No update on the broken software???

I've now lost ALL respect for Mini and BMW. Not only have they not fixed or even attempted to fix the software that they sold me for $2,100, they won't even acknowledge it.

Pretty sad when a large company won't support their product whatsoever. I've had only 2 issue with my mini, they have done nothing on both of them.

1. Nav software that does not work.
2. Cold start issue.

I'm guessing they are following Chrystlers footsteps. Good luck!!

 

Yes I've read all 25 pages.

I'll agree. The NAV software in this car is terrible. However, I knew this before I bought it. POI's are absolutely useless in this vehicle.

Will MINI "fix" it, probably not. Will I, and other, continue to gripe? Absolutely!

 

There is a workaround for any one with a cell phone. Simply text 46645 (googl) with whatever you are looking for. You will get back the 6 nearest addresses and phone numbers. send help for more information. I know it doesn't fix the POI Database issues, but it helps and is neat to play with.

 

I would have thought you'd own Mini by now, based upon the lawsuit you were going to file if they didn't make things up to you. I'm disappointed you haven't gotten control of the company.

 

huh? I'm not filing any lawsuits on anybody. I stay FAR and AWAY from courts, they are more crooked than anyone on the planet if you ask me. BUT, there is a law firm in NYC chomping at the bit to file a class action suit against BMW on this issue. I'm very surprised they haven't already, or maybe they have??? I'm not really following it... I've since bought 2 new cars, and neither are mini's. One of them admittedly would not have been anyway, but the 2nd one should have been, but wasn't due to bmw/mini not supporting their product. I suspect this will occur more than they think, and cumulatively, it will hurt them.

 

think we are past it yet?

 

I'm not going to search through 2 years of posts but i'm pretty sure you said you were going to back in the beginning although you started claiming otherwise later.


they seem to have been as effective as you.

 

Not even close. NY is something like 10 years if I'm not mistaken. Besides, they are STILL selling the broken software, and STILL advertising it to have "over 6 million search-able POI's". Although, they have smartly removed that statement from almost ALL of their marketing materials!! Wonder why?

 

Their POI's are a POS... but I've gotten over it.

 

Agreed. I use my iPhone for POI, then punch the address in if I need directions....

 

I don't see the problem. I don't have any trouble looking for POI's in my nav. Banks, restaurants, gas, whatever. Just get to the category and tell it to search. If I want to search for my bank only, I just type in a few letters WAC, then it finds all my wachovia banks in the area. No, it's not the same as using a garmin, but if you can't figure that out then the problem is with you, not the car.

 

The real problem is when you buy a car and the nav dvd is almost a year out of date. That's like saying "we had an old '06 transmission, so we put that in your brand new car". POI is a tangential feature of NAVIGATION software. It makes it easier to use, but it isn't navigation in any way.

 

The problem is that you always have to look up a category -- you can't just look up a name, and they often put a business into something unexpected. Try looking up these major businesses: Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot.

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter that much because Navteq doesn't do a good job of updating the maps. You can have the newest DVD and parts of it will be years out of date.

 

Agreed, and it's not just Navteq - none of the mapping services incorporate all (or even most) of the prior year's "real world" changes when they come out with an annual map update.

With my Garmin units, I update the maps every two years, and could probably go for three years between updates and not be much worse off.

 

+1 - what I wouldn't give just to be able to do a POI look up on the name alone.

 

Bump.

If a business doesn't fit exactly the category that the software THINKS it is, you can't find it. It doesn't cross over even a little. It took me five minutes to find Ikea--after I gave up and found the address on my iPhone.

Is it too much to expect? Really?

 

Having this feature would alleviate most of my frustration with POI.

Another gripe, may have been mentioned already, is...
If I remember correctly, once you get into a category and do a search, only to find nothing, and you need to change categories, you have to type in search name again. If it would even remember the last few search names (list to choose from), that would help too. Its obvious that the interface designers did not use it enough or there was very little QA on this piece of it.

