If you want to see how far behind BMW/MINI is, look at GBMINI's writeup about the Audi system: http://www.gbmini.net/wp/2009/05/q5_navigation/

 

What bothers me the most is how defensive and offended some Mini owners get when I try to make what I feel is an honest criticism about a real sub par product . If we aren't able to voice our opinion loudly , what reason does Mini have to really pay attention to us and either fix or improve this piece of junk with a software update or future releases . Now I'm reiterating that it does a reasonable job of getting you to your destination during GUIDANCE MODE , however, that's a small percentage of the time that we're in the car . MOST of the time your in regular MAP VIEW . The HORIZONTAL street names are just ABSOLUTELY USELESS !!!!! I defy anyone to tell me you could link any street name to a street with any certainty . What RETARD in the Mini design team chose the colors and contrasts of this morose display .

 

What bothers me the most is how defensive and offended some Mini owners get when I try to make what I feel is an honest criticism about a real sub par product as COMPARED to the PREVIOUS generation Navigation System. If we aren't able to voice our opinion loudly , what reason does Mini have to really pay attention to us and either fix or improve this piece of junk with a software update or with better future releases . Remember , this system costs $2000 . This should BLOW AWAY any Garmin or Tom Tom . Now I'm reiterating that it does a reasonable job of getting you to your destination during GUIDANCE MODE , however, that's a small percentage of the time that we're in the car . MOST of the time your in regular MAP VIEW . The HORIZONTAL street names are just ABSOLUTELY USELESS !!!!! I defy anyone to tell me how you could link any street name to a street with any degree of certainty . And WHO in the Mini design team chose the colors and contrasts of this morose display . I'm actually surprised they used the color blue for lakes and waterways !!!!!

 

I would say it is not what you are saying but how you are saying it. Using the word retard to make a point is kind of like invoking Hitler into a intellectual conversation. It equals instant ignore for many people.

Now while I think the Mini navigation system is overpriced for a navigation system, the system itself does much more than a typical navigation system. Items such as maintenance monitoring, speed limiter, TPMS, stereo, and others are integrated into one system. That integration offsets the additional cost.

While the navigation system does has some flaws, I find that they are workable and no different than some flaws in other OEM navigation systems. In fact in some areas it is superior. If I wanted a top of the line navigation system I would purchase a TomTom or Garmin. But then I would have to worry about taking it down or putting it up as well as the possibility of it being stolen or lost. No such issue with the OEM version.

Basically, for the amount of money I paid for the OEM navigation system, I found that while the navigation system may be lacking in some functionality the overall integration into the car weighed heavily into my decision to get it.

My opinion, my choice. I am sorry you are not happy with your choice. Can the system be made better? Sure. But then again everything can be made better in some fashion. Maybe just try to enjoy the ride?



< Waiting for this to be merged into the your other post.>

 

Without the sake of sounding like some kind of wise-a$$, how come you didn't check out the NAV system BEFORE you ordered it on your car, seeing that it IS a 2-grand option?
Again, not trying to be a wise-a$$, just curious.

 

Since you opened another thread in which I responded and you posted here, here you go....

I would say it is not what you are saying but how you are saying it. Using the word retard to make a point is kind of like invoking Hitler into a intellectual conversation. It equals instant ignore for many people.

Now while I think the Mini navigation system is overpriced for a navigation system, the system itself does much more than a typical navigation system. Items such as maintenance monitoring, speed limiter, TPMS, stereo, and others are integrated into one system. That integration offsets the additional cost.

While the navigation system does has some flaws, I find that they are workable and no different than some flaws in other OEM navigation systems. In fact in some areas it is superior. If I wanted a top of the line navigation system I would purchase a TomTom or Garmin. But then I would have to worry about taking it down or putting it up as well as the possibility of it being stolen or lost. No such issue with the OEM version.

Basically, for the amount of money I paid for the OEM navigation system, I found that while the navigation system may be lacking in some functionality the overall integration into the car weighed heavily into my decision to get it.

My opinion, my choice. I am sorry you are not happy with your choice. Can the system be made better? Sure. But then again everything can be made better in some fashion. Maybe just try to enjoy the ride?

