BMW Motorrad Navigator

For all those of us who have been downloading software updates for the BMW Motorrad Navigator direct from the SPIII updates section of the Garmin.com website, BMW are now saying DON'T DO IT!!

This is contrary to advice given to me 9 months ago by Garmin, and I have, to date, had no compatability problems.

Check out the revised FAQ pages:

http://www.bmw-motorrad.co.uk/gb/en/products/navigationsystems/bikenavigator/download/faq_e.pdf

Communicating with BMW and/or their supplying dealers, with regards to the GPS is akin to pissing in the wind, so it's hardly surprising that many of us go straight to the excellent Garmin website or use their equally efficient tech support........

Chris

I'm sorry to say it, but what I've read - especially the part about only getting a 64Mb datacard - is another good reason for not buying the BMW Navigator!!

Greg

Got a 128 with mine.

CC

coolcarbon said:

Got a 128 with mine.

CC

Click to expand...

Ditto.....

Navigator

I asked Tony at Garmin about this and his reply was,

I haven't heard of this comment from the BMW website before - the Motorrad Navigator uses all the same updates as the StreetPilot 3 so you can use v2.40 without any problems; I will forward this to our office in the US for their comments.

Sorry, I'm afraid we have no control over how BMW portray/support this product on their own website.

Regards,

Tony Broad

Also this website is better than the uk one for downloads and route info.
Don't remember how I found it.

Better BMW site

It has v2.40 for the Navigator and v4.10 for mapsource although v4.11 is available at Garmin.

Software Updates/Upgrades....

Much has been written here & elsewhere about the MapSource V5 software updtate insofar as it relates to the Garmin SPIII and the similar BMW Motorrad Navigator.

Bearing in mind that many of us were told by our respective BMW dealers that 'free upgrades/updates' would be made available to us as & when they became available, we assumed this would be via the Garmin website, as is the case with the other Garmin branded products.

Given the considerable amounts of conflicting information coming from Garmin, BMW GB and my supplying dealer, I contacted BMW AG in Munich in an attempt to get a definitive answer to this question of updates/upgrades.

It seems that we've been advised NOT to download updates.upgrades directly from Garmin's website, but to do so from the BMW Motorrad Navigator pages of the BMW website. Currently only V4 of the MapSource is available here, and I guess that it's our impatience (mine included) that prompted us to download directly from the Garmin site.

Here's the response in full from BMW in Munich:

Hello Mr. Holland,

That´s the status:

- Garmin offers at the Garmin Web-page a free CD-ROM update from
MapSource 4 to Version 5. That update has been tested by Mr. Deubert ,
department UX-VM-1, BMW Motorcycle Munich (Germany) personally. As some
of you probably know there have been some problems with the installation
because of an error of the copy machine. That´s why i will not release
that CD for BMW customers and I still wait for a solution by Garmin.

- Unlock Codes: If the coustomer has registered his Garmin device
before the 15th January 2003 at Garmin (with the registry code) , then
the update will cost $140.
If he has purchased the device later the update is for free.
BMW customers should not be registered if they had taken in
consideration the instruction manual.


For further information please ask Mr. Deubert (Ruediger.Deubert@bmw.de)

Regards,

Silvan Schmidt

Further to this I now understand that Garmin will no longer be sending V5 update discs to owners of the BMW branded unit, and that when it becomes available the BMW V5 will be sent FOC to customers via their suppling dealers.

FWIW I've udated my MapSource to V5, loaded it onto my BMW Motorrad Navigator & have not experienced, to date, any compatability problems.

Pish

BMW say what,

BMW customers should not be registered if they had taken in
consideration the instruction manual.


Re. BMW Navigator manual,

Page 6, Help us better support you by completing your on-line registration.

Add up the cost of the bike,helmet,gloves,boots,navigator=loads.
and they Scotts are misserable!!!!!!!!!!!

Kenny

The 'registration' that page 6 is referring to is with BMW Motorrad on their website www.bmw-motorrad.com & NOT with Garmin....

Dealers (BMW) have allegedly now been instructed to advise customers not to register with Garmin, but with BMW in order to receive free updates/upgrades.....

John Clark in Dundee & Aberdeen & the new dealer, Motorrad Central in Glasgow, claim no knowledge of any such instruction....