Received a Navigon software update today with a full slate of improvements AND a free map update. I didn't even have to ask, they notified me.

And the whole nav was almost $2000 less than the one in my mini.

Did I mention that it was all free?

 

To the contrary, ALL of the icon images are stored on the DVD. And, you can change them to be whatever you wish by simply replacing those images with different ones with the same name on the DVD. T do that, first you would need the PMN software, then you would need to re-burn the DVD after adding your own icons.

 

ME TOO!!! I'm impatiently waiting with baited breath for this thing to get started!!!!

 

And THAT statement AMAZES ME!!! Hey, why buy a dictionary when you can just ask somebody what the word means????

Scenario for you: What if you take your mini up skiing next winter. You go to a new town you have never been to, and don't know anyone. You would like to find somethig, like a furniture store. WHO do you ask for the address??? I don't know if there are any furniture stores, or if there is, what their names are. THAT is what hte POI search is for, that is what we paid $2,100 for!! Oh wait, I forgot, you said we should look it up in a phone book. So, I should carry in the boot of my MINI phone books and yellow pages for the entire North east, is that correct?

How about FIX THE F'in software so it works, as it is supposed to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We paid $2,100 for it so I don't have to carry a phone book!!!

I'm sorry, but that had to be one of the stupidest things I've seen on this forum. "Don't use the POI search, use a phonebook".

I hope MINI is reading this!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Birdman. I guess it's because they advertise it as having the ability to find those POIs, but many of us have been using GPS devices for over a decade, long before ANY poi's existed. The Mini system has the POI fault but it shines in other areas. I'm not going to rehash this out again.

Please let us know when you have received your update so the rest of us can mention it at their next service appointment.

 

My old boats GPS had a POI db on it that worked fine, that was back around 1996. Funny thing is, that was made by Raymarine, which is a BRITISH company.

And yes, the mini nav shines in other areas, great. BUT, how about mini simply take 15 minutes of it's busy schedule (pronouned in the funny british way "shed - ule" of course) and FIX the rest of it that does NOT work?

Why is that so difficult??

 

I would be curious to see how many of the R56 NAV owners use the system PRIMARILY for point-to-point(PTP) navigation vs. POI. Also, what about those of you with aftermarket navs; same question.

We use our almost exclusively for PTP.

Does NAM have any way of running poles?

 

You got me. I don't know. It's just software, why not fix it. I agree with you.

I think the fact that you can't manually adjust the route or put in multiple stops along one route is a bigger issue with the Mini system than the POis. If I want to take a long trip, driving on specific roads, it's nearly impossible to do with the Mini system. Point to point it works fine, but keeping a map out with all the points I need to program while driving just to force the Nav system to take specific roads is kind of pointless. At that point it just turns into a glorified map display.

This multiple stop/via system isn't available on all aftermarket GPS devices either. When I want to drive specific roads that aren't necessarily a destination in itself, I use a portable GPS with the ability to pre-plan a route and guide me on it. The feature I find necessary for my use. At least being able to drag the route line onto the specific roads I want to take would be a nice addition to the Mini system.

I could argue this $2100 I spent is wasted and Mini needs to revamp the whole thing just because of the lack of multiple stops/vias in a route and not the POIs. I spent almost $700 on a Nuvi 660 when they first came out only find it won't do multiple stops either. It's just like the Mini's system. You pick a destination, it guides you there. You have some limited choices like "avoid highways" but NO WAY of telling it the EXACT ROUTE you want. This is a common feature that many don't know they want until they buy a system and find out it didn't have it. It's a common type of question we get on the forum in my signature. For my use, this is a much bigger flaw than the POI system. But really it's not a flaw in the design. It was just designed without the feature.



An interesting side note. Last weekend I took a trip using the Nav system. As I approached the turn off from the highway I was going to take the system alerted me saying, "your destination is not on digitized road." The display then switched to show me a "as the crow flies" directional arrow along side (split screen) the map display. The really ODD thing is it still displayed the roads in the area (the same ones it said weren't digitized) and still had the blue highlight to my destination. It just wouldn't guide me there; it couldn't tell me where to turn. Just a "as the crow flies" directional arrow.

This is the same as the basemap in my Garmin 76CSx. The map data in it contains many minor roads, but it can only give guidance on highways and not city streets. It takes a map upgrade (City Navigator North America) to allow it to route on the minor roads.