 

I agree completely about the horizontal street names. I have the 1st gen Nav in my '06 and have used guidance only a handful of times, but I often look at the map to see surrounding streets. I was surprised about this change for 2nd gen Nav. With the high density of streets in San Francisco, it would be a mess if all the names are horizontal.

The same Nav system is used throughout BMW. The best hope is pressure for change coming from BMW owners. I'm a bit cynical that BMW would address MINI complaints.

 

This is my 3rd Mini and 2nd BMW ( Z4 and X3 ), and all of them had Navigation Sytems which did a nice job . I was really looking forward to the next generation System . I have never come across what I would consider a TERRIBLE looking Map View Travel Direction screen in my life . I would never even consider that a system that I liked from BMW/Mini could change for the worse as this current release did . (from a visual aspect) Would you ever expect Driver Perspective View to have NO STREET NAMES !!! Did they forget ???? Unless you're in Guidance Mode following the line , why would you ever use that View ? Just to know that there are other streets around you ? If I got a phone call in an area I'm unfamiliar with and someone asked me where I was , I would have to change screens to current location to tell them . In every other BMW/Mini system I've seen your current street name and town were visible . Shouldn't your current street name be a PRIORITY in EVERY screen !!!!! WHY would they take that aspect away ?

 

You are sounding defensive and offended. You used strong language in your "honest criticism" and you are upset enough about it to post an entire new thread about the response you got.

Please point me to the posts that used as strong language as you did. Or, are you just angry because others have differing opinions?

Angry rants aren't going to have any more effect on BMW than a calm and reasoned criticism. IMO, the quantity of people voicing criticism will have more effect than the anger of one poster. Rants tend to get dismissed, as the ramblings of a nut case, unless there are lots of folk ranting about it.

IMO, map view is just entertainment for passengers. Trying to read a map while driving is a very bad idea. Sort of like putting on makeup, texting, or reading the paper while driving. If you don't know where you are going, use guidance. It has the added benefit that it will alert you of traffic jams in major cities, and guide you around them. It only does that with guidance.

I suspect a lot of NAV owners are displaying the music on their iPod or iPhone, rather than map display. The NAV does much more than an after-market GPS.

Yes, and you shouldn't be trying to use them!!!! If you don't respect your own safety, have some respect for others on the road.

I suspect the colors were chosen to add to the retro design feel of the MINI. Seems very early Star Trek to me.

 

+1 to everything Robin said.

+ 1 to everything Nimcosi said

+1 to the question from saturn

 

Your frustration seems to center around the lack of a "current street name" displayed as default. If you're the person responsible for driving the car, shouldn't you know what street you're on already? Do you not pay attention to this type of thing while you're driving...especially in unfailiar areas? This is basic information you should not need to get from a computer screen.

Also, the new Audi MMI 3G also has horizontal street names. I agree this is a cheap way of displaying the info, and odd that more people are moving to this (the old MMI showed names along the roads).

 

Which also uses horizontal street names...

 

CJ, I agree with you 100%.

Robin Cassidy,
I don't know WHO you are, or WHAT your involvement is with MINi, and it is VERY obvious you have some involvement with the company. Employee? Consultant? Sales Rep? Own a dealership?? Why not just come clean with WHO you are?

But your BS posts defending mini at just about ANY cost, really annoys me.

This is a PUBLIC forum, one at which we have the ability to voice our opinions good or bad toward a product, in this case MINI products. How about post YOUR opinion about the product being discussed, good or bad and keep it at that. Rather than constantly attacking ANY poster, posting ANYTHING negative about Mini???

Get off the: "Oh boy, I have a mini, and mini is the best in the word" seat already.

The MINi nav software does not work. It is broken. I'm sorry you don't like that fact. But it is fact, and can not be argued. And MINI (including you, if you in fact work for them), should be ashamed of it, and should be apologizing about it, and fixing it, instead of wasting your and our time pretending to defend it, to keep a lawsuit at bay.

 

Yes, your right!! Silly us!!! Why are we buying the navigation system?? Dont' we know where we are?? Don't we know what street we are on? What's wrong with us!!!

Let me guess, you know the name of every street on the planet? You can see every single street sign posted, even the 35% of signs in NY that don't exist? And know where everything is.

