[petesamprs]

wow - lot of activity in this thread recently.

Ok so I think i've gotten almost everyone's suggestions into the list. Please let me know if I've missed something. I think we can give it a few more days and then be ready to draft something to the Man.

One of my concerns is that as we add less important points we are diluting the importance of the REALLY frustrating things (mp3 stuff for me). Should I take a crack at sorting the list by importance?

bimmer4me: I don't think the ability to add traffic to the nav is just a software thing - probably requires a lot of hardware work on the back end.

paddy: BMW believes fog lights should only be used in fog so I doubt they'll consider making that a memory feature. please let me know if others disagree.

jspira: correction made from OBC to personal profiles.

poldim: not sure how to implement pathway lighting without having the lights turn off first. On other cars I've seen, you turn off your car (lights turn off), then when you lock your car from the remote, the pathway lighting turns on automatically. Are you saying transition from normal headlights to pathway lighting without interruption?

keep it up guys. almost there.

EDIT: Took a stab at organizing the list for importance

[poldim]

Originally Posted by petesamprs

wow - lot of activity in this thread recently.

Ok so I think i've gotten almost everyone's suggestions into the list. Please let me know if I've missed something. I think we can give it a few more days and then be ready to draft something to the Man.

One of my concerns is that as we add less important points we are diluting the importance of the REALLY frustrating things (mp3 stuff for me). Should I take a crack at sorting the list by importance?

bimmer4me: I don't think the ability to add traffic to the nav is just a software thing - probably requires a lot of hardware work on the back end.

paddy: BMW believes fog lights should only be used in fog so I doubt they'll consider making that a memory feature. please let me know if others disagree.

jspira: correction made from OBC to personal profiles.

poldim: not sure how to implement pathway lighting without having the lights turn off first. On other cars I've seen, you turn off your car (lights turn off), then when you lock your car from the remote, the pathway lighting turns on automatically. Are you saying transition from normal headlights to pathway lighting without interruption?

keep it up guys. almost there.

EDIT: Took a stab at organizing the list for importance

My girlfrinds Accord never turns off the lights. She has an auto setting, so when the engine and its dark, the lights come on. Same as our E90.

When she turns off the car, the lights never turn off, they never turn off. Its just programmed that they stay on for xx amount of time after you turn the engine off, and if you lock your car during that xx amount of time, then it is reset from the time you lock it.

[poldim]

Originally Posted by petesamprs

- Remember rain sensing wiper setting even after car is turned off

I dont see how this is warranted if all it takes to turn on rain sensing wipers is the press of the button. Unless you just want the wipers to start as soon as they sense rain at any point during the life of a car...

[petesamprs]

Originally Posted by poldim

I dont see how this is warranted if all it takes to turn on rain sensing wipers is the press of the button. Unless you just want the wipers to start as soon as they sense rain at any point during the life of a car...

Haha sorry I should have made that clearer. I meant that the choice for that setting was stored in memory when the car turned off so that it would be remembered when the car was turned on again. I don't want my wipers working all night in my driveway.

[a burrito]

1.Be able to use the homelink system when the car is at least in accessory mode.
2.Turn off braking aide system in automatics
3.Tune down the brake sensitivity

[poldim]

Originally Posted by a burrito

1.Be able to use the homelink system when the car is at least in accessory mode.
2.Turn off braking aide system in automatics
3.Tune down the brake sensitivity

1 has been mentioned,
2 wont happen since its a safety feature
3 wont happen because its part of the braking computers, not reprogrammable. Just learn to control your foot better...

[dkulp]

Ability to display all the radio stations fitting a certain genre.

My wife's Ford Escape can scan for a "Country" station or a "Classic Rock". Why can my BMW not do that? It's very nice on long trips when you move from market to market. Much less listening to crap while trying to find a station. (I don't have Sirius)

Basically, on iDrive, in addition to "Manual", "Presets", and "All", have a "Genre" option that then would allow selecting a genre. (bonus: make them checkboxes so you can select multiple genres)

Dan
2006 330i SG/BL, CWP, PP, SP, Nav, CA

[poldim]

Great idea!

