The MINI nav gives spoken turn-by-turn directions, but they are generic. For example, instead of "Turn right on San Pablo Avenue", it says "Turn right at the next street." Everything is "next street", which makes the directions pretty confusing. Sometimes she says "next street" when really she means "not the next street, but the one after".

I am probably going to use Navigon on my iPhone for navigation. It's much, much better than the MINI nav. Just have to figure out a nice way to mount the iPhone. Most of what I have seen looks like an afterthought rather than an integrated solution.

 

Oh, gotcha. See, now that's confusing for me because people do that too. When I personally say "next street" I mean the next coming street. But a lot of people are actually referring to the street after the next street. So it's not universal? Sometimes she means the next street and other times she means the street after?

 

It seems to depend on how complex the upcoming intersection is. "next street" can be pretty ambiguous sometimes.

 

hi chaswyck,
thanks for the information...some quick questions...how is the bluetooth working for you on the 1490?, do you mount the unit on the windshield?, lastly, does the gauge/garmin shutoff completely when the car is shutoff...some complained about some scangauge draining the mini cm battery. thanks in advance.

 

I have had the Nav and Connect for 3 months..
Yes it is very expensive. The toggle switch becomes much easier to use with time, but it does take a while. The Traffic alert is better than my Garmins. Garmins are quicker and easier. Once you have a lot of saved contacts the factory Nav becomes a lot quicker. The large screen is easy to view. You can set the map so that there is a small green screen on the right hand side of the map that displays arrows with distance to the next turn. I leave this feature on all the time. The nav will say take next left, or bear right ahead but does not read street names. I was worried I would miss reading street names but because of the arrows I really do not. The bluetooth system is excellent and syncs with my Android phone very easily. Much better than any of the portable systems I have used or the hard wired Parrot system that I have installed in my other vehicle.
I also like how connected controls my music on the usb, radio favorites, and my contacts, etc.

 

Pretty neat little setup... tied into electrical system, nice and clean, just did a 400 mile road trip today, worked great.

 

I find the volume of the voice on the nav way too low. I miss half of what she is saying. :( I have looked for a way to turn it up, but as a previous comment stated, it seems you can only do it as she is talking which is usually too late to really hear anything since by the time you reach over to turn the volume up, she is finished.

If anyone has figured this one out, please share.

 

As far as I know…that is really the only way to adjust the volume…there are some voice/music loudness settings under Settings…but I believe that is for speaker phone volume and voice commands. Just stay parked..and enter a destination…and be ready

 

PART II Answer: Push the voice command button on the steering wheel. When you get the beep, say in a loud, clear voice: "Repeat". She'll talk to you again. Repeat as needed.

 

Adjust the volume (using the big volume ****) while she is talking and it retains that volume setting for future nav instructions.

 

I have done that and it didn't change her voice the next time she spoke. Seemed pretty obvious, but no good. :(

 

You may be missing her window. See note above reference having her repeat directions. Repeat also good when you miss half the message or when the last direction was "Continue to follow the road for 150 miles" - you can ask for a reapeat every now and then and she'll count it down for you.

 

+1 , you can also use the steering wheel volume.
Ron

 

I have the NAVI, and although it is one of the best built-in NAVI's on the market right now, it still has it's shortcomings as the other guys said here:

1. Input of address by hand is not ideal due to a lack of touch-screen/on screen keyboard. Thankfully, there's voice command input for addresses (if it can understand what you're saying)
2. Lack of text-to-speech for street names on voice guidance (considering the Connected reads your FB/RSS news and Twitter feeds back to you, I find this a big WTF).
3. Lack of auto-switching for day/night mode (again, the car has auto-on headlights. WTF?)
4. Dynamic Traffic info not available in Canada.

If any of those bother you, then save your money.

 

This nav was the BIGGEST waste of my money. Still using my 4 year old unit.

 

The nav on my '07 is fantastic. Seriously. My music quiets down when the lady speaks and it's very clear to hear/see when a turn is coming up. It takes a max of 4 seconds to load and has saved me on a few occasions. I have the iPod integration in the secret compartment as well. Extremely easy to control with the joystick. It's just a matter of getting used to the controls then it becomes very easy. I actually prefer it to some of the touch screens I've used because my hand is down near the shifter anyway. It takes more coordination on a bumpy road to touch the screen exactly where you wish. Plus, just the look of it instead of the gigantic speedo (think heavy man in a speedo bathing suit )

Just my $.02

 

These should not be mutually exclusive.

I have always opted for the built in Nav system for all the obvious reasons. Having said that, the MINI nav is fairly archaic in features and usability. Compared to the many other OEM nav systems I have used, the MINI nav is one of the most finicky and difficult to use systems I have ever experienced. It's routing algorithms leave a lot to be desired, it is cumbersome to enter destination addresses, route alternatives are difficult to configure and review and the traffic display requires a degree in cryptography.

LOVE my Countryman. HATE the nav. Hope it improves by 2014 when I'm ready to buy another one.

 

My nave stinks! It gets lost more than I do. I was sitting in my drive way and it said I was 60 miles north, in a different town. Many times, it sends the picture MINI through the lake. I've taken it in to two different MINI dealers. The first where I bought it said don't use it in small rural towns. Really? Huh, that's where I live and drive and work. Really? The 2nd MINI dealer replaced the internal antenna today. Well, at least my GPS didn't get lost on the way home, or go through the lake, but it still tried to get me to go down a nonexistent road, and one that still was not here 12 years ago either. So its not even like it hasn't updated in a few years, the road was never there. It wears me out. This is my new car-I think I wasted my money on this nab system. My Tom-Tom works better, it was only $80.00.

 

[QUOTE=runningman;3418013]I went with the Connected sans Nav.

...I have an iPhone 4S and just using the provided standard cable all the Connected Apps work plus plug ins.

Picked up my new MCS today. It has Mini Connected w/o Nav. Tried to use my iPhone 4S with the provided Y cable and couldn't get plug-ins to work.
My MA said the cable might need an update for the 4S.

The cable I got was part # 61 12 0 440 812. How's that compare with yours?

 

Well, went back to the dealer today and swapped the Audio cable PN 61 12 0 440 812 they initially gave me for the S/V cable PN 61 12 2 179 623. That's the one with the 3 stripes on the aux plug. Now I can see album art, videos and Mini Connected works.