Come to think about it, i'm not sure why the government has wasted BILLIONS of dollars putting up the GPS system. We should all know where we are.

 

Have you purchased book recently? How come you didn't read all the content first, before buying it??

What if you buy a dictionary, and all the words inside the dictionary are randomly ordered. I highly doubt you will check that a dictionary is in alphabetical order when in the store. It is assumed. Now, when you get home and go to look up a word, and flip it open and find it would be impossible to find the word buried somewhere among 6 million other words randomly listed in the dictionary, what would you do?

Yes, you would return the dictionary and demand your money back. The POI database in the mini is the EXACT same scenario. When I bought mine, I looked at it quickly, checked that it has a POI, saw that it included 6 million POI's, and they were search-able. Great!! When I got home, and tried to search for them, I found it was a dictionary in random order.

What should I do? Correct, GET IT FIXED. OR, Get my money back.

 

I didn't say I know the name of every street on the planet, and that has nothing to do with why I have a GPS system. You can bet your a$$ that I always know the name of the street I am on at any given time. There is a huge difference between knowing the name of your current street and needing to know how to get somewhere across town or across the country.

 

Birdperson,

If you spell my name correctly, it isn't hard to find out who I am. I am in Wikipedia, and Google will point you to my web page. I own a 2007 MCS. That is my only connection with BMW/MINI. I don't particularly like them, as a company, but then I'm not really fond of any large car mfg. I do happen to think that trying to read a map while driving is a stupid idea, and a danger to all those around such a driver.

From your POI thread, I get the impression that many here consider you the King of BS. I say what I believe. I don't need to make stuff up.

Right, only you and the OP should be allowed to respond directly to people complaining about what people say. Didn't read that rule, sorry.

Fact, aye?

Oh yea, how's your law suit coming? Made BMW humbly bow down to you and "fix" the NAV, as you said they would so long ago?

 

I'm not sure what the OP is trying to accomplish with this thread, rally others to his POV or merely ask if others are as frustrated with their NAV systems like he is?

I'm pretty sure that he's not going to get MINi to change their system just cause it's not to his taste tho, so it's kind of a pointless effort.

That said, I understand his frustration, but I also think that's part of the problem with built in NAV systems, they're very expensive since they're integrated into the vehicle, and theres not much flexibility to make changes after the fact.

Which makes Saturn's point all the more important, if you're gonna drop $2 large on an option, seems incumbent on you to check it out first. Kinda like buying a set of wheels off the net and finding out you don't like them once you get them on the car.

As to your specific complaints, I haven't seen the factory NAV so I'm not able to comment on them except to say that I use my Garmin to know what streets I'm approaching, even in my own town let alone a strange one, as well as for general navigation. If the system's not usable as it sits, you're SOL as I see it...............

Are you sure it's not just a matter of learning to use it better?

 

Ok, so I jsut got off an airplace, flew home from San Fran. I rented a car at Oakland airport, and drove abotu 40 miles north to Concord, Ca. And spent the week in the area, driving around 100% completely un-known roads, streets, freeways... Just to get this straight, I should have known all of the probably 100's if not thousands of streets I was on?

The $100 Garmin unit that was in the rental car, displayed on the top of the display every single rd, street and freeway I was on. And that was VERY helpful to a guy who had only been there a few times before and had no idea where he was going, or the street names. That is the prupose of these handly little devices, don't ya think? Why would I or how would I have know all the street names? Are you saying we should have studied and memorised all the maps prior to arrival?

Why do we have computers? We should just memorize everything, right?

Get back to reality.

Robin,
The safety issue is BS. Having the GPS this week, actually made me a MUCH safer driver on the rd in San fran area. Had I not had one, I'd be struggling with exits, turn offs, drivign too slow on the freeway for which they tend to drive like a race track out there there and would have been a hazard. instead, I just listed to the woman who was navigating as she pronounced the streets and once in a while I looked up to see where I was on the map in relatiojn to the turn off. .... MUCH safer.

 

Nice try, but no cigar.

------Repost for ya------
Have you purchased book recently? How come you didn't read all the content first, before buying it??

