People say to me "I'd love to have a built-in nav integrated into the car like yours - I get fed up with having to install and remove the nav everytime I get in then leave the car".

Here in the UK, these portable devices are a prime target for the thieving scum that seem to frequent this green (and very wet) island!! And I always think that seeing a BMW with one stuck to the glass, the car must be 'poverty spec', cloth seats, 4-pot 1.8litre - probably a bit unfair though!!

I paid for a dealer retrofit in my previous car (E46) and it transformed the car - though that was 4 years ago, and the old BMW Nav is getting a bit dated. But dispite the look, friends still seem impressed with the system integration into the car, and the fact that the X3 has the pop-up monitor and voice recognition/control of both the phone and nav.

The only real downside is that speed cameras are not part of the package and require a bit of fannying about to update, unlike the portables that you just plug into your PC to update.