[Phoggy]

Thanks all very helpful. My sales guy hasn't a clue on tech- the finance guy new a bit more. I think they have so many new model niches and so many tech updates that they can't keep up.

Only 7 weeks to go .... Probably!!

[Spoonhead]

What!! BMW salesman aren't members of this forum? It should be compulsory.

[ventrue]

I just read through this whole thread, and I am still a little confused, even though I appreciate all the effort you have put into clarifying the confusion around EBT.

Just ended up buying an F30 pre-november 2012 model with a lot of accessories including the Navigation System Professional and the voice command button on the steering wheel.

But still, I only see the option "Telephone" when I pair my iPhone 4. In my old car, I could also stream music from it and I really miss this feature.

If I understood this right, the car needs to have its software updated in order to show this functionality (this will work on pre-november 2012 cars, but not on cars produced later)? I do not have the experience and I do not want to break the warranty on this car by coding it myself, but could the local BMW garage do this if I told them about the situation?

[vieri_c]

SOrry for repeating questions if it has been answered!
If i order Pro-nav without EBT, will i still get album art when plugging in the iphone via standard USB.
currently my 320d is navi-less, hence i ordered EBT to ensure album art was available

[Englishbloke]

I asked my dealer that specific question. They tested an iPod on a 14 car with pro nav and no EBT and assured me album art worked fine with a Y cable.

[R32Paul]

See my post above....

I have tested a 14 with pro nav, but without EBT and the album art works witht he standard apple cable.

I am collecting my 14 (Pro Nav but without EBT) tomorrow I will test and report back.

[vieri_c]

Originally Posted by R32Paul

See my post above....

I have tested a 14 with pro nav, but without EBT and the album art works witht he standard apple cable.

I am collecting my 14 (Pro Nav but without EBT) tomorrow I will test and report back.

Thanks! enjoy your new car collection tomorrow, looking forward to hearing your experience of the car in general plus the album art!

[swager]

Originally Posted by Englishbloke

Hi


When I ordered my car, due in September, with Pro multimedia, I was told that unless I order 6NS I won't get voice control with the car.

Has anyone else had a 2014 car with pro multimedia and without 6NS that can confirm if they have voice control please?

Hi Englishbloke ,

new to this site and forum - so here goes ,just picked up my 320d GT sports auto and also have the same problem ,stealership -opps dealership has said that I need 6NS to us office and they never advised me when ordering that the multimedia syatem was changing - really wanted this as it was missing from my F10 5 series (2010) but the wife has it on her 2012 X1 . other than this the car is great although I do get a annoying shadow on the screen from the head up display when the sun is in a certain direction and cant to date get used to the left handed mouse pad (must be great in a left-hand drive .) So did you resolve this issue with 6NS as my dealership has said it not a retrofit .

cheers

swager

[-AndyH-]

You can recode your car to enable office/enhanced Bluetooth.

[swager]

Originally Posted by -AndyH-

You can recode your car to enable office/enhanced Bluetooth.

Is it very difficult and will it effect warranty ?

[-AndyH-]

It's not very difficult...you need a £25 cable and a PC/Mac with some software which costs £40 (for the token).

There are so many people on here who code their cars. There are some pay options for a car which you can enable without an activation code from BMW.

I don't think there are any reported people who have invalidated their warranties by coding. Dealers don't know what you have done. The only downside is that if the dealer does an upgrade for the car firmware, then your coding gets cleared. But dealers don't tend to do firmware upgrades (unless necessary) because they can take a long time and cause further problems if they fail etc.

[trebor4444]

Hi kneesliding
Do you have a list of the codes/settings you used for the Proyour mods? Currently have Pro Media in a 2013 LCi F10

6NS instead of 6NH.
DVD Codex and USB Video support.
DVD while driving.
Copying Videos to the internal HD Support

Thanks

[moonshine]

so i guess the question is if I place an order with Pro Nav now (feb 14) and don't specift EBT, I will still get voice commands, but not the BT streaming 2 phone connection or cradle prep, but the hardware is in place and coding would enable the EBT software features - therefore save £300 bu bot specing is and have it coded at a leter stage if i really wanted it?

[teaston]

Originally Posted by moonshine

so i guess the question is if I place an order with Pro Nav now (feb 14) and don't specift EBT, I will still get voice commands, but not the BT streaming 2 phone connection or cradle prep, but the hardware is in place and coding would enable the EBT software features - therefore save 300 bu bot specing is and have it coded at a leter stage if i really wanted it?

Exactly!

[Mattt1]

Bear in mind that from Week 10 2014 that the cars will feature Bluetooth streaming even without EBT (not sure if this is just on Pro Nav).