[bimmer4me]

Here is a good Navigation improvment. Right now you have to enter in the state, city, street name then house number for the address. On my brother's 2005 corvette, you select a region, like East Coast which hardly even changes, and then you put in the street name and house number. Therefore, you avoid the step of entering in the state and city. A lot of times, I don't know the city and it's a real pain trying to figure it out. For example, I was going to 6900 Wisconsin Ave. I didn't know if it was in Maryland or Washington, D.C. Once I firgued it was in Maryland, there were still about 4 "cities" (not really cities, but city with county which were too long to read so it was unusable anyway) to choose from. It took me about ten minutes of iDriving to finally guess the right one. What a pain. I know Navs in Lexus work the same way as GM's. This may be the only time I say the GM product is better than BMW's.

[poldim]

Its not better, think of how many Wisconsin Ave's there are on the east coast. I think it doesnt really need the city infrmation though.

[320eye]

This is where BMW gets cheap on yah.....There are lots to mention..half ass jobs they did got's nothing over their competitors.

Things like the SunVisors retainer??? PLASTIC all the way.Would've settled for rubber/strap elastic retainer myself.
As you all probably know??? These are just mere little things a company can cheap out on.Not saying that BMW are a culprit when it comes to these little stuff mentioned.I'm pretty sure and ... i know so myself that they are not alone.Refinesments will never end in automobiles.Although in know they can make the perfect cars these days and beyond...but what will happen to sales??? If all cars were perfect!!??

These little extras will either be an option which means you will have to pay extra or if they want they can option it out as standard,like what they are doin to other customer related complaints.

Cheers !!!

[poldim]

And that had lots to do with software....

[a burrito]

Originally Posted by poldim

1 has been mentioned,
2 wont happen since its a safety feature
3 wont happen because its part of the braking computers, not reprogrammable. Just learn to control your foot better...

Interesting..whats so safe about a braking aid that is supposedly there to make stops smoother? I would think that it would relate more to a convenience feature, dont you think? So now explain to me how it is such a safe feature that a car would brake smoothly..

And control my foot better? These posts are all personal opinions and sure i do know how to control my foot to stop but would i like BMW to tune the braking software so it wouldnt contribute such a numb feeling? Yes.

[petesamprs]

Ok guys, this list is going out this week to BMW NA. One more thing regarding the heated seats memory. It seems that there is some sort of memory depending on how long before you return to your car.

See this post: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showpo...3&postcount=10

I'm goint to remove it from the list since it seems to make sense now.

[bimmer4me]

Originally Posted by poldim

Its not better, think of how many Wisconsin Ave's there are on the east coast. I think it doesnt really need the city infrmation though.

If I put in 6900 Wisconsin Ave, that I realistically I'm going to have only 2 or choices for the East Coast. From there it's easy. The frustrating part about BMW's Nav system is that I have to enter in the city information before I could put in a street number. I know the street number, but not the city! :mad: Oh yeah, the lack of alphabetical POI listings, as stated before, and POI lookup by name are also irritating.

[poldim]

Originally Posted by a burrito

Interesting..whats so safe about a braking aid that is supposedly there to make stops smoother? I would think that it would relate more to a convenience feature, dont you think? So now explain to me how it is such a safe feature that a car would brake smoothly..

And control my foot better? These posts are all personal opinions and sure i do know how to control my foot to stop but would i like BMW to tune the braking software so it wouldnt contribute such a numb feeling? Yes.

From their view point they will argue that it helps reduce pressure on the neck in addition to preventing the ABS from kicking in if you do it in slippery conditions. Im sure they will find a way to pull a safety angle on it. Afterall, all reviews note the advance braking system(s) ib the E90.

For your foot problem, they will say its something you just have to adjust to as all cars and that they havent had any or very few complaints. In theory, they should let you choose which of these safety/convinience features you want running on YOUR car. Safety or not, if there is nothing to stop you from driving it into a brick wall, then there shouldnt be anything to stop you from turning these systems off at will without throwing all kinds of codes.

