[Bails]

There seems to be some confusion over the supply of the latest DVD disc (2004-2). Either on new cars or as an extra from the dealer. This is what I have managed to pick out from earlier posts and from my dealer and MINI UK.

1. Cars from around August time were supplied with the TMC firmware and instructions but the old disc (2004-1)

2. Cars from mid October now have the above but with the correct disc.

3. Talking to MINI Uk this morning the price has been adjusted by a few hundred pounds to reflect this. However surely if your car was ordered in say April/May you would have paid the old price and got the new disc?

4. Some dealers are giving this disc away free.

5. Some dealers are charging (up to £200)

I, unfortunately, come under nos 1 & 5.

Luckily we have this forum, which is an excellent way of arguing our point. For example MINI Uk said that the new disc will be available from dealers in January. But I know from here that is not entirely true!


So what is the score? As my dealer and Mini Uk are playing ping pong
Who here is struggling to get their new disc?
Who is lucky enough to have a generous dealer?
and er...who really doesn't care?

Steve

 

[Mickey690]

I'm in the don't really care field as i managed to aquire a copy of the BMW FULL DVD 2004-2 before i picked up my MOC.

So have had TMC working since i got the car in Sept.

TMC is good but not that good. It will only give you traffic for major roads, thus it has diverted me a couple of times into far worse traffic because the smaller roads arn't covered.

You can also only have it enabled when listening to a cd or classic fm due to the fact that it only has a single tuner.

That's just my two pennies worth

 

[rentagas]

UK cars have been supplied with the TMC equipped nav but only the 2004-2 CD which covers the UK and major roads of europe. It is unclear if the 2004-3 or 2005-1 CD's will enable TMC. The DVDs which are supplied in europe and to lucky BMW owners do have TMC enabled (the 2004-1 DVD and 2004-2 DVD) but note that there are two diferent DVD systems and only one works in the mini. The DVD's are available on ebay but beware many are copies.
Before i bought my MCSC i tried to get some sense out of my dealer as to what disc I would get and they did not know (surprise)
The sat nav system comes with comprehensive instructions of a feature that cannot be used and initially BMW did offer to supply the discs but have backtracked and will only give a discount of £50 now. New cars are now being supplied with the DVD and from january there seems to be a price increase to reflect this.
TMC is a very useful function, given the crap customer service and poor quality of convertible roofs that BMW have demonstrated the least they could do was give the disc FOC but they have not.

 

[jasonfields007]

i have the current firmware and DVD sat nav with 2004-2 disk from December 03 and traffic is still greyed out.

anything i can do?

J

 

[oldskoolflash]

Hi all!

Firstly I just like to say what a fabulous resource this MB is! I used to own an Alfa and often referred to a similar MB to this - Alfa's being Alfa's (ALFA = assembled last thing Friday afternoon!) it was great for DIY fixes for the multitude of problems you get from owning one. Now I have bought a mini i am delighted to find this board!

So....... I'll shut up and get on with my first posting!

I have read, with interest all the postings about sat nav & tmc. I. like many others, I was playing with the sat nav and wondered why the traffic information was grayed out (i can hear a collective sigh from all of you!) - after checking this board i have now realised what a can of worms I have opened!

Anyway, I think i've got the jist of it, rather than going over old ground i'll try and keep it simple. I have a 2002 cooper S, not sure what firmware the sat nav is or how to find out? I took me long enough to find the disk! I have a 2002-1 in it and want to update. I would love to have TMC, but quite frankly it sounds like a lot of grief. I do not want to replace the head unit (a CD boost?) and this sounds like the only way to enable TMC?

I spoke to the "sat nav expert" at Battersea BMW and the guy, although friendly, didn't have a clue - judging by everyone else's experience, this is not uncommon. He wanted me to bring the car in, but before I do, I thought it was worth running it past you guys.

The latest disk seems to be the 2004-2 BUT i have seen the 2005-1 available in Germany - BMW UK have informed me that it is not out until January???

From everyone's experience should I:

1.Forget the TMC it's not worth the hassle?
2.But the 2005-1 disk - will it work?
3.Try and get a 2004-2 disk forget TMC and just be happy with the updated map.