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Mattt1

Bear in mind that from Week 10 2014 that the cars will feature Bluetooth streaming even without EBT (not sure if this is just on Pro Nav).

It's on all 3 & 4 series, nav or no nav.

It won't give the voice control though!

[Rich9600]

Originally Posted by teaston

It's on all 3 & 4 series, nav or no nav.

It won't give the voice control though!

Or, from my understanding, the enhanced USB connection (Already in Pro-Media). No 'Y cable' required and better sound quality than BT A2DP, and album artwork etc...

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Rich9600

Or, from my understanding, the enhanced USB connection (Already in Pro-Media). No 'Y cable' required and better sound quality than BT A2DP, and album artwork etc...

It will just be BT streaming it appears. But surely that is A2DP!?

[Rich9600]

Originally Posted by teaston

It will just be BT streaming it appears. But surely that is A2DP!?

Yep, A2DP streaming seems to be as standard from the updated builds.

I just think it will be a reworking of the existing setup and won't enhance the USB as specifying EBT (6NS) appears to. However, I would still expect to get the best sound quality through a wired connection. This may not be that noticeable in a car though...

My pre-updates non-navigation car has full EBT specified. We'll have to compare notes when all the toys have landed...

I'll AB test wire vs BT...

[RIOBLAST]

Originally Posted by teaston

It's on all 3 & 4 series, nav or no nav.

It won't give the voice control though!

So all EBT does is give you voice command if you don't have any Nav?

[moonshine]

If you have pro Nav, but no EBT + voice, what level if voice control do you get? Or another way to put it, what does EBT + voice actually add to pro Nav?
In my e89 z4 (CIC Nav) there was voice dialing as std but it was rubbish) however there was a voice control extra option (which I didn't have) which apparently was very good.

[Rokkster]

Thought I'd add to the confusion. I picked up my new X5 30D Sport last week (F15 - June 2014). I'd ordered just about everything in the options list from rear entertainment system to HUD. My previous 530D GT didn't have the iPhone dock but it did have Office in the menu and intermittently I could get SMS/Email notifications.

Going through the options list with my rep I declined the dock option as I really don't like my phone being out of site (in my line of work I have multiple comms channels and as the default Twitter app is appalling I need to see it), but in line with my previous car I'd expected to still be able to get notifications.

After delivery I realised that I no longer have notifications or office. I'm baffled because I have voice control, album art etc still.

Realising that this is a simple recoding exercise I've lodged a complaint with my dealer (bless them I have been the client from hell after delivery was delayed three times - a swift Tweet out to 17,000 followers however and BMW HQ were quick to call!). He is currently looking into it but I'm assuming if I get the line that this is not retro-enabled I will simply invest in the recoding kit and do it myself!

Slightly off thread but here are some further thoughts that you may find of interest:

Cons:

Rear entertainment system (pro). It comes with just a single remote - but nowhere to put it! There are only cup holders in the rear armrest which it won't fit in. Putting it in the central armrest means it is out of reach as only the driver is close enough to the release buttons to open it up. It therefore ends up bouncing around on the seats or being put in the bottle holder of the rear seats.

Without headphones plugged whatever either left or right hand passenger selects on their screen is reflected across the car. As the front passengers can't see TV (without hacking the code of course), this means a blank screen with TV audio. With headphones in the two screens can choose an option independently of each other and the front. However, it is not possible to have two independent TV channels on either screen even with headphones. Same goes for radio. As additional tuners (which these days are a small an dvery inexpensive chip) wouldn't have cost BMW anymore than a couple pounds this seems a ludicrous omission. In the case of radio there is a work-around for two people in that one can choose FM and the other DAB and these are seen as separate options.

I have tried pairing a fairly run-of-the-mill bluetooth headphone set with the rear system but haven't succeeded as yet. I'm hoping BMW haven't set this up in an exotic fashion to only work with their £90 a pair headphones. I'll try again at some point with another set.

BMW Apps. My company develops apps and I weep every time I have to fire this up. Not only does it render access to any other apps impossible without severing the connection (not necessary since background app functionality was introduced for the iPhone a few generations of iOS ago), but many of the apps are simplistic with very little real world advantage. The Twitter app does not show private messages or direct messages - simply the entire user stream, favourites (!!!) and US trends (!!!!). Awful. The general quality of other apps available is also sparse and largely limited to US based companies with a UK coverage (e.g. Stitcher for podcasts).

iDrive. Regarding Touch, as previously mentioned, we drivers in the UK have to use this with a left hand (or a right hand uncomfortably) because of its position. I found the process slow and inaccurate on that basis. Voice control in navigation is great (although elsewhere it required signing up with DragonDictate with a £20 a year subscription after 60 days!!! No thanks, 'Apple Siri' or 'Google Now' does that for free.