 

That is the JOKE of the century!! Try finding a Sign Shop. What category will you find it in? They make signs for businesses, for boats, for cars, events, do lettering (like House numbers, boat numbers...). So what category would it fall into?? Home stuff? Auto? Shopping? Good LUCK finding it. And as somebody posted above, to add insult to injury, once you search the 1st category and don't find it, you have to back up, and start all over picking another category and typing in the name and city and state in again.... Fun fun fun.

How about find a Long Island Winery? Without going back to the beginning of this RIDICULOUS thread that MINI STILL HAS NOT RESPONDED TO??????? let me see you find the proper category for a LI winery.

That is what started this whole thing, only a few weeks after getting my new $32,000 car, with the PREMIUM $2,100 Navigation software installed, that boasted and advertised an un-precedented 6 million strong POI database to search, my wife and I decided to go enjoy a day of wine tasting on the east end of Long Island. Map, no honey, we bought the Nav, we'll just use the software!! The drive is about 1 hour from my house. My wife started searching thru the Mini Nav POI data upon leaving the driveway. Well, we pulled into the driveway of the 1st winery one hour later, and she still hadn't found one of the 20 or 30 famous winery's on LI in the software!!! Lucky for me, I knew the way already. Oh, they are in there, but not where you might think!!

Was my wife PISSED OFF???? You bet your ***!! Was I pissed off?? You bet your ***!!! I WANT MY F'in MONEY BACK!!! That is a crap load of beans for some software that does not WORK!!

How would you like it, if you computer did not let you surf the Net? Would you bring it back? You bet you would!!!

IF you ask me, this is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE to Mini/BMW. I can't even believe they have not even so much as responded to this with an apology, explanation why they won't fix it. NOTHING!!!

I will never buy a Mini or BMW again. They probably don't care, but some day, that will bite them in the ***!! Just like GM, Ford and Chrysler is getting bit right now.

Good luck mini. Your software is BROKEN, does NOT work, and SUCKS. And you(MINI) SUCKs even worse for doing NOTHING about it.

 

Yes, I am familiar with your rant. Luckily it seems my software is not BROKEN and DOES seem to work just fine. I have never tried to look up any POI without success. Maybe that's just because I am not searching for things like sign shops and office max when I am out of town. And I'm pretty sure there is a specific category for wineries, yes? I don't really know because I have not tried finding one before.

 

To understand the particular design flaw of the BMW software search functionality(humor us for one minute), try to find a winery.

Have your significant other try to find one.

 

Again, isn't there a category for that, like wine and liquor or something? Or are you saying it's not there?

 

Can you not at least sympathize a little? If one knows the exact name or even portion of the name of a place to search for, why make us bother with finding its unique category (usually only one) they have chosen to place it in, before we can type in the name and search for it. How can anyone disagree with that simple point? If I want to find the nearest Target, let me type in Target straight away and not first have to go into Shopping then select the unique shopping category it’s in. AHHHHHHHH!!!!

I have a good example: there is a local restaurant in my town name the French Laundry and it has been open about 11 years. I eventually found it in the MINI POI under personal services, laundry (not sure if that is 2 or 3 levels deep). Not only is it categorizes incorrectly, I have to think too much and try to guess what category. It’s like a dang game to play in the car while driving down the road!

I have one plus to share however with the MINI software, it still lets you search while driving. My Friend’s 2008 Nissan Maxima NAV locks searching out while moving/driving.

 

Yes, I can easily see how it would be handy to just search based on name without a category.

 

Yes, maybe "something like that". So lets see you go out and find it! And DON'T CHEAT!! Sit in the car, and find a Winery on Long Island, New York.

To shorten the wait, it took my wife, who is a CPA, and Finanical Planner (basically a genious, litterally!), over 1 hour to find it.

I still have NOT found my buddies sign shop via the mini software. It's in the db, I checked via my own text search on the DVD iteslf (I'm an IT guy), but I have yet to be able to find it by using the Mini search feature. And I even know the town it's in and name, still can't find it.

THAT, is BROKEN, sorry.

 

What no $10k option for this search? Never received it last time.