Nav Rip off
 

I've had Bimmers for years. I've used their DVD systems and even had an old one that required 6 CDs to cover the USA. I always thought the DVDs were a little out of date by the time they were available, but for the most part they were serviceable. My yr old X5M has a system requiring dealer service to download the data into a hard drive. My salesman told me about the change when I bought the vehicle, but I never thought to ask the price. I doubt they knew a year ago. And my service guy still thouight I needed the DVD. OH NO, instead of a $199 DVD, they want $465 to basically do a software download. What a rip off. :( I complained to the local service manager. Apparrantly some people are paying their price. I'm looking for a person on the National level to complain to. Any ideas who to contact?? Anybody got a third party work around? $100,00 ride and now I need a Garmin.

Wow, that is awful. I was pretty shocked by the price of the $200 DVD that I have been paying for years, but I got used to it. $465 is reason enough not to buy nav in a BMW.

Out of curiousity, do you know what Mercedes and Audi charge for a similar update? That might help your BMW-NA case.

One more thing... I think that the map data in your car is sourced by Tele Atlas, which is much lower quality than the former data sourced by Navteq. That really makes the inflated price sour.

Call or write BMW Consumer relations. Complain about the cost and the inferior quality maps. Keep pressing.

We need a grassroots campaign....

Maps are horrible. Whomever made the management decision at BMW to switch from Navteq to TeleAtlas should be FIRED.

What we need is a high level hacker/software writing genius to make up a third party option using better maps and a way to program it to the vehicle. (maybe via laptop and programming software?)

Sadly, I think we have a better chance of finding the leprechaun sitting between two pots of gold at the end of a "double rainbow, all the way across the sky" than that coming to fruition.

Actually, due to demographics, there are more engineers/hackers driving BMWs than any other car, IMO. I'm hopeful...and looking. :)

Yep, I had that same experience X2.

I picked up my X5M last March 17th, a few days later on the 23rd my E70 M Sport came in. Within a month, maybe six weeks new maps were released for the Nav.

The owners manual said go get the DVD plug it in and follow the instructions to install the new maps. So I figured 200 bucks (same as it's always been) and have new maps for both cars.

Imagine my surprise when I found out the cost was 5X that.

I complained to everyone I could as far up as I could get at BMWNA.
I'd just spent $200K in one month on two new cars, bought 6 new BMW's in five years and after 3 months of complaining I was given a 400.00 gift by the dealership that I could only use there.

It's a rip off not to mention that the navs in these cars have less funtionality than a $100.00 Garmin.

Plus keep in mind there is no backup. And I'm told if something happens to your nav and you lose the installed maps and those maps are out if date; they can only put the new version on. Guess who pays for the new maps if that happens.

1. If it is a warranted repair, they cannot charge you for new data. They may try, they may charge you- but would lose a legal challenge, IMO.

2. I am guessing the last chapter in the whole 'only BMW dealers can program cars' has yet to be written. By law, BMW must make tools available to non-BMW shops... we will see where this goes.

A

I asked my dealer and they told me it is only $200 for a map update to a new BMW. Maybe it is an issue with the one dealer.

Whomever told you that I would get it in writing and hole that it's someone who can actually make that happen. My experience "back then" was that a lot of people didn't even know that the Nav isn't user upgradable and they all thought the cost was the same as its always been.

Both are not the case.

I asked the tech to double-check, and he confirmed $200. However, if a $465 nav update were true, I would not buy another BMW. My next car would be an Infiniti, MB, or Audi. Something stupid and petty like this would ruin a brand to me.