Well now I am wondering about trying to get GPS and/or Trapster on my iPad or even the new VI beta connection (iPhone only) to help both with nav and with leos as I prepare for a 4K run next month.

I am half way through 4K miles and my 2008 maps have failed multiple times especially in/out/around Florence Myrtle Beach, SC and then Durham followed by Greensboro, NC. I also had issues in Atlanta, more than one place in TN (Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Pigeon Forge) and so on.

It is almost like I would have been better off to print out my routes on Mapquest. That's not what I had in mind when I stopped using a Garmin and purchased the factory navigation.

So if I go with the 2 DVD set and the problem of having to switch disks for OK and AR will the new dvds really solve some of the problems I am getting on this run through OK-AR-TN-GA-SC-NC?

Edited the next morning to speculate on whether the DVD drive is having issues reading what must be a double-layered DVD. That is, the more I think about problems with various destinations I wonder if the DVD is being read correctly. My home dealer replaced the factory DVD drive already but I can hear the DVD start spinning as soon as I get into the vehicle and other times as well even when the nav is not engaged.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't even consider updating.

Even though I have Nav and HUD, my $150 portable Garmin device is infinitely better than the p.o.c. BMW sold us. I tell all my friends looking to buy a BMW to skip the navigation.....does it work...yes, but its functionality is pathetic.

This makes me wonder about using the $50 TomTom app for my iPad 3G and iPhone 3GS (iPhone 4 next month).

Anyone have real-world experience to know how the TomTom app compares with what I have on the 2008 X5 GPS using the 2009 DVD?

It was very frustrating to have spent so much on an X5 and see the FREE BeatTheTraffic app outperform the BMW nav.

Edited to say that TomTom could not tell me what they use so I guess it is radio but that deepens the mystery about what data are used by BeatTheTraffic.
Some related links: How can we provide reliable, complete, timely, and concisely presented traffic data? - and TomTom, portable GPS car navigation systems

I have the 2010 and it is a Pain in the a$$ because I have trips where I cross from one disk to another. So If you are doing a cross country trip, you have to pick a point near the end of the map enter that location, get to there, stop the car, put in the new disk, let it sit for 5-10 min and then go on.... That is why I keep my 2009 disk in the car at all times.

Even with "heads up" display, I'll take my $150 Magellan any day over my BMW's navigation. It is just better in every way. I've used the Navigation on a 2011 loaner and it is better than my '07, but the user interface is just not very user friendly imho.

BMW needs to hire decent user interface designers. Navigation interface is an epic fail. I would even say that this is the worst $1900 I have ever spent.

I would agree. The GPS hardware is excellent, but the new TeleAtlas software and database is terrible. In the middle of nowhere in Idaho it told me to turn off of the highway onto a small dirt private farm road at least a couple of times. There have been many other similar errors, including one where it was confusing two cities in Texas that were more than 40 miles apart, e.g., it showed a Hampton Inn in city "X" in the database, and when you choose it and told the nav to go there, the city name changed to city "Y" more than 40 miles away.

Not infrequently the nav voice will tell me to turn left or right, while the route on the map sows straight ahead. If I follow the nav voice, it just takes me around a block or two to the next place to turn, and brings me back to the original route.

My Garmin software is vastly superior although, as I said, the BMW hardware is faster with a better display. So I guess the BMW Nav system can more quickly and precisely take me to the wrong place, using a bad route with inaccurate voice commands, as compared to the $150 Garmin!

I have to agree that the navigation interface is awful. It's hard to understand why when there are so many better examples out there. It's tough though, I don't want to have to mount my smaller iPhone screen on the dash or worry about hiding a Garmin or something so that it doesn't get stolen.