PDC. Parking Assist. When this worked it is excellent - but too many times it seemed to miss obvious spaces. On one occasion it attempted to park me on the opposite side of the road careering onto a pavement (near a glass bus stop). I've tried to find a fail-safe way of using this but haven't quite figured out what the criteria are that it uses. For example if the space between two cars appears to be longer than a further two cars it doesn't seem to register - even though this seems a perfectly legitimate use.

Panoramic camera is quite useful but I often found myself reverting to rear camera in order to check obstacles further away than the view shows. The distance above the car also makes it harder to judge very tight spaces. I would have liked an option to view various cameras independently for this.

Engine. I went for the 3ltr but it feels slightly less responsive than my 530GT did. On that basis I'm thinking the 540D may have been worth the extra cost, although overall it's not a deal breaker.

Boot. No matter what they tell you about volume, the sloping rear door (as opposed to say a Range Rover or even a Citroen Xsara Picasa which are much less of an angle) means you won't get as much luggage in there as you'd hoped as the door won't shut!

Also, the pull-over privacy screen is clumsy and the base for it further causes height restriction for suitcases. You can remove it - but there is nowhere to put it (other than resting on top of luggage which makes it an immediate safety hazard in the event of a sudden stop). You could leave it at home but that defeats the object of having it in the first place. The void where the tyre once lived (if you have run flast) does provide very handy additional storage however - although don't expect to access it until you have removed all the items above.

USB The standard F15 only comes with one USB port (the five series had a further one in the glove compartment). If you have the rear entertainment system you do get a further port. The main one however is in the central arm-rest which means if you want to mount your phone outside of the optional dock (most people) you will have a lead dragging right across the gear stick, idrive and buttons. You also run the risk of catching the lead in the two panel doors when closed (BMW do seem to have improved this since my 530GT which closed tight though). A much more obvious solution would have been an additional port next to the cigarette lighter by the cup holders for example. Furthermore the air vents are a lot shorter vertically than in my old 530GT which means my original air vent mount no longer works properly, and I suspect that would be universal.

At some point it would be nice if the German designers undertook some new usability tests as I suspect they are either focusing on a narrow demographic of users or not doing any at all!!

Wheels I have a friend who runs a body repair shop. He had my 530GT in for alloy repairs several times over the two years I had the car. In less than five days I have managed to scrape my alloys yet again on the X5. With the lo-pro tyres on the 530 I took this as an occupational hazard, but with something that is designed to off-road (ahem) I'd expect them to have designed alloys that are inset on the tyre (as per even the lowly Freelander) to avoid this happening. I can see my friend is going to be kept in beer money for at least the next few years on this basis!

Pros.

It looks gorgeous!

Active Cruise Control. The car automatically slowed down perfectly behind other cards, even on smaller roads with bends. I have been able to set this for almost all journey types and it handles perfectly. I love the fact that if I need to overtake, turning on the indicator forces the car to begin to speed up in anticipation of the overtake too.

HUD. I like the steering wheel to be quite low on longer journeys so that my arms can rest on the arm-rests while driving. This means that the instruments can be obscured (same on my previous 530GT). However, with the HUD I can all but ignore the display as everything I need is right there floating over the bonnet! Definitely worth having. Navigation on the HUD is very detailed including road names etc. Can also change radio stations easily from the steering wheel.

EcoPro mode. Love the 'gamification' of this (also on BMW Apps where you score points for good driving!). Seeing the mileage saved from my diligent driving is really encouraging and overall makes quite a difference to fuel economy.

Overall these minor gripes have taken the sheen off my £75k purchase a little, and in particular when even the cheapest of cars are now sporting many of these expensive extras (not to mention the all conquering Tesla which boasts more tech than your average Apple store). I'd have hoped that BMW would have been keeping ahead of the curve and offering a lot of these things are standard with optional extras being features that other cars are still yet to boast. The implementation of BMW apps (and integration with phones in general) is via an out of date app which has little in the way of useable functionality. iDrive menu options are confusing and in some ways cross over (how many times have you gone through various menu items to find the one function that you know is in there somewhere?), which further points to a lack of usability testing (in my industry we call this UX - user experience). I don't see this changing for a few more years either (although their recent discussions with Tesla after said company released their patents for free is encouraging).

When all is said and done this is still a BMW however and despite a glut of product aimed at enticing all would-be purchasing levels, a premium car. Now, if only they went that little bit extra - they'd be untouchable!