I picked up my PW/B MINI on Mar. 30 and spent the whole weekend motoring. Half of that time I was motoring while exploring the capabilities of the Sat Nav. I've been told that mine was one of the first in the US to have the Nav. Since this is the first vehicle I've gotten with OEM navigation, I have nothing to compare it to. I also have never used any portable navigation systems.

Many of you have probably already read my thread of the general overview:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=96618

I've also posted videos of the Voice Control and Sat Nav in use here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMveKNx99HQ

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q17lXod0XKg



Let me first start off with the visuals of the system. The wide screen is centered in the Speedo with the needle running along the outer edge. This "needle" is actually a little indicator attached to an outer silver circle. This whole circular piece rotates inside the clear housing, giving the impression that only the "needle" is floating around the Speedo. The joystick near the emergency brake and the voice-control button on the multi-function steering wheel are used to control the Nav. The location is reachable with my arm at the side. It's a very bright and clear display, especially visible at night (it lights up the entire interior of the car). Even in direct daylight it is very readable. The maps appear as colored lines against a black background, which is very different than Nav systems I've seen in other vehicles. It looks thoroughly modern and very MINI.



The joystick can be tilted in 4 directions: up, down, left, right. The top portion also has a turn dial. On top is a button. The hard part is learning when to use the directionals and when to use the turn dial. Because the Owner's Manual has a very basic section on the nav, you really learn by trial and error. It seems that to navigate through menus and submenus, you use the directionals. To scroll through choices, you use the turn dials. For example, directionals are used to select Navigation or Entertainment on the Home screen (also accessed by the button to the left of the joystick with the house symbol), while the turn dial is used to scroll through tracks on a CD. The main problem with the turn dial is that with choices that are displayed horizontally across the top of the screen, the dial is rotated left or right to select, but this is also true with choices that are displayed in a column, reading top to bottom. Instinct will tell you to nudge the joystick down to select choices in a column, but you will have to turn the dial. This is one thing that will take some getting used to. One has to perfect this in order to enter addresses quickly (if entering manually).



You can also use voice control to enter addresses. The trick is to know which commands to speak, and to be patient for the beep that signals when to start speaking. There were many times when I spoke too soon after the prompt, before the beep, and found myself repeating the command several times. In entering addresses, you are asked to say the information in a specific order. For example, you are first asked for the country, state, city, street, and then house number. This can get a little repetitive. After starting guidance, you can enable a split-screen view that shows the map on the left and directional arrows on the right. The time to destination appears on the bottom. Map views include: direction of travel (shown in the video above), facing north, or arrows. When guidance isn't in use, the split-screen shows the location along with the altitude. There is also a view with just a directional arrow and a vertical bar. As the bar fills up, the next directional is given. At any given location, there is an option to search for points of interest in that area. This is useful for finding gas stations, banks, and other businesses in an unfamiliar area.



The Real-Time Traffic Info has been very helpful. At any time, you can access the major highways for updated info and driving conditions. It will tell you if a car has broken down, and in which lane. When there is traffic up ahead, the Nav will ask if you want to take a detour. It will also alert you of exits you should take to avoid the traffic ahead. If you choose to accept the detour, the Nav recalculates another route for you to take. I ignored the warning of traffic one time, thinking that the highway was too clear for it to occur anytime soon. Two miles later I was stuck in a jam, and I've never doubted my Nav since!

Car data and personal preferences can also be viewed and set on the screen. All the owner's settings can be programmed this way, instead of on the Tach. You can also view trip info such as miles left on the tank, average fuel consumption, etc. You can program a speed limit so that when you reach that speed, a "Limit" indication will appear on the Tach, along with a musical tone. I've had to use this on many occasions. There is a Stop Watch function also.



The Entertainment sections can show the tracks and progress of CDs and the radio. When a CD is inserted, by default it plays automatically, and shows the progress of a track with a horizontal line. If an MP3 disc is inserted, you can see a listing of all the tracks. If the disc has subfolders, these are shown across the top of the screen. The tracks can be changed with the MFSW or by twisting the joystick. With voice control, you can change tracks by saying "Track 15." The radio tuning is illustrated by a wavy line with the frequencies selectable by twisting the joystick. Underneath the line is where the station name and song titles appear. The presets are shown on a horizontal line with call-outs above and below. I have yet to figure out how to clear the default stations and program my own.

