[MOB]

Elms Bedford quoted something like £550 fitted

Can anyone that has had it fitted for a more reasonable price post where they got it done and if it all went ok!

[NFS]

Originally Posted by MOB

Elms Bedford quoted something like £550 fitted

Can anyone that has had it fitted for a more reasonable price post where they got it done and if it all went ok!

Should be more like £250

I'd phone around

[Serjames]

Tony mentioned to me that there's a better solution by Denon i think.

I think he's working tonight, but will surely pop by to offer advice.

As far as I know it allows proper search by alphabet, so that would be great !

SJ

[DaveC]

I had it done by Specialist Cars in Stevenage for about 300ish I seem to remember.

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by Serjames

Tony mentioned to me that there's a better solution by Denon i think.

I think he's working tonight, but will surely pop by to offer advice.

As far as I know it allows proper search by alphabet, so that would be great !

SJ

Sorry all been at work till now.. knackered! Anyway, Ipods and Dension...

Firstly the BMW glovebox Ipod Adapter is £200 for the part only. You need to add on fitting and possible coding too of the car (coding is only required if you DO NOT have the CD changer already). The Ipod Adapter takes the place of the CD changer and hooks up to the IDrive by emulating the multiCD.

Roughly, the cost from BMW fully installed will be in the region of £450-£500 depending on how much they want to rip you off. The integration is ok - however there are some problems. Firstly, the list of artists and albums is limited to 255 of each - with an 80Gb IPod or worse a 160Gb version, you won't be able to scroll through all your MP3 collection. If you have more than 255 albums, it will only allow you to select the first 255 in alphabetical order. On top of that, there is no way to search for a particular artist or album - you have to go through the alphabet from the beginning. Which is MEGA SLOW...

However, there is a solution made by a company called Dension and it's the Gateway 500 model. This again emulates the BMW CD Changer, but is a much more clever box of tricks as the integration is really very good. Controlled by the IDrive knob and screen, it allows you to search using an A-Z directory, of both artists and albums. Therefore to get to the album "Twentysomething" you can just select "T" and search from there, as opposed to scrolling through the whole list from "A". Also, the Dension has no upper limit to the number of albums or artists - so you can use a 160Gb to its full capacity.

Cost of the Dension is around £350, plus installation. A car audio dealer will probably charge around £100 to install it (2 hours labour). However, if your car doesn't have a CD changer already, you'll need a friendly BMW dealer to code the car for you for a CD changer, which obviously adds cost (approx £150). If you already have a CD changer, then you don't need the extra work - so the Dension unit will work out the same cost as the BMW IPod Adapter.

Make sense?

[simnew]

Well I have the BMW IPOD fitted and integrated with the steering wheel. Its the original solution which uses a small screen which is fitted on top of the central air vents. Works very very well and was fitted by Specialist Cars Stevenage for around £330 if I remember correctly.

Because a lot of dealers don't even know about it, you end up with someone a bit dozy in the parts department giving you a quote and I found that I got a different quote depending on who I went to. My adapter is in the central console box though - its much more convenient there. Its been for 18 months now and can't imagine the car without it.

It allows scrolling by album, genre, artist, playlist etc just like the original ipod. The only thing it doesn't do is fast forward. Pressing the forward key on the steering wheel skips to the next track. Not sure how that have changed things for the later ipod solution - 6FL ? I think they call it...

[e92phreak]

I have it. It is called the MOST adapter and is the certified BMW solution, installed by dealers. I am not limited to 255, but to 500 songs/artists/playlists.

It uses the CD changer settings to play, and the default view (CD1) is the playlists. If you want to sort by artist, you change from CD1 to CD2. Depending on how many artists you have, it could take some seconds to minutes. I have probably over 1000 artists, and it takes about 2.5 minutes to show up. During this time, nothing is played, so there will be silence. After it comes up, it will only show up to 500 artists.

It's not too bad... I basically create playlists of the songs that I will normally listen to and keep it on CD1 the whole time. When I turn off the car, it will keep where you left off. So in the morning when I start the car, it continues from the point it left off.

I like the fact that it uses the controls on the steering wheel and the iDrive.

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by e92phreak

I have it. It is called the MOST adapter and is the certified BMW solution, installed by dealers. I am not limited to 255, but to 500 songs/artists/playlists.