What if you buy a dictionary, and all the words inside the dictionary are randomly ordered. I highly doubt you will check that a dictionary is in alphabetical order when in the store. It is assumed. Now, when you get home and go to look up a word, and flip it open and find it would be impossible to find the word buried somewhere among 6 million other words randomly listed in the dictionary, what would you do?

Yes, you would return the dictionary and demand your money back. The POI database in the mini is the EXACT same scenario. When I bought mine, I looked at it quickly, checked that it has a POI, saw that it included 6 million POI's, and they were search-able. Great!! When I got home, and tried to search for them, I found it was a dictionary in random order.

What should I do? Correct, GET IT FIXED. OR, Get my money back.

 

Hey CJP,

I understand your frustration completely, however I came across this feature this morning, and I know it's not exactly what you're looking for, but it might help. I think when you said you need to go to another screen, you were referring to the screen called Your Current Position, right?

I tested that out this morning, and it does display the current street your own, plus your current coordinates and altitude, and a compas direction.

While it's not on the actual map screen, they do it provide a screen where you can get the information, but as you did indicate, you have to go to the menu option and select this screen.

Even my 2009 R57 manual has that blub on page 136 on how to go to this screen to get this information.

It's too bad they don't display this information on the actual over-head map

 

You're comparing apples to oranges here Birdman, period.
1st of all, you wouldn't pay 2 grand for a dictionary! ummmm
Every buyer is aware they have the "choice" to investigate every single option on a car BEFORE purchasing it. Like many of the intelligent other people one here, they ask specific questions about the options that they would like to consider, BEFORE they blow the money on something that they don't seem is either necessary, or worth the investment. While I do feel bad that you Nav buyers are stuck with a less than sub-par system, I do not hold remorse for the uneducated buyer who didn't want to do his homework.

I asked a simple question, and like others on this post, have been made to feel like we're the bad people here. If you can't take the good comments as well as the bad comments, I highly suggest you do not vent your frustrations on a public forum where everyone can chime in.

Now try to have a happier day!

 

Yet another "beaten horse" thread on the MINI Nav system. I'm likely to end up closing this one too, judging by the incessant ranting that some of you continue to espouse.

cjp240, you just started another thread of your own on the same topic, when your other one was still going. I have no idea why you did that, but I'm merging the two together, effective immediately.

Birdman - I'm especially disappointed that you chose to spill over your rants here as well. You have your own thread for that, and I asked you a long time ago to keep it in that thread. Your incessantly repetitive arguments are not helping anything, and your accusations that people "must work for BMW/MINI" because they calmly point out contrasting viewpoints are getting nothing short of exhausting.

Again, I ask you to keep it to your thread. 623 posts and counting - that's more than enough repetition.

 

Guys, I don't have the Nav system in my MINI at all, so please understand when I say this... that I say it while seriously not caring weather you like or dislike the nav. Your opinion of the Nav does not personally offend me in any way, shape or form.

My only reason for taking an interest in this thread beyond the first couple of posts, was that I see some huge communication issues here.

There's nothing wrong with the OP thinking he's been cheated or tricked into buying an inferior product. Maybe it was a little silly of the OP to lease the car without investigating a 2,000$ option, but that is a done deal. Hindsight is 20/20 and that decision cannot be undone. Browbeating him for that is kind of like laughing at your friend for getting a tattoo that has misspelled wording on it. Funny... but hurtful because the damage has already been done and cannot easily be undone.

To the OP: Call your dealership and tell them how you feel about the Nav. See if they will cut some sort of deal for you on your lease, or consider getting you a portable nav that you can use in lieu of the built in. That really is your only option here with this.

Having had experience with the older navs, you knew that iDrive was not something that thrilled you when you used it and should have investigated further... but you can't change that now by trying to convince people that like it, that it sucks. It's just not gonna work for you or for them.

All you can do is try to improve your personal situation so that it's less of an annoyance for you.

Good luck, and that's all I have to say.

 

You can also push the voice button the multi-functional steering wheel and say <<Current Position>>. That's the easiest w/o having to push, tilt, and spin the joystick (it's funny how you have to do all that to get the current position).

If you look at bmw's with the idrive navigation system (pre-2009 cuz they completely revamped it for 2009), the street names are horizontally positioned as well, but they are easier to read because of the coloring. MINI wasn't too smart in making the background BLACK.