[petesamprs]

I'm drafting the letter now and was hoping to send it out tomorrow (will post a draft up first). But I realized that it might be helpful to include a large list of our names/VIN #s to add to the letter's credibility?

Let me know and I can organize that effort as well. I'll hold off on sending the letter for a few days to collect that info.

Stay tuned for draft...

[petesamprs]

Letter to BMW added to first post.

[poldim]

Important:
• If parking lights are on, they should turn off when car is turned off. This currently only works for the normal headlights but not for parking lights alone.

This is what the automatic setting is for. You have to have a setting for having the parking lights on whether the car is on or off if you are just parked on the side of the road somewhere.

Very important:
• The RAND function on the radio should remain selected (check marked) even when the user manually selects to the next or previous song. Specifically, when RAND is checked, advancing to the next track should select a track at random, and back-tracking should select the prior track. Currently, the driver must take a hand off the steering wheel to advance a track at random by unselecting and re-selecting the RAND function.

The RAND function on the radio should remain selected (check marked) even when the user manually selects to the next or previous song. Specifically, when RAND is checked, advancing to the next track should select a track at random, and back-tracking should select the track previously played. Currently, the driver must take a hand off the steering wheel to re-selecting the RAND function after advancing to the next or previous track.

• The pre-defined audio settings should include additional options beyond Music and Concert

Mention that these settings are for Logic 7 options and settings, and possibly suggest an option like a Logic 7 equlizer like the one used in many surround sound softwares.

• Bluetooth functionality remains a major issue, as many approved phones fail to function or only work sporadically.

Mention that some people's phone work flawlessly while others (same phone) fail. Also mention that this could be caused by different CIP versions.

• There should be a function to allow for moving both driver and passenger climate controls simultaneously. For example, holding down “Auto” for 2 seconds locks the two settings together. Currently, the temperature settings can only be moved individually.

I think saying that this on other manufacturers would give them a bit more motivation to implement this.


Other than that, I think its a very clear, concise, and well written letter. Brief, direct, and constructive. Hopefully something like this will get their attention and get to the proper people. I also think that you should send it to someone in Germany's office. Although the US side is the one that has to initialize the request for these changes, people in headquaters should know that these issues exist.

Job well done! :rocks:

[petesamprs]

poldim - very good feedback. thanks.

regarding the parking lights, I want them to behave like normal headlights. ie, they turn off automatically when the car is turned off. like normal headlights, you can reactivate them with the car off by turning the knob. this would prevent accidentally leaving the parking lights on if you've been driving with them on.

Also, doesn't Logic 7 already have an equalizer?

Do you know of any contacts in the German office? I only know those in the US.

thanks.

[Squawks]

I did not see this complaint listed in your letter, pete, but I read from some other place how a few also complained that there lacks an option for the entire widescreen LCD iDrive screen to display a single entity, i.e. navigation/map instead of always being split into a main and accessory sections.

[poldim]

Originally Posted by petesamprs

poldim - very good feedback. thanks.

regarding the parking lights, I want them to behave like normal headlights. ie, they turn off automatically when the car is turned off. like normal headlights, you can reactivate them with the car off by turning the knob. this would prevent accidentally leaving the parking lights on if you've been driving with them on.

No problem. I see what you meant. I would also love the pathway lighting feature to keep the HID's on after the engine is shut off for X amount of time (as set in iDrive) EVERYTIME you turn off the car. Without having a need to flash your high beams or any other activation. Since the time would be limited to about 60 seconds, I dont see it have a problem with drainning the battery.

Originally Posted by petesamprs

Also, doesn't Logic 7 already have an equalizer?

Logic 7 currently has three settings: Off, Concert, and Hall (not sure what the third is called but I think its Hall). This doesnt really give you wide control over the sound effect created by the system. If they give you something like DFX controls in WMP, then it would be great. [Post 43]

Originally Posted by petesamprs

Do you know of any contacts in the German office? I only know those in the US.

I will see if I can find anything off of the international website or google.