It uses the CD changer settings to play, and the default view (CD1) is the playlists. If you want to sort by artist, you change from CD1 to CD2. Depending on how many artists you have, it could take some seconds to minutes. I have probably over 1000 artists, and it takes about 2.5 minutes to show up. During this time, nothing is played, so there will be silence. After it comes up, it will only show up to 500 artists.

It's not too bad... I basically create playlists of the songs that I will normally listen to and keep it on CD1 the whole time. When I turn off the car, it will keep where you left off. So in the morning when I start the car, it continues from the point it left off.

I like the fact that it uses the controls on the steering wheel and the iDrive.

That's strange you are limited to 500... I have no limit on songs (have about 3000 on there), but am limited to 255 artists (CD2) and 255 albums (CD3). I don't know about playlists, as I don't use them... ??

[booforty]

Just some tissues and leather driving gloves in my glovebox...

[DaveC]

Originally Posted by beauforty

Just some tissues and leather driving gloves in my glovebox...

Now why am I reminded of Squeezy's new knob thread?

[booforty]

Originally Posted by DaveC

Now why am I reminded of Squeezy's new knob thread?

The tissues are "man size" of course and the string-backs of the driving gloves just give you that bit of extra purchase...

[red-max]

Ahem - getting back towards the iPod adaptor subject, can someone please tell me if I have any chance of getting the BMW option fitted to my car which does not have the iDrive screen (no nav)? I'm guessing the answer is No, but I do have a CD changer, so perhaps a solution that emulates a CD changer would work? And while I'm asking, can the USB option be retrofitted by the stealer? I have AUX in and MP3 playback on the CD, but MP3 playable from USB would be really useful...

[mjh93sa]

The consensus has generally been that the USB option (6FL) cannot be retrofitted. If you have the car then you are limited to the iPod connection in the glovebox.

I believe that in the case of a car without iDrive it then includes a screen mounted adjacent to the centre air vents on the top of the dash.

As regards any functionality I can't comment as I've got the 6FL.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by red-max

Ahem - getting back towards the iPod adaptor subject, can someone please tell me if I have any chance of getting the BMW option fitted to my car which does not have the iDrive screen (no nav)? I'm guessing the answer is No, but I do have a CD changer, so perhaps a solution that emulates a CD changer would work? And while I'm asking, can the USB option be retrofitted by the stealer? I have AUX in and MP3 playback on the CD, but MP3 playable from USB would be really useful...

The dealer fit 'IPOD connector' works for both idrive and non idrive cars.

I believe that it now comes with a USB connection as well, to enable mp3 playback from flash drives etc. However, this does not have the ipod connectivity that the factory fit option provides.

I am still waiting for some evidence that the 'proper' factory fit 6FL USB connection can be retro fitted.

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by needforspeed

The dealer fit 'IPOD connector' works for both idrive and non idrive cars.

I believe that it now comes with a USB connection as well, to enable mp3 playback from flash drives etc. However, this does not have the ipod connectivity that the factory fit option provides.

I am still waiting for some evidence that the 'proper' factory fit 6FL USB connection can be retro fitted.

The PROPER 6FL cannot currently be retrofitted, as it requires a slighly different CCC interface.

However, for NON-IDrive cars, the DEALER-FIT IPod interface box will work, and displays artist and album details on the standard radio display. No external secondary display is required. It is controlled via the soft buttons on the standard radio.

If you already have the CD Changer, then the installation is very simple and does not require coding - the IPod Interface takes the place of the CD Changer cable going into the back of the head unit

[stevie996]

Because of a fault with my electronic steering wheel lock not disengaging the car requires a full re-code.

I was cheeky to ask if they would fit the i-pod connector to the car at the same time and hence saved the cost of the re code.

Steve

[jingle68]

Wollaston BMW in Northampton fitted the glovebox Ipod adaptor in my E92 for £300 all in.

[MOB]

Originally Posted by jingle68

Wollaston BMW in Northampton fitted the glovebox Ipod adaptor in my E92 for £300 all in.

Oh really, they are the closest dealer to me

Thanks for everyone's input

[stevie996]

Had mine fitted. Took nearly 2 days as the car would not recognise the interface originally.

I think its good and gives a lot of control over the i-pod.

The instructions supplied though are crap!

Steve