I have a 2006 MC with the factory Nav system. I had a Honda Accord that had the factory Nav system in it & it was so much easier to use! For one, it used a touch screen. I find it so tedius & time consuming to enter an address or look up a POI in the Mini. I really wish I would have bought a portable GPS, but now I'm just stuck with the factory nav in the Mini.

I'm in search of a good GPS system. It seems so foolish to buy a portable when I have the factory one (which cost $1800!), but it just isn't working for me. I constantly get the message that I'm not on a digitized road. I live in Cleveland & these roads are OLD! The timing is off too.

Any recommendations on a portable GPS system? Anyone else have the factory Nav & regret getting that option? Have you installed a portable?

 

Sounds like you need the nav system recalibrated. Or have you already taken it to the dealer for that?

 

Do you have the latest nav firmware? The latest one rotates in the direction of travel ...

Go to your dealer and have them flash it.

 

The digitized road info is due to maps not up to date with the area you are in I believe, so check to see what disc you have. If its not the latest one I'd bring it back to the dealer and ask for the newest disc. If it is and the info is wrong then its an issue with Navteq and anything based on it will be wrong (including online services that use Navteq). I've not had that issue even using old discs (used a really old disc driving cross country even) so perhaps check with them and your dealer to be sure its not something correctable.

As for the UI you have to learn it and it becomes second nature - you have to learn new software right? Its funny, we borrowed a Honda Odessey and absolutely hated the nav on it! The voice and everything about it - so its just what you are used to, give it more time perhaps. The nav has been a savior for us many times.

If you still choose not to use it you can set it up to have the screen display DVDs or song titles or BT phone anyway

 

In case you want to put it to better use:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ht=ice+minitor

 

LOL!!! Every time I see that image on your nav I just bust out laughing Classic!

 

i find all nav systems to have sub par usability and so it becomes a matter of learned behaviour and muscle memory. once you become used to your particular nav you overcome its inherent deficiencies if by necessity only. they're none of them terrible, at least the ones i've used, but they always feel compromised, focusing on fancier graphics and whizbang features like the acura including zagat ratings :rolleyes:

i'd be fascinated to see what someone like apple or someone like will wright could come up with for a sat nav system.

sorry this is meandering way off topic. i would suggest trying to forget the honda nav and accept the oddities of the mini nav for what they are. failing that, and this is just me personally, if i were to get a 3rd party gps i'd get my own 8" touch screen and fit it in to the space left by the old sat nav. but then i'm weird.

 

I believe the Nav in the Mini is the same as the Nav in my M3 and I will agree that it does suck. The Japanese cars seem to have better Navs. I also test-drove and Audi S4 a couple weeks ago and was amazed at how great the Nav was in that car. But all in all it does get you to where you want to go, even though it isn't always perfect and accurate. I'm still debating if I should get the factory Nav or not because it doesn't even look factory with the circle around it. It just doesn't seem like the car was designed with the Nav in mind.

 

so if I'm traveling south, does the Nav show me going down or up on the screen?

mine currently shows me going down/south which i know is pollitically correct but all the roads i pass are on the wrong side. not too thrilled with that. trying to determine if i have the latest version "nav firmware"?

 

I do like the looks of the Nav system in the Mini, and I'm using the latest version (v26) & the map itself looks great. Looking forward to the v27 too where you get the birdseye view. But it just takes too much time to find an address or POI. I just find it very confusing & not intuitive. For example, if I want to find the nearest gas station, there are too many clicks & turns of the wheel to do that. I am also using the latest (I think) map DVD...2005-2. It's what came with the Mini in November of 05. Again, streets that have been here forever show up as not being in a digitized area.

My big thing is buying a portable one is that it then makes the Nav. screen rather useless, though if I could play videos from my iPod Video on the screen, well, that would solve the problem! I understand it would be expensive & a lot of work to use it as a DVD sceen, or even a camera, though again that would be a great solution. Really wonder what it would take to let the iPod play videos on that screen....

 

Can you show me how to do this?

 

All you need is a aux video input. This topic has been covered many times here on NAM. If you do a search, you'll find lots of information about it. Here's a reference to a Motoringfile write-up I did that shows how I set mine up using the OEM rearview camera:

MINI Video Input

And here's a link to a NAM thread where I list many different devices that can be used to install an aux video input in your MINI (look at posts 14, 18, and 24 for links):

TV/Video On Nav Install Pictures Help

-- MIKE

 

Thanks Mike...now I have something else to do before the Dragon

 

Poor MSFITOY... Can she handle MORE goodies? dear lord...

 

You can change the direction of travel - I don't recall the exact path right now but check the manual or go through the menus and you will see the option for it to have North up all of the time or to follow your direction.

Really sounds like an issue with Navteq, perhaps you should contact them about it and the info in your area being wrong with such a recent maps disc. As for the UI, true finding POIs isn't the most direct thing, there are a couple of menus to go through (oddly it was more direct in the CD version on my BMW) but really its not confusing once you just know how/get used to using it. There is even a search in there that's great - the more you use it the quicker it will get

For most of my use I enter addresses or pull up stored ones, the fact that POIs is slower doesnt make much of a difference since that is used far less; a new address is done quite fast with the intuitive filling in it does for city/street name and pulling up a stored one is just a couple of quick moves (by the way, in case you don't use it this way, I've found it very helpful to keep the home address stored in there for fast access, plug it in at any time for alternate ways home. Had fun the other day putting it on in the Presidio and alternatly listening to the directions and ignoring them and it took me all around to new places I otherwise would have been lost in or never gone to ).

 

The link is under the pic.

 

Took me a little while to get used to the MINI Nav, but I really like it for it's simplicity. There is no confusion about what button to press as long as you think like it in its confined world.

Need to enter an address?

Remember, City first, then street, then number---it constantly narrows the search parameters as it gets closer.

When driving in heavy traffic on the freeway, I can quickly change to Avoid Highways, and see how much faster it would be on surface streets.

Now my dream NAV in the USA, would integrate traffic info like the Acura does, and integrate my Valentine radar detector so I could save GPS data on known false alarms so the radar detector wouldn't trigger at the same locations every day. LOL

Richard

 

Press the **** while the map is displaying, then select Map Positioning. You should be able to select between Pointing North and Travel Direction.

To see the version of software, go to the main menu and select the settings, and it should be at the upper right corner. The current official release version is 4-1/60. I think the map positioning option has been around in earlier versions but it is worthwhile to upgrade for the improved graphics.

 

What is the button like thing on the right with what appears to be a led light?

 

Where? Underneath the nav screen?

 

That's a light sensor I believe.

Although I'm not sure what it is used for since the MINI's nav doesn't appear to have a nightime mode like many other GPS systems do???

 

The button to the right of the center ****. I can't figure out what it does either If it's a night sensor then wouldn't the screen get dimmer when I cover it?

 

The MINI always points towards the top of the screen and the map is always scrolling from the top to bottom.