iDrive - Add Features..?

D

dannysprags

Member
Hello All,

Next weekend I will be picking up my new ( for me ) Z4 35i with iDrive... and selling my current 3.0i Z4.

because I'm a huge geek, I'm massively interested in getting the most out of the iDrive.. as such what can i do to unlock features or retrofit modules etc.?

the car has, Voice Activation, Bluetooth and the Professional Multimedia system... but no mention of the connected drive/internet etc.. so how do i go about getting these added on?

its also already been retrofitted ( by BMW ) with full iPod/iphone compatability so it shows album artwork etc...

any ideas would be great - more then willing to get my hands dirty

thanks
 
Sign up to BMW Assist for £125 a month?
Personally, I don't think it's worth it so I won't be signing up.
Why bother so you can use internet on iDrive, which will be clumsy and difficult anyway? Sure it has few other BMW services, but frankly talking to someone would take longer than for me to just google or search on my mobile phone.
 
The only features that I see as real life benefits are being able to lock/unlock and locate the car, and use Google street view to make sure the the destination I've put in the sat nav is correct.
Yes I can browse the Internet, check news feeds, upload a route to the sat nav but once I'd had a play with them, went back to using my iPhone as its a lot quicker.
Thankfully never had to contact BMW connect or any of the other services so they may be useful?
 
£125 a month really? I thought it was more like £50-60 a year, once the warranty is up. For me th abilitty to programme the Sat nv direct from Google is the killer feature to justify £60 a year. At the price you're suggesting, i can't imagine there's a single person on the planet who'd pay that.

Any other views on whether that's correct?
 
It is correct. I have the letter from BMW sent to the previous owner of my car as it expired in May 2012.
 
If it was £125 a month, no one would pay for it, and I doubt they'd give you 3 years free when the car is new!
 
Ive setup a route on my satnav a few times from google/BMW but always found it would try and avoid motorways and tolls roads even though it had definately not been set. It also takes quite a while to go thro the menu options and download it the car.
The much easier and reliable way that I do it now on my iPhone is use maps to goto the destination, save it as a contact, get in my car and select the destination from the contact on my phone. Much quicker and reliable. This incar technology is only in its infancy and I applaud BMW for being so innovative but its got some way to go before it becomes my first choice.
 
If you have an iPhone, then you can also use the Google local search on the 'My BMW Remote' app.

Open 'My BMW Remote' app on your iPhone
Select Google Local Search and find your destination
Select the blue arrow on the destination location
Press 'Send to Vehicle'

On your iDrive you'll have a new message in your message centre with the address and other details of your destination which has a navigate to option.
 
Didn't realise you could do that in the App, will give it a go to compare :)
The biggest bugbear I have with the send to vehicle option is it takes me ages to find it buried in the menus and then time taken to download. Much quicker i think to goto new destination and load from contacts.
 
Thanks for that guys!

will have a look in the iDrive when i get the car a little latter today to see what options it has... so cant wait to get it!
 
Yes it does come as standard i believe as long as you have the idrive etc.

literally cant wait, got so many toy's on it... going to geek out for the first few months
 
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