The Sat Nav edition of the owner's manual gives the basics, but does not go into much depth. A small list of voice commands is provided, but most functions and commands will just be discovered on your own. Here's just a partial list of some functions used with voice control:

-choosing between Nav, CD, radio
-choosing map views
-starting/stopping voice guidance
-changing tracks, radio stations (you can just say "94.5 FM")
-entering address info such as city, house number, street, etc.



I'm very happy with my decision to go with the Nav. It definitely improved the looks of the interior. It looks breathtaking at night, and is very useful when you need to get to a place you've never been to before. When searching for restaurants, it even gives you the phone number so you can call ahead for reservations. The satellite signal has been great in all the Boston tunnels. Recalculating routes has been quick. Voice guidance is clear. But the one thing missing is the British accent!

 

Thanks for the review. I also ordered the navigation system and am waiting for the call to come and pick up my car in Portland. A lot of people have said that's way too much money for a nav but I didn't want to worry about toting a portable unit with me.

Reading your comments reinforces my confidence that I made the right decision. Thanks again.

 

Sounds great. I wish I had it, Boo Hoo!!

 

Thanks for the review. I am now waiting even more eagerly for my own MINI with Nav...landed at the port 4/1, at the dealer 4/13, pickup date ??.

 

This was one of the items that I ordered that I was completely in the dark about, I had no idea of all the capabilities of this unit. Your review is fantastic, thank goodness I ordered it. I also ordered the Parking Distance control which integrates its info to the unit and gives a graphic picture on the screen when you are in the reverse mode.

 

Great review Az I had been waiting for your full report. I cant wait for mine. Can only hope for a british accent update

 

This navigation system sounds pretty dang sweet. Plain and simple, I want my car!!! :impatient

 

I got mine Wednesday and so far it's been great. Love playing with it. I haven't yet found a way to change the voices but there is still lots to learn. Another thing is I haven't learned how to turn off the route directions if I decide during the ride to deviate from my original destination. When I'm driving I don't like to spend a lot of time looking at the screen instead of the road. That's sure to be a very simple fix though.
Great review by the way.

 

We too took delivery of my wife's BRG/W Mini w/ sat/nav on March 31st. That is the difference between men and women - The car was actually available for us to get on March 26th. If you are a man and the MA calls that your car is in, you ask what time today can I pick it up; the wife had to plan her week and decided to get it 5 days later on a Saturday. Anyway, she loves it. We had the opportunity to motor to Washington, DC this past weekend from our home in NY. We were there for a wedding. Between our hotel, the chapel, the reception and the hotel the next day for brunch, we used the nav extensively. On the trip down, it kept us fully informed and advised us about traffic.

Once we got to DC, I realised I had not packed a necktie. We used nav to locate a nearby Macys and it showed us one 2.2 miles form our hotel in Arlington.

Our son has an 06 Honda Civic with Honda's OEM voice-activated nav and it really isn't as powerful as Mini's.

BTW the overall mileage for the trip down was 41.7MPG. We think it's not bad for a vehicle with just 1000 miles on it.

 

LOL, when my MA called on monday to say the car was in and asked what my schedule looks like, I said I could be there in an hour. Of course the car wasn't ready yet and he told me it would probably be ready on tuesday. When it wasn't I was upset, sad, depressed, mad, etc. My wife couldn't understand, she said "just pick it up saturday, what's the big deal". OMG I can't wait that long.

