Nav pack

[Twix]

Everyone that didn't buy the Nav pack, do you regret not getting it? Those with the Nav pack, is the iDrive system worth having? Is it annoying or really easy to use? I ask these questions because the dealer insists on me getting that pack even though I have zero use for navigation.

[danielj]

I wouldn't have bought mine without it. It adds a "premium" feel, I love the back up camera and parking sensors - album art, traffic info easy to use phone menu are great too.

I don't find the iDrive functions that complicated. Having the ability to program the 1 - 6 buttons on the dash greatly reduce having to fiddle with iDrive to access frequently used functions.

[tjm129]

I had a 135i w/o idrive, and regretted it from day 1. when i got my 1M i made sure to order it and have been very happy. Honestly, I don't use nav that much, but what I do like is the idrive screen for all the other stuff, the OBC, the radio, album art from my ipod, etc. For me this makes it worth it, makes the car feel more high end vs. just the regular stereo with LED dispaly.

TJ

[Brando384]

I have a 1 series without idrive. Trying to access my music on the BMW professional interface is a nightmare. Just ordered an x1 with the tech package even though I don't anticipate using nav much.

[nospam]

We have a 128i without and have had it on the 335i and now on the X1. Would not buy without due to reasons stated above. Most specifically phone/music integration, back up camera and park distance control display.

We will get iDrive when we replace the 128i eventually.

[eric9610]

idrive adds so much more usability of other on board functions i would never order a BMW without it. Especially on the X1 it is integrated really well into the dash adding a premium look and feel. Besides the tech pack the lighting pack is a must on all BMW's.

[Grovsnus]

It's nice for more than navigation. In particular, the music functionality is greatly increased.

[MrSnrub]

I did not buy the tech package. I don't regret it; my reasons for not still stand. The cost/benefit was bad for my personal situation. However, it would've been nice for most of the non-nav reasons people mentioned above. It is a cool toy and does look beautiful in the dash - but I actually like how the center stack/dash/everything looks on the inside when driving at night. The black and orange in a relatively dim cabin is the way I like to drive at night.

[Twix]

Maybe the packs are different for US than Canada. The package here states Nav + BMW assist + Combox controller (?). The audio aux/in and bluetooth is standard.

[RocGuy]

The iDrive is great. I do use the nav a lot, but I couldn't imagine having the car without the rest of the iDrive. This is my first BMW so there was a bit of learning to do to learn how to use it. Some of the controls are not intuitive. But I picked it up really quickly, it's not too annoying at all. You need to get it.

[jbc77]

The gray traffic map is very useful for driving in metropolitan areas. For me it's the biggest benefit.

[Grovsnus]

Seeing the roads with heavy traffic turn red is quite useful - it makes it easy to pick alternative routes without calling up the lady in the box.

[aramosc]

I was in the same boat and ended up getting the tech package and again not because of the nav but I just felt like a new 2014 car shouldn't be without a modern display.. it truly ads that premium feel and without it the door that fills the void is flimsy. Get the tech pack and skimp somewhere else..

[Twix]

No need to skimp spmewhere else, it only adds about $20/month. I guess since to general consensus is to get it, I may as well tick that box as well. Although, I'll definately leave out the extended assist pack as everyone in the dealer said not to bother with it.

As far as the traffic report thing, I guess I'll be looking at a red screen, since there's never not heavy traffic in this city.

[Grovsnus]

Originally Posted by Twix

No need to skimp spmewhere else, it only adds about $20/month.

Sirius will run you around $16.50 per month, if you choose to have it.
As I like neither sports nor Howard Stern, I don't see the need - 30 GB on a memory stick plus radio plus phone streaming gives me all I need.

Or did you think of the extra-cost concierge service under BMW Assist / ConnectedDrive? That's more tempting, but I can't find out from BMW exactly how much it costs - now, and after the 4 years of free basic ConnectedDrive is up.

[Twix]

Dealer said to me that extended service will run me $175/year IIRC. I know sirius costs me $15.95/month, I have it now and won't get rid of it. I use it while driving and at home. My truck has iPod connectivity now, I think I've used it twice and didn't really like it, mainly because the cable for it (no USB) gets tangled in the shifter boot making shifts more annoying when the iPod come flying out of the dash. In all honesty, I'll probably never use the features that the Nav pack features, but it will give a higher resale value. That's about the only reason I see to have it for myself.

[stonex1]

Whats nice too is that you can split screen it. So show your music selection, and your nav.
or simply shut it off.

[edx1]

I've always been a gadget person and have spent quite a lot on them over the years. PC's when each new generation was released, laptops, PDA's in the 90's, early cell phones and smart phones, tablets, and a fully automated home -- the automation part cost far more than what my X1 did but it greatly simplifies every day living and was a good value. Thing is, I've learned there are gadgets that are useful and there are ones that waste your time and money. iDrive IMO and especially for NAV, is far inferior to other products out there which cost much less.

