BTW Kiwi: I found the problem we hit the other day with the TCU, and it's my fault.

E46, E39,first X5, X3 are all iBus. 1er, current X5, E60, E90 are all optical (MOST). iBus TCUs and cars are not compatible with MOST TCUs and cars. More important though is the hardware version. All but the very last TCUs and ULFs were very poor at pairing with phones not on the supported phone list. If you have an iPhone, Blackbery or Android, or something else new, you may find most TCUs won't work properly with it.

Thanks, that is good to know. I have an iPhone 3G. I am getting the impression that I will need to buy these new or find something built within the past two years. I get the impression that this is critical for a TCU or ULF, but not so much for the SES. Is that true?

The iPhone works great with a 5th Generation ULF (which is very old), and probably older modules as well. The TCUs with Bluetooth all work with the iPhone.

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2000 E38 750iL Highline Edition, Upgraded with the lastest 2006 X5 Electronics
MKIV Navigation, 16:9 Display, Bluetooth, TV/Video with Backup Camera, Sirius, and Aux Input

The SES contains no bluetooth functionality, so the phone you have matters not.

I've never seen a post that gives the full details of all SES modules and the improvements made in between. Do you really really need Nav VR? What the hell do you want to shout at your car like a loon for, before giving up and using your fingers? You can be sure VR will be a novelty that wears off in 2 weeks.

Well, to the extent that I will be doing VR with the phone, I would also like to do it with the nav. Different strokes, and all that. Interesting that there has been no breakdown of the SES modules similar to what I have found with the ULF and TCU modules.

I've had VR on most of my BT car kits. It's useless with any road noise present. Just a friendly warning that it's a novelty

Point well taken. I guess BMW just couldn't make it simple, huh?