 

Great review. I have had navigation in my other vehicles. At first, this was a problem, because the MINI works much differently than the others I have had (Mercedes, Infinity and Pioneer). However, after playing with it for just a couple of days, I think it is the best I have ever used. Once you get used to when you turn vs push the joystick, it provides the easiest "on the fly" control. One thing I don't think you mentioned is that there is a "dynamic" route option. If you check this, it automatically reroutes you if there are major delays. Although I haven't had that happen yet, I like the idea, since, in the past, I have often ignored traffic warnings. Other navs I have used have provided inconsistent notice with regard to turns. Sometimes I would be advised 1/4 mile away and sometimes I would be told within feet. The MINI's is much more consistent and the instructions much clearer. The only "negative" I noticed, which really doesn't matter, is that on the prior navs I used, they would say the street name. The MINI just says "next left", "next right", but it does show the street name on the screen. One of the best features is the ability to scroll in and out on the map by turning the joystick, and being able to change the map from a normal looking map to "perspective", which was called "birds-eye" on my other navs, by clicking the button when it's on the map icon. All in all, it's a great nav and I def recommend getting it.

 

It looks like a pain to set up to have it take you somewhere.

 

Getting locations "set up" does take some getting used to and can be a little tedious. However, I am starting to store things in the Nav's Address Book, and it's a snap to set the Nav system to a previously entered address and go.

It could be argued that having an address book is silly since you would normally use a Nav system to get to someplace you haven't been yet, and having an Address Book and storing locations in there is unnecessary since you've been there once and you should probably remember how to get there.

One thing that I really wish it could do is to integrate the Phone Book's Address Book with the Nav Systems' Address Book. I have tons of addresses stored in my phone (it's a Windows Mobile Phone, so it's synced with Outlook) and would really love to just point to an address in my phone and go there. Of course, I also realize that most people don't have addresses in their phone...but whatever...just thought that would be cool.

 

I'd argue on the contrary that having an address book can be really useful in at least two scenarios:

• I'm going to a place I've been before, but from an unfamiliar starting point. When I'm out in the middle of nowhere, "take me home" can be really useful.
• This morning I was going from home to work, a completely familiar route. But because I asked the nav system to guide me, it knew enough to warm me of a traffic jam two miles ahead, which I was able to avoid.
  
  

 

The other reason I like to use the navigation system on a familiar route is to see how many miles I have to go to reach my destination and the approximate arrival time.

 

Not to mention that you may want to get to the same locations from different places.

 

Not really. Once you figure out how to use the joy stick, it's much easier than any other nav I have had.

 

You can use the phone's app to get you there, can't you? Stuff like Google Maps or a browser. There might not be any GPS on your phone but if you input your starting address it'll turn by turn you to an address in the contact list.

 

Another reason for having a location in the address book is for using traffic data. I put MINI of Mountian View in my address book because I would rather not think about the freeway exchanges I need to make on the 87 mile drive up there. However, when I went up a couple of days ago the NAV reported a five-mile backup on Hwy 85 and steered me through an alternate route. It was pretty slick.

When I ordering, I thought I would have little use for a NAV. A friend urged me to get it and the look of the standard speedo tipped the balance. Now it is one of my favorite features. I use it a lot.

 

Yeah... but it's not on the Mini... I don't want to be looking at TWO maps.

My mini is in the shop today to get the Voice Command Button fixed. Drove a Saturn from the rental car place. Wow, that car sucks. Thanks goodness the mini will be back this afternoon.

 

Yup, I totally agree with both these points. I love the take me home feature. I'll set for Home Address even if I'm making a .5 mile 15 minute trip to the grocery store!

I was stuck on the Washington DC beltway earlier this week (having ignored the warnings of dense traffic...stupid stupid stupid), and I just got off on the first exit that I saw and let Cortana (my nickname for BludyL's Nav system) do the rest and dynamically route me home. It was ecstatically good

 

Has anyone discovered if there is a way to change the sat/nav voice? The default voice is female, which I understand is psychologically the right thing to use, especially for male drivers. But I'd like to give my MINI a male name; it would sound strange for it to speak with a female voice.

I'm assuming that the sat/nav voice is pre-recorded on the Navteq DVD. From their web site (www.navteq.com), it seems that the DVD for sale in the US is available only in English, but it doesn't say anything about having multiple voices available. Does anyone have better information?

(By the way, it seems that the DVD for sale in Canada also comes only in English. If I were French Canadian, I'd be peeved.)

 

I have to opposite question for voice recognition. It's male.

Plus, I think it was programmed by my son, because half the time it says, "I did not understand your command."