If I go for no. 3 does anyone know where I can get a disk, or a download? BMW want 200 quid! (sorry if this is is breaking MB rules asking this, i'm not sure how things work here)

 

[rentagas]

Only the DVDs currently enable TMC.
Early minis came with CD based sat nav.
The July minis could select TMC but it did not work without the DVD
Mu understanding is the CD boost and DVD reader changed in 2003 (?december) to allow TMC, with the correct firmware it should work. Elsewhere on this forum there is a clearer description of the precise requirements and others have succesfully upgraded at some significant cost. I am not sure it is worth upgrading a 2002 car.

 

[oldskoolflash]

Only the DVDs currently enable TMC.
Early minis came with CD based sat nav.
The July minis could select TMC but it did not work without the DVD
Mu understanding is the CD boost and DVD reader changed in 2003 (?december) to allow TMC, with the correct firmware it should work. Elsewhere on this forum there is a clearer description of the precise requirements and others have succesfully upgraded at some significant cost. I am not sure it is worth upgrading a 2002 car.

Yeah, i'm staring to get that impression.....It's actually quite hard to work out if the disk in it is a DVD or a CD, it had nothing printed on it but does have that bronze sheen you get on dvd's. BTW I got the version wrong in my last posting it is actaully the 2002-2 Digital Road Map GB (+Dublin/Belfast) it also has "NavTECH made by UML" printed on it. I dont know if this offers any other clues??? Also I have found out how to check the firmware, I think I have version SW 3-1/50 - is this old?

Is there any point trying to get my hands on a more up-to-date DVD/CD and forgeting the TMC?

I would really like to have updated info about the congestion charge zone, at present, my sat nav is completely unaware that it exists - it is really annoying...

 

[StevePSB]

3-1/50 refers to a CD based nav disc reader, not a DVD capable reader. A DVD nav disc won't work in your reader if that's the case, oldskoolflash.

Like I said before, cars that were facelift or convertibles weren't sold with TMC as a promise, in fact they weren't sold with TMC mentioned at all, it was sort of 'just there on the screens of facelift/convertible cars'. The fact that current MINI's come with a TMC booklet is a bit of a tease though...

According to form cars in the near future (was it October build, or January build?) will be supplied with a TMC enabled DVD nav disc.

TMC won't work at all in cars pre-facelift as they have no means of picking up the TMC signal. I updated my firmware to the latest version, and although it now gives me the traffic option, it is greyed out and a TMC nav DVD won't fix this problem. The problem is that old radios don't pick up TMC signals, and you need a new radio in order to do so.

There's been a big thread devoted to older cars and TMC for months now

http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60476&onlybyuserid=0&page=1&pp=15

It's pretty clear we won't be getting TMC working without either finding a facelift spec head unit to swap or buying a new car.

 

[StevePSB]

Actually, thinking - if your car is 2002, then it's definitely CD based. March '03 builds marked the start of DVD nav units being fitted.

 

[oldskoolflash]

Many thanks for your reply Steve, things are a lot clearer now. Do you think it's worth/possible to get an updated map CD? And does anyone know if it will show things like the Congestion Charge zone and the new M6 toll?

I'm actually not that fussed about TMC, it would be nice to have it if it was there but i'm not going to lose any sleep. The one thing I would like to sort out is the flaws with my current system, like warnings of an imminent right turn, only to discover a roundabout??!!!...

 

[Mickey690]

I have the DVD 2004-1. I'm not sure if it shows the congestion charge or not. I was in london recently and went to visit a client who was right on the edge of the congestion charge. Although my sat nav did seem to direct me around the very edge of the charge zone I have no idea if it was doing this on purpose or not. As for Birmingham toll i havn't been up there since owning my mini so couldn't say.

 

[Dec]

jsut htought id ad that the M6 toll is sorto f outlined but not actually there, on a DVD 2004-2... And also lots of mini rounderbouts arent marked at all which can be annoying :/

Dec

 

[oldskoolflash]

Has anyone with one of the later DVD's/CD's tried using the "avoid tolls" selection in the route selection menu? Presumably this function is more at home on French motorways/autobahns, but I would have thought it would include the London CC???