I think the idea of having to look at a screen to select options or features in a car is a passing phase in technology and will be outdated sooner than later. Personally I find easy (and even sometimes more complicated) to use tactile buttons that don't require looking at something more ideal in a car. iDrive nav requires far too many user inputs and visual time to start navigation to a new location and I'm not inclined to wait to drive until I've entered a location. Also the database for locations in iDrive is also inferior to online search databases. Products like Google speech to text, Siri, and BB talk I think quickly outdate hand input of information in car environments. Company R&D groups like BMW's Voice Activation will never be able to compete on a level as much larger and broader customer base companies like Google. If Apple or Google decided to get into the head unit business for cars, you'd laugh at BMW's voice activation, Ford Sync and every other other "advanced" head unit being marketed today, but Google (and Apple to some degree) are Software companies, not hardware companies. But if say Samsung decided to create a head unit (or BMW made a phone mount where the head unit is) and Google partnered with BMW to create a software API between a BMW onboard computer and Android, that would be something. IMO a head unit is an outdated component of a car like carburetors.

To go slightly off topic, I will note there are some built in functions of iDrive I find quite useful where a phone and app doesn't integrate as well and that's a backup camera and PDC. Also, almost all other information in iDrive about the car is actually part of the "onboard computer" that can be accessed through the instrument display, which does take more steps but options aren't typically adjusted during driving. iDrive does give slightly more information than the instrument cluster but a code reader would also provide far more information than iDrive.

Personally I'd rather have an ugly window mount for my phone and use Google Maps, Waze, Trapster, iOnRoad, or the next latest and greatest app that's connected to 'the cloud' and has a lower cost of ownership due to it being usable in any car.

Pressing a voice command button that's connected to the internet and saying "Navigate to Seasons near Orlando" or "Navigate to the nearest gas station" is the closest thing we can do until brain reading technology comes further along. Since iDrive doesn't do this, to me it's not worth more than $500 and only then if it primarily came with PDC.

[Grovsnus]

Originally Posted by edx1

Products like Google speech to text, Siri, and BB talk I think quickly outdate hand input of information in car environments.

Doing user interface engineering for quite a while, I disagree. The problem is that technologies that can only be used some of the time cannot be the primary interface, even if it works for "most". Most isn't good enough when it comes to important interfaces. And audio input doesn't work in noisy environments, with people with voices outside the "normal" range, people with speech impediments or heavy accents. Or a cold.
Perhaps most of all, it's excessively error-prone. The latter isn't just due to the technology not being perfect yet, but because there isn't a 1:1 mapping between pronunciation and typing. You can add the most well-known exceptions like Clwyd and Worchester, but you'll still miss out on awful lot of place and street names. Going to Ng Street? Or Haaoeen (haw-uh-enn)? And yes, people need to go there too.
80% isn't good enough; so there must always be a main interface that can be relied upon.

iPhone, tablets, Siri and Google Talk are, despite what many think, not the solution - they're the current fad, and the pendulum has already started to swing the other way again, as people find that the limitations outweigh the ease of use.

And similar with the one-button solution of BMW - the simplicity makes it so cumbersome to use that they had to add a dozen buttons to help it.
To paraphrase, every user interface should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.
That's where we've failed the last few years - simplicity has ruined functionality, and the reaction is coming.

[Twix]

edx1, I agree with you fully. Coming from a family with garages filled with ford sync equipped cars, I've come to love the simplicity of my undistracting radio. I even find back up cameras harder to use than turning my head, placing my right hand on the back of the passenger seat and actually looking out the back window and using mirrors to reverse. I don't think the head unit is ever going away, it's just going to become more distracting for drivers and will probably start to get the ban axe as more governing officials realise how much like texting, they can be dangerous. I've driven both a car with the iDrive and one without, and as far as complexity, the regular radio seems easier to use since the next station is a push button away. But, on the other hand, there is significantly more residual value to a vehicle with more option during resale (which may or may not happen). As other have stated above, people will expect nav and a screen to look at when they go to buy a used car in say 2017. This is the only option on the car I'm looking at possibly not getting. It's going to be MY car afterall, and if I have no use for nav then I should not get it. In 4 years though, it may become somebody else's car and maybe they will have to have nav. I'm really stuck on this one.

So far my build is going to be;

2014 X1 xDrive28i, Sportline, Black Sapphire, Black Nevada, Premium, Executive, Lights, Sirius, Lumbar support.

Adding nav is $2200 cdn, and if I wanted the back up camera, I'd have to toss in another $900. It's hard for me to justify a crappy camera at the cost of $3100.

[edx1]

Grovsnus: Very good points. I didn't realize people were going back to more complexity already, I guess I'm still moving towards the "simplify life" phase. I know for a media based company product, our requests from customers for simplicity out number requests for functionality so we basically have to design a system that can work two ways which is a PITA. I personally think the reason for our situation is people have to spend too much time learning multiple interfaces throughout their life that they don't want to spend time learning a more powerful, but complicated one. I wish the majority of car owners were focused on performance and functionality and not just kid haulers or daily commuters. If there were no speed limits I wonder what car interfaces would be more advanced in...

Is voice technology really at a peak? I agree a car isn't an ideal audio environment but if active noise cancelling is integrated into the system I would think it could remove enough ambient noise to be quite useful. Then if you add a similar technology as used in YouTube for copyright detection I would think even obscure names, phrases and accents could be associated (and at second worst a prompt given for verification and worst a simple text input or vocal spelling request) for user input once and then be usable from then on.

[donsbabybeamer]

The Idrive is like any piece of technology of today, some people will take full advantage of all it has to offer and some will use a minimal amount of what it is capable of but everyone will find something useful that it can do for them.