Utterly lame response from Mini re Sat Nav and London Congestion Zone.

[BRG/Blk Cooper S]

Hi all,
Well this certainly takes the biscuit - I contacted Mini and asked them why my £300 Tom Tom can navigate me around the Central London Congestion Zone but the £1500 Mini Sat Nav can't and below is their lame response........talk about a pile of bull !!

Not fit for purpose springs to mind - I'm talking about the most expensive toll road in the capital city of the UK!!

This whole "Mini" thing is begining to wear thin......................

Cheers, Geoff.
Ps.. the link they provide re the Congestion Zone not being considered a toll road by transport for London is also a load of rubbish - of no relevance at all!!

Thank you for contacting MINI Customer Information.

We can advise that MINI do not put the congestion charge zones on our systems due to their alternating positions. The demand for current discs would be at such a cost to the customer that it would no longer be viable to produce an up to date version every time aspects of the zones were moved.

We can also advise that having researched into this matter, the congestion charge in Central London is not classified as a toll road by Transport for London: Background | Transport for London <http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/roadsandpublicspaces/2267.aspx>

We are sorry to disappoint you on this occasion and if we can be of further assistance please feel free to contact a member of the Customer Information Department, using one of the methods shown below.

Yours sincerely

BMW Group UK

[GTT 280]

But in BMW's defence, the Congestion Charge zones are really well signposted and indicated. So all you need to do is turn the other way.

Agree, it would be nice to be navigated round using sat nav, but i guess if you do this often then you don't really need sat nav for that.

Personally i think you were silly paying £1400 for sat nav, but hey, that's just my comment

Cheers,
K.

[r1_kde]

its not a toll road so I think they are correct if I had to have a new disc for every update I would not bother. this would be a major loss for BMW

[BRG/Blk Cooper S]

Quote: Originally Posted by GTT 270 (original)

But in BMW's defence, the Congestion Charge zones are really well signposted and indicated. So all you need to do is turn the other way.

Agree, it would be nice to be navigated round using sat nav, but i guess if you do this often then you don't really need sat nav for that.

Personally i think you were silly paying £1400 for sat nav, but hey, that's just my comment

Cheers,
K.

I didn't pay for the Sat Nav, the original owner did............

As for the Congestion Charge it is a "toll" what else would you call it??

Signposted or not, I don't want to be concentrating more on whether I've strayed into the zone than on my actual driving when negotiating London traffic.
In addition it can be slightly confusing at times if you are trying to negotiate your way around the edge of the zone or through the centre of it.

The zone has been in place for several years now and there has been 1 change, when they added the West London extension last year, so BMW's argument re updated disks is a total smoke-screen.

If a Tom Tom can consider the Zone a toll road then the vastly more expensive BMW system should do the same.

Cheers, Geoff.

[GTT 280]

if there has only been 1 change in 7 years then BMW are pathetic with thier comment. But is that the exact truth?

Ask the Major of London - i believe he is an honest chap

Cheers,
K.

[BRG/Blk Cooper S]

Hi all..

The zone came into effect on 17th Feb 2003 and has been extended once since then (the West London extension) on 19th Feb 2007.
All here - London congestion charge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That means considering BMW release at least 1 Sat Nav DVD update each year that they could have easily included the Congestion Zone info without having to change their normal DVD release program in any way at all.

It's typical of BMW/Mini to make some excuse as to why features aren't incorporated into their "premium" product - we all paid totally over the top for these cars so why aren't we getting our money's worth?

Don't get me wrong - I love my Cooper S, but if it didn't look so cool and have the glorious whine of the Supercharger I'd probably have given up on it with all the stupid little annoying things that go wrong...........I love washing my cars but the dealership have washed this one more than me x10 in the past year..

I'm going to continue my dialogue with Mini Uk in regards to the Sat Nav DVD's just to see what else they have to say.

Cheers, Geoff.