 

What is even more odd is that I think that Navigon and BMW/VDO uses the same source data (Navteq, I think), and Navigon is apparently a German company.

I leave the map display on because it is otherwise boring.

I would still like to have analog gauges for oil, water and boost displayed on the NAV screen. A true driver's car without these is little more than a quick Kia or Hyundai.

I feel bad pointing out all the flaws in a car that I really like, but if we don't communicate these frustrations, nothing will change.

 

What GPS portable allows multiple stops/adjustable routes, Minidrivr? I've never used one, seeing them as kind of a "cool gizmo to play with" and just using maps for trips, but if it were very versatile for the user I could see having one if it were easy to use. For me at least, having good POI data would be important. I use Beyond411 a lot on my phone when I'm out of town.

 

To name a few; Garmin 60CSx, 76CSx, Zumo 550, older Streetpilots, newer Nuvis. Basically any that support the loading of routes. This was a "standard" gps feature in the late 90s. Then Garmin introduced the Nuvi line and dumbed down all the features, giving you the point to point only gps. They must have felt the options were too confusing for new users so why not make them easier to use for newbies. They are finally bringing back the nice features (adjustable data fields, customizable screens, routes, etc).

I can't even remember the last time I used a 411 service.

Basically lets say I want to drive to the Dragon from here. Of course on the way I want to drive as many of the fun twisties I can. I plan my route on my computer, making sure it goes through all the roads and places I want. I upload the route to my GPS and instead of just getting point A to B directions, I get directions that follow my specific route. No paper maps necessary. However if I relied on the Mini's nav system for this, it wouldn't be possible. I'd have to carry paper maps with my route highlighted. There just isn't a way to tell it what roads you want to take.

This type of feature is why I starting using GPS devices.

 

BigNewt,
I have an Alpine nav unit in my truck that does it. When you select a POI or enter an address, you either add it to the "Route Plan", or just "Start Guidance". If you select to add it to the Route plan, you go back to the main menu. You can then search the POI db (which of course works properly!) for another point, and then add it to the Route Plan. After adding all your points, you can start guidance to follow the "Route plan" which goes from one point to the next.... You can open the route plan (just a list of points) and re-organize them to the order you wish to go to them in, or even better yet, let the system sort them to the best order (basically it sorts them in order of distance from one to the other to optimize the trip).

On top of all that, you can also open each route plan (from each point to the next), and change the route the system generated by avoiding certain roads or areas (you can avoid a town for example), you can select specific roads to use (Select "use Highway 66" for example) and it will recalc the route and utilize that Rd....

Now, it's all very simple really, it's not a rocket science. Note that my Alpine unit is about 8 years old now, so it's not "new" technology by any means.

All that said, that would all be great to be added to the mini nav or better yet, should have been in it in the first place. But that is not what this thread is about, it's about FIXING the problems with the simple functions that are in the software and were advertised, but don't work. Those, should be fixed.

 

I'll answer for everyone for you, easy:
We ALL use the R56 Nav exclusively for PTP nav. Because the POI search function does work!!

But seriously, In my truck which as mentioned above has a working POI search function, I use the POI about 90% of the time. Most of the time, if you know the address of something, or where it is, or the fact that it exists, you know how to get there and don't need Guidance to get there. What the nav is used more for, is when you don't know where something is, it's address or even if it exist (example: a coffee shop in a unfamiliar town...). In those cases you search the poi db for a coffee shop, select the closest one and use nav to go to it.

Yes, once in a while you go somewhere somebody gave you the address to that you are un-familiar with, so you type in the address and use nav. But that for me is only about 10% of the time.

In the Mini, I now almost never use the POI due to it not functioning worth a can of beans, and always use Google Live maps to looks stuff up on my $50 cell phone/pda, and then enter in the address into my $2,100 OEM Mini Nav unit with time killing and painstaking twists of the joystick to select a country, State, road name, house number....


I would venture to guess, most poeple given a working Nav system (with a working POI search function) would use them about 50/50 POI vs PTP.

 

And your MINI Nav costs how much to operate per month? If you're going to compare costs, you have to compare total operating costs. Your $50 cell/phone PDA costs $50+/month.
FWIW, I took my Garmin to Europe, and tried to find a grocery store. No joy. Had to ask the hotel clerk. Low tech to the rescue!

 

Ahh, but my $119.00 Navigon costs nothing to use per month with free updates to the software and the maps.

