Costs of buying and installing e46 sat nav?

[Jboo]

Hi,

I'm (still!) looking for a black 03/04 facelift BMW 330 convertible, but would like one with the sat nav option already installed. Unfortunately, many I find are just what I'm looking for other than not having a sat nav. Does anyone have an idea of how much I can expect to pay to buy and have the sat nav installed if I were to buy a car without it already? Also, is it a good idea to do it this way, or would anyone recommend buying a car with the sat nav already in it to save on any difficulties if there are any?

Thanks

[patmahe]

Do you have a paricular need for built in sat nav? If you find a car that meets all your other requirements then why not invest in a good aftermarket unit?

[okgo]

Don't bother its PROPER st.

[Jboo]

patmahe said:

Do you have a paricular need for built in sat nav? If you find a car that meets all your other requirements then why not invest in a good aftermarket unit?

I could possibly do this, I was just wondering about the costs of installing a sat nav. Someone metnioned to me that it might be £1000+. Should I expect to pay sort of price? I'd prefer to have a built-in unit rather than one that goes on my dashboard or such.

Thanks again.

[okgo]

The inbuilt unit is so far from industry standard today I doubt it would get me to somewhere 100 miles away. Seriously, if you've not used a modern tom tom, or seen what the nav from old BMW's is like then let me tell you, using google map on your iphone would be better.

Its VERY bad. I wouldn't have it inbuilt for £200 let alone a grand, not when a tom tom that will beat it in EVERY way cost £99.

[mmm-five]

I've got the BMW built-in sat-nav and I still use my TT730 instead as it's faster, more accurate, (legally) customisable, & shows an accurate speed reading.

[F355GTS]

okgo said:

The inbuilt unit is so far from industry standard today I doubt it would get me to somewhere 100 miles away. Seriously, if you've not used a modern tom tom, or seen what the nav from old BMW's is like then let me tell you, using google map on your iphone would be better.

Its VERY bad. I wouldn't have it inbuilt for £200 let alone a grand, not when a tom tom that will beat it in EVERY way cost £99.

It may be old but still works 10 times better than the utter rubbish they fit on later cars, my 07 330d Sat Nav is so slow to input anything or calculate a route it is near to unusable

[okgo]

Maybe so. But I found old versions eqaully bad. My five year old garmin knocks the socks off them.

[Jboo]

On that basis I might take any car with a sat nav as a bonus and not really be bothered about it that much! Just got the problem of finding one that hasn't been clocked or been in cat C damage, which has been the problem so far!

Thanks for the replies.

[skeeterm5]

Not sure i understand all the oem nav haters. I have it in my car and it is MUCH better than the portable units which in my experience suffer from;

- intermittent connection problems due to small ariels
- small clunky screens
- daft looking fittings into the car
- the need to have trailing wires for charging

The bmw nav works well, gets me to the same place as anybody elses and the only real drawback is the lack of full postcode entry.

But whether it is worth the cost is a whole different question

S

[richterswil]

skeeterm5 said:

Not sure i understand all the oem nav haters. I have it in my car and it is MUCH better than the portable units which in my experience suffer from;

- intermittent connection problems due to small ariels
- small clunky screens
- daft looking fittings into the car
- the need to have trailing wires for charging

The bmw nav works well, gets me to the same place as anybody elses and the only real drawback is the lack of full postcode entry.

But whether it is worth the cost is a whole different question

S

I agree - I think the SatNav in my E60 is great.

[Mookus]

FWIW I've got a OEM mk3 (CD) sat nav in my '02 E39 as part of the Comms pack with TV option and phone. To upgrade to the latest DVD drive is £400. To removed the CD changer and fit an Intravee ipod interface is £250. Bluetooth - I would reckon on between £500-£700 to do this with OEM equipment. That's without worrying about analogue TV being turned off (a bit of a silly feature on a car anyway) and turning off of FM radio is a few more years off.

Taking into account updating the sat nav, phone and audio, it's worth looking at a third party unit. Dynavin have already released a unit which is now available for the E46. Take a look here http://www.dynavin.com/products/product_dnv_e46.ph... The E39 model should be available in a couple of months and I think that's be the route I'll be going. There's some info available about it on the usual forums, I think the UK importer and installer is based in Herts.

[okgo]

So basically you've ignored ability and what makes it worse it how it looks, and connection? Well at work we recently tested 'lots' of these things and the connection once established didn't drop on any of them in a mixture of weather.

But you will find aside from some very high end cars the top end portable unit is miles ahead in terms of ability.

[richterswil]

okgo said:

So basically you've ignored ability and what makes it worse it how it looks, and connection? Well at work we recently tested 'lots' of these things and the connection once established didn't drop on any of them in a mixture of weather.

But you will find aside from some very high end cars the top end portable unit is miles ahead in terms of ability.

Chill. I certainly haven't ignored ability - mine is excellent. I have no problems with iDrive so find entering destinations easy and saving them to memory a cinch. From there I get traffic information, excellent guidance and good graphics. I often have it on for destinations I know well for the traffic information.

