3 Series with Pro Nav - Postcodes

[agent006]

OK, so what am I doing wrong? Two day old 318d with Professional Navigation. The manual says to select the odd 1@ type symbol at the bottom of the circle from the City input, but that's greyed out. What's the trick?

[Drek]

It isn't immediately obvious but here's how:

Go to destination input and select city and hit enter. Enter first letter(s) of your postcode and then the symbol thingy will become white and you can then enter the rest of your postcode by switching between numbers, etc. Unfortunately you can only enter the first four of a postcode which can be a monumental pain in the hoop sometimes.

[blueg33]

Drek said:

It isn't immediately obvious but here's how:

Go to destination input and select city and hit enter. Enter first letter(s) of your postcode and then the symbol thingy will become white and you can then enter the rest of your postcode by switching between numbers, etc. Unfortunately you can only enter the first four of a postcode which can be a monumental pain in the hoop sometimes.

First 4 charcters gives you a 20 mile resolution here in Gloucestershire. Factory fit expensive satnavs need to get better! My Audi is just he same, my 6 year old Navman will accept all charcters of a postcode and it only cost £160

[Drek]

Agreed, completely bloody ridiculous and it's beyond me why these throbbers can't sort it out. In all respects the prof nav is pretty god but when the core function of the device doesn't work as it should it's pretty bloody pointless.

[Silver993tt]

It works perfectly fine supplying the address, including house name/number. Never had a problem getting to an individual building.

[Drek]

You're right, it does when you have the full address but it's when you don't that it becomes a pain in the arse. It's not particularly good on industrial estates either as it quite often doesn't recognise Unit 2 on Random Rd in Greater Scrotum Ind Estate, consequently the 4 digit postcode is worse than hopeless and just gives me the raging spleen.

[Drek]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Exactly.

[Silver993tt]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Well, it takes me door to door AND is in a completely different league to a Tom Tom or even a Garmin (which I also have) for the following reasons. The display can't be compared, huge by comparison and the quality of the display together with the integration makes a comparison based on one feature a bit pointless in my opinion. My Garmin has been relegated to motorbike duties.

[Drek]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Sorry chap, have to disagree with you on your last point. I like my system and it has more functionality compared to my old Tom Tom but the whole thing is let down by the one feature which happens to be the most significant of the lot - the ability to stick in a postcode. And drive to it without having to faff around entering a full address or having to go online and asking it to navigate you to the nearest IKEA/McDonald's/or whatever.

It's stupid and I find it renders a wonderful piece of kit almost useless because it can't perform a basic simple thing which is supposed to be the whole point of sat nav. Fair one if you can live with it but it's spectacularly short-sighted of BMW not to sort this particularly when a £100 Tom Tom can!

[Silver993tt]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Takes 10 seconds to put in a postcode and 30 seconds to put in an address, I really can't see the huge advantage of that unless you're driving to 100s of addresses a day.

[Drek]

Mate, you can't put in a complete postcode, do you not think that's a bit bloody stupid on a £2k professional sat nav optional extra?

Edited by Drek on Sunday 14th November 19:59

[Silver993tt]

Drek said:

Mate, you can't put in a complete postcode, do you not think that's a bit bloody stupid on a £2k optional extra?

not really since in a few additional seconds you can enter the address and get door to door. If it was so terrible, everone would order without Satnav, save £2k and by a cheapo Tom Tom for £100. BMW would then add the full postcode logic. However people more often than not order with Satnav because it really isn't an issue

[taffyracer]

Minor inconvenience if you have a street name, huge inconvenience if you don't.......it's a ste system

[blueg33]

Silver993tt said:

Drek said:

Mate, you can't put in a complete postcode, do you not think that's a bit bloody stupid on a £2k optional extra?

not really since in a few additional seconds you can enter the address and get door to door. If it was so terrible, everone would order without Satnav, save £2k and by a cheapo Tom Tom for £100. BMW would then add the full postcode logic. However people more often than not order with Satnav because it really isn't an issue

So many places only give you postcodes if they know you are using nav, and many places especially businesses do not have house numbers. As an example, I had to gfo to an architects office, the address was old library, hagley road. Hagley road is very long, circa 15 miles and the first 4 digits of the postcode only narrowed it down to 5 miles.

How can that possibly be acceptable on a £2k system when a £100 system could get me to the door with the postcode?

I agree the built in navs have better screens, integration etc, but THEY FAIL in one of the most basic elements of navigation namely destination entry.

And its not only BMW, Audi are the same. But Subaru have got it sorted in Mrs Blue's Outback. There is really no excuse for premium manufacturers to miss basic functionality

[Drek]

Silver993tt said:

Drek said:

Mate, you can't put in a complete postcode, do you not think that's a bit bloody stupid on a £2k optional extra?

not really since in a few additional seconds you can enter the address and get door to door. If it was so terrible, everone would order without Satnav, save £2k and by a cheapo Tom Tom for £100. BMW would then add the full postcode logic. However people more often than not order with Satnav because it really isn't an issue

I've got a caravan without any wheels if you're interested..

[Andrewoldham]

There is an easy way around the problem if you happen to have an iPhone

BMW do an iPhone app, which is free, for cars fitted with connected drive. It allows you to search on google for addresses or via full postcodes and house numbers/building names and then send the address and route direct to the car where it appears in the messages section.

It will even give you routes to addressess not in the BMW memory. My house was built in 2002 but the road is not in my 2009 cars hard drive. Entering just my house number and full postcode and sending it direct to the car allows it navigate to it.

Also allows you to use google search more fully as in the online portal in the car but in seconds instead of minutes..

Use it all the time now far far quicker and easier than using idrive controller.

Also it has a car locator function which instantly pinpoints the location of the car .. Using the sim card in the vehicle. Plotted my car accurately over 150 miles away ... Who needs tracker?

Hope the op has an iPhone!

[blueg33]

Andrewoldham said:

There is an easy way around the problem if you happen to have an iPhone

BMW do an iPhone app, which is free, for cars fitted with connected drive. It allows you to search on google for addresses or via full postcodes and house numbers/building names and then send the address and route direct to the car where it appears in the messages section.

It will even give you routes to addressess not in the BMW memory. My house was built in 2002 but the road is not in my 2009 cars hard drive. Entering just my house number and full postcode and sending it direct to the car allows it navigate to it.

Also allows you to use google search more fully as in the online portal in the car but in seconds instead of minutes..

Use it all the time now far far quicker and easier than using idrive controller.

Also it has a car locator function which instantly pinpoints the location of the car .. Using the sim card in the vehicle. Plotted my car accurately over 150 miles away ... Who needs tracker?

Hope the op has an iPhone!

How is this a solution? Its BMW admitting they have failed, and you now need an Iphone to make it right!

[Drek]

I was just about to say; 'So I should shell out a further £500 to get my sat nav to work properly?!' but I think someone sort of beat me to it!

[Mr E Driver]

I have the latest disc and quite a few times I have put the postcode in which is SFTSoA AB12 3SR
The first part goes in ok and then when I select the '3' there is no 'S' to choose from and the address I want isn't there either.
I take my Garmin Zumo 550 with me and that is used quite a lot especially to find petrol stations, banks, restaurants and supermarkets etc

[sonnyb]

I have a 2005 330Ci with full seven digit postcode entry. Never been a problem.
Just get a software update.