I would rather use the NAV in the mini (and do). As I have said before, the Mini system is so far behind in capability and design that it is simply embarrassing. That's all. I expected more than this.

Like dropping $200 on a Big Mac; yes, you will eat it and it will get you through lunch, but you wouldn't want to admit it to anyone, let alone how much you paid.

 

No free map updates any longer.... Even Navigon is getting on the pay me bandwagon...

http://navigonusa.com/freshmapsaccessory/

FWIW, my MINI nav has yet to lockup at all. Navigon? At least twice a trip. There is a huge difference in build quality. OK, so the MINI/BMW software sucks, this is nothing new and POI's are not why I bought it as I mentioned. I would love to see it fixed, but I doubt it will happen. So....

 

Some of the "no-name" brands that have popped up over the last few years are very quirky. Many are the same hardware with different brand labels. Magellan has terrible, India based customer service. I'd buy a Garmin or one of Delorme's new ones if I was in the market for one.

 

I suppose they can't be free forever, but its nice they were free for a while. At any rate, $79 for three years of updates isn't a bad deal.

Yes, its quirky and the hardware isn't lightning quick, but the service end has been good, the software implementation is fine and graphics are world's beyond the stick figures on the Mini.

The hardware gps of the mini has been outstanding. Accurate, pointing in the right direction--I understand that the kind of GPS it is works much better than the handheld units. It has always been about the software and the interface. I don't have a problem with paying for map updates, but the software that drives this thing doesn't need an update--it needs a retooling.

I think that execs that approve these things should be forced to use them. Better yet, make their spouses use them and let them have an appropriate earful. That ought to be the standard test for any in car NAV system.

 

LOL, best idea yet!

I hear you... The navigon we have here in Germany is not a bad unit and it does get the Mrs. where she needs to be. The one thing that the MINI nav does provide is peace of mind that my glass will not be smashed so that a crook can dig to find where I stashed it.

 

EXACTLY!!!! AHMEN to that!!!!!

I find it hard to believe MINI isn't embarrased so badly that they didn't fix it PRONTO.

 

I'll volunteer my wife to get it started!!! That was EXACTLY how I found this problem. Started on a nice Saturday morning fun trip to the East End (LI) winery's with my wife, and it ended up a complete horror show of having to endure my wife cursing out mini for ripping us off $2,100 for a Nav system that could not find in it's "6 MILLION" STRONG POI db, any of the 50 or so Winery's on Long Island!!!!

Thanks MINI Execs!!!!

I will tell you this. I will never purchase another MINI. And that is not because the problem has not been fixed. It is because of the lack of product support they have offered, or better I say, NO PRODUCT support they have offered. The simple fact they won't even respond to the problem tells me they couldn't give a rats behind about their product or their customers once it's out the door.

Sad really. I'm going back to American cars and products, and I never thought I would say that. "Garmin and Chevrolete!!" Isn't that the old saying?

 

I'm still amazed on two counts 1) that you actually require a Nav system to find any of the Wineries on Long Island. All you have to do is take the LIE right to end and take Rt 58 to Rt 25 and then when you are done with those on 25 hang a left on any N/S road to get to Rt 48 and 2) that this thread is still alive.

 

Silly me!! I should just know where everything is!!

PS- I know the general area of where the wineries are on LI, but we wanted to go to a particular one, and get there the quickest way from the odd-ball road we were starting on (and un-familiar with). THAT, was the reason I spent $2,100 of my hard earned cash on the Nav system. But since it doesn't work, it's a complete wast of money.
Bottom line is, MINI has ripped me off, and anyone else who has bought or will buy the Nav from them. And this thread serves as fair warning! I wish somebody had informed me MINI was ripping us off FIRST, I would have kept my 2k.


And I'm amazed at 2 things as well:

1) Why MINI hasn't simply FIXED the BROKEN software!!!
2.) That a class action lawsuit has yet to be started???

 

I managed to find 2 of the dozens upon dozens of wineries around Santa Barbara (Sideways country) listed under restaurants. Restaurants. Like you can get a burger at a winery.

The battle is trying to figure out where they have decided to put things. Then you get to scroll through a distance oriented list, which would presuppose you are looking for the closest winery (or whatever) as though any one will do.

Not everything is a gas station.

 

Still on the broken kick I see. Glad to see you have moved on.