Doubtless many of the stand alone units are excellent too but their capabilities don't impact on mine which as I have said is excellent (far better than the system in my Porsche). Not quite sure what would be so much better about a dedicated unit; what I do know is that to put up with windscreen holders which you have to remove for security reasons and unsightly cables it would have to be much better than my in built system which is......excellent!!

I do have a Traffic Master application for my iPhone which I used recently in a hire car - for £25.00 it was very good (but not excellent!!)

[okgo]

Sorry

Didn't read you have an e60 with the idrive system, again they are like day and night compared to the one OP is talking about

[sonnyb]

richterswil said:

skeeterm5 said:

Not sure i understand all the oem nav haters. I have it in my car and it is MUCH better than the portable units which in my experience suffer from;

- intermittent connection problems due to small ariels
- small clunky screens
- daft looking fittings into the car
- the need to have trailing wires for charging

The bmw nav works well, gets me to the same place as anybody elses and the only real drawback is the lack of full postcode entry.

But whether it is worth the cost is a whole different question

S

I agree - I think the SatNav in my E60 is great.

I have navtv etc in my 330Ci and find it works fine and has 7 digit post code entry too.
It never drops connection and always gets me to the destination, so cant understand why so many dislike it.

[Jboo]

Mookus said:

FWIW I've got a OEM mk3 (CD) sat nav in my '02 E39 as part of the Comms pack with TV option and phone. To upgrade to the latest DVD drive is £400. To removed the CD changer and fit an Intravee ipod interface is £250. Bluetooth - I would reckon on between £500-£700 to do this with OEM equipment. That's without worrying about analogue TV being turned off (a bit of a silly feature on a car anyway) and turning off of FM radio is a few more years off.

Taking into account updating the sat nav, phone and audio, it's worth looking at a third party unit. Dynavin have already released a unit which is now available for the E46. Take a look here http://www.dynavin.com/products/product_dnv_e46.ph... The E39 model should be available in a couple of months and I think that's be the route I'll be going. There's some info available about it on the usual forums, I think the UK importer and installer is based in Herts.

Been checking out Dynavin tonight and it looks pretty good. Does anyone have any other third party units that they'd recommend I check out?

Thanks

[LC23]

sonnyb said:

richterswil said:

skeeterm5 said:

Not sure i understand all the oem nav haters. I have it in my car and it is MUCH better than the portable units which in my experience suffer from;

- intermittent connection problems due to small ariels
- small clunky screens
- daft looking fittings into the car
- the need to have trailing wires for charging

The bmw nav works well, gets me to the same place as anybody elses and the only real drawback is the lack of full postcode entry.

But whether it is worth the cost is a whole different question

S

I agree - I think the SatNav in my E60 is great.

I have navtv etc in my 330Ci and find it works fine and has 7 digit post code entry too.
It never drops connection and always gets me to the destination, so cant understand why so many dislike it.

Agreed. I have the same and much prefer it to Tom Tom type units.

[LordGrover]

Jboo said:

Mookus said:

FWIW I've got a OEM mk3 (CD) sat nav in my '02 E39 as part of the Comms pack with TV option and phone. To upgrade to the latest DVD drive is £400. To removed the CD changer and fit an Intravee ipod interface is £250. Bluetooth - I would reckon on between £500-£700 to do this with OEM equipment. That's without worrying about analogue TV being turned off (a bit of a silly feature on a car anyway) and turning off of FM radio is a few more years off.

Taking into account updating the sat nav, phone and audio, it's worth looking at a third party unit. Dynavin have already released a unit which is now available for the E46. Take a look here http://www.dynavin.com/products/product_dnv_e46.ph... The E39 model should be available in a couple of months and I think that's be the route I'll be going. There's some info available about it on the usual forums, I think the UK importer and installer is based in Herts.

Been checking out Dynavin tonight and it looks pretty good. Does anyone have any other third party units that they'd recommend I check out?

Thanks

I quite like the look of the Dynavin too - not heard of them before. No vendors listed though... Some more guff here: click.

[Jboo]

LordGrover said:

Jboo said:

Mookus said:

FWIW I've got a OEM mk3 (CD) sat nav in my '02 E39 as part of the Comms pack with TV option and phone. To upgrade to the latest DVD drive is £400. To removed the CD changer and fit an Intravee ipod interface is £250. Bluetooth - I would reckon on between £500-£700 to do this with OEM equipment. That's without worrying about analogue TV being turned off (a bit of a silly feature on a car anyway) and turning off of FM radio is a few more years off.

Taking into account updating the sat nav, phone and audio, it's worth looking at a third party unit. Dynavin have already released a unit which is now available for the E46. Take a look here http://www.dynavin.com/products/product_dnv_e46.ph... The E39 model should be available in a couple of months and I think that's be the route I'll be going. There's some info available about it on the usual forums, I think the UK importer and installer is based in Herts.

Been checking out Dynavin tonight and it looks pretty good. Does anyone have any other third party units that they'd recommend I check out?

Thanks

I quite like the look of the Dynavin too - not heard of them before. No vendors listed though... Some more guff here: click.

There's quite a long thread here too, plus it seems there's a dealer by the name of TTints in the forum here. Think they're around £600 and sound pretty simple to install.