedback, never really used a navigation package - live in Perth and rarely need to go anywhere that I don't know my way around. Have used Google Maps on my Blackberry a few times (GPS is remarkably accurate) - but is obviously not a patch on a dedicated system. Other major iDrive functions I'll use are the phone system using bluetooth (make and take a lot of calls in the car), and the music system (have upgraded speakers to hi-fi option) - will use ipod and thumbdrive to store and play music. Is the professional system any better for managing calls and music? I know it has a hard drive you can rip and store music too but from what I've read accessing music from the hard drive is not particularly intuitive.

[John_01]

I only have experience with the E90 LCI business navigation. Not terribly impressed with it. I'd much rather choose my own directions than the ones suggested.

Even driving out of the BMW dealership it advised me to turn the wrong way into the oncoming traffic in dual carriage way main road. It told me to turn right when coming out of BMW Sydney at Rushcutters Bay. My opinion hasn't really improved since that first experience. My friends use Tom Tom navigation which seems to be much better as far as I can tell.

[Ninjaoz]

for $4k, i'd rather spend it on performance enhancement, chip, cai, exhaust etc.

[VGR00]

I got to admit too that the BMW business navigation is fairly primative compared to even a humble $200 Tom Tom.

[samchuang33]

If u are not intending to drive it for awile. But if u want to keep it longer than yes, maybe get it. I intend to keep my car for more than 5 year so i though might aswell put everything on it so it will not look old so soon. LOL

Yea, i agree with vgr02, tomtom does the same if not better job.

[PaulDee12]

Originally Posted by samchuang33

If u are not intending to drive it for awile. But if u want to keep it longer than yes, maybe get it. I intend to keep my car for more than 5 year so i though might aswell put everything on it so it will not look old so soon. LOL

Yea, i agree with vgr02, tomtom does the same if not better job.

samchuang33 - how do you find the new iDrive handles the other car functions - phone, music etc. Is it noticeably better than the old one?

[KingClifton]

I'd never used the previous iDrive but the new one is actually reasonable easy to use - having the additional buttons and the 8 customisable favorites is really good.

[brettnshirley]

Originally Posted by KingClifton

I'd never used the previous iDrive but the new one is actually reasonable easy to use - having the additional buttons and the 8 customisable favorites is really good.

I'll find out first hand on the weekend.

[samchuang33]

Originally Posted by PaulDee12

samchuang33 - how do you find the new iDrive handles the other car functions - phone, music etc. Is it noticeably better than the old one?

It is so easy. We have the old I-drive on the 530d and it was definitely not the most user friendly system. I agree with Kingclifton the shortcut does make navigation through the system very fast and much more convenient meaning ur eyes takes less time off the road.

I too had to pay extra $4000 on it for my 330d coz not standard like 335i and I think it is worth the money keeping in mind that I intend to keep the car for quite some time therefore worth it IMO.

Music wise, the limited harddrive space is not the best considering that u can only use ~8gb out of the 80gb HD. WTH do 70gb store. Navi???? But atleast u can store music which is starting a trend in motoring industries. I will make another negetive comment about the importing and exporting music function thou. Correct me if im wrong, i dont seem to be able to delete individual folder/albums. I found that out last time when run out of HD space importing musice and was force to delete the entire collection. Maybe i need to

Ipod works well and I was quite supprised that it even worked with the old ipod shuffle which my new ALPINE unit on the X5 rejects. Phone function is kinda similar to old.

I guess it really comes down to how much u use it.

[PaulDee12]

Originally Posted by samchuang33

It is so easy. We have the old I-drive on the 530d and it was definitely not the most user friendly system. I agree with Kingclifton the shortcut does make navigation through the system very fast and much more convenient meaning ur eyes takes less time off the road.

I too had to pay extra $4000 on it for my 330d coz not standard like 335i and I think it is worth the money keeping in mind that I intend to keep the car for quite some time therefore worth it IMO.

Music wise, the limited harddrive space is not the best considering that u can only use ~8gb out of the 80gb HD. WTH do 70gb store. Navi???? But atleast u can store music which is starting a trend in motoring industries. I will make another negetive comment about the importing and exporting music function thou. Correct me if im wrong, i dont seem to be able to delete individual folder/albums. I found that out last time when run out of HD space importing musice and was force to delete the entire collection. Maybe i need to

Ipod works well and I was quite supprised that it even worked with the old ipod shuffle which my new ALPINE unit on the X5 rejects. Phone function is kinda similar to old.

I guess it really comes down to how much u use it.

Thanks for that. Talked myself into the Professional, I'm a bit of a geek at heart so at the very least I'll enjoy playing with it. How do you find the 330D? Unfortunately I couldn't stretch my budget that far! I'm sure I'll be happy with the 320D and I'll have something to upgrade to next time.

[samchuang33]

Originally Posted by PaulDee12

Thanks for that. Talked myself into the Professional, I'm a bit of a geek at heart so at the very least I'll enjoy playing with it. How do you find the 330D? Unfortunately I couldn't stretch my budget that far! I'm sure I'll be happy with the 320D and I'll have something to upgrade to next time.

330d is really more than i expected. U will find that the 320d is not that far behind. The torque that it generate makes it a really fun car to drive when u turn on DTC. I will chip my down the track when i think i have run it in enough but most likely close to when warrenty expires. U can do the same too. Im considering Evolve switch which most of the fellow UK members are using. Good thing about it is that u can switch between stock and remap youself so when u take it into service u can just change the ECU settings back to OEM and it is undectedable.

Evolve doing a promtion on their switch now.
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310447