[F31-340i]

Hi,

Looks like I've finally taken the plunge with an E91. Hopefully I'll take delivery next week. Couple of questions:

It has Prof Nav and BT, but it couldn't sync the phonebook with my iPhone 3G - having looked around on here this looks like a common problem with v2.0.1 iPhone firmware. Any further info on this?

How do I check the cars software (progman?) version? Is there a chance this might not have been updated since the car was delivered in mid 06? If so what would change if I had the firmware updated? Is this worth doing?

BMW offered this 7 day insurance thing for free - is this worth taking just for the convenience of cover notes etc.? Any traps here?

Many Thanks

J

[mjh93sa]

Congrats! Excellent choice

I don't think there is anyway of easily cheking the progman version. However, I think it was about March'07 when the iDrive menu screen became a little more silver in apperance, so that could give you a clue. Do a bit of a on the forum.

No catches with the 7-day insurance, obviously other than the fact that whilst you are dealing with BMW Insurance they'll try and sell you on going cover. Prices in my case were good. Also they are then able to send details of the cover note directly to the dealer which made the process a little more painless as regards tax etc.

Don't foget to post some more details of the spec, pictures when you get it... and think about bringing it to a meet.

[F31-340i]

Hi,

Thanks for the info - BTW it looks identical to yours being Ti Silver with Black.

It also has elec memory heated seats, xenons, folding mirrors, fr/rear PDC and the all important (to me) pano roof! Even has the electric drop down towbar which is a clever piece of design.

Only point I was not sure of was the burr walnut old man interior - but to be honest I'm not a big fan of the standard m-sport alu finish either. Ideally I'd like either glossy piano black or a black grained wood (like in many 535ds), but having had a good look at it today the burr walnut actually looks pretty good so I may stick with it for the time being.

Plus of course it badly needs blacklines - where should I buy? Can't seem to find the 100EUR german ebay ones anymore.

[gIzzE]

The blacklines seem to have gone up a lot, I got Barons to throw them in for me.

I would ask them to make sure all the idrive was up to date before collecting.

[mjh93sa]

Sounds about perfect, other than the roof

Blacklines are a must. It was part of the deal when I did mine, and so were fitted before I picked it up.

You could try here http://www.cotswoldstore.com/ 10% off if over £50 and free delivery. I got mine (and the E91) from them.

[bobgrey64]

My 2008 E91 syncs up with my iphone 3g perfectly - the phonebook took about 60 seconds to download, but after that it was all good!

[Budgie]

Yep about 60 secs and it was done .....3G syncs perfectly.May 07 build with as mentioned silver faced prof nav so i guess i have latest software?.

[F31-340i]

Thanks for the info - it seems that post 07 cars are OK, but there is an issue with earlier cars. Anyone know for sure if updating the progman (e.g. to the "silver version") in an early car will solve this, or are there HW changes in the car as well?

[Budgie]

Originally Posted by ///ajd

Thanks for the info - it seems that post 07 cars are OK, but there is an issue with earlier cars. Anyone know for sure if updating the progman (e.g. to the "silver version") in an early car will solve this, or are there HW changes in the car as well?

No idea ...im sure some bright spark knows...

[F31-340i]

Hi,

I've picked this car up now. Overall pleased with it but iDrive & the voice input is still a bit frustrating / poorly implemented!

The dealer updated the pro nav, it now has a "silver screen" version (used to have brown screen), but they were not able to tell me what version of idrive it was. I've put in some MP3 discs but the haptic feedback kicks in when you want to scroll past the 5 visible tracks - whilst you can still scroll this is really annoying! I read somewhere that later versions of idrive had cured this?

Most annoying is that my 3G 2.0.2 iphone won't sync with it. It pairs OK, and you can make / rec calls, but no phone book. Also I've only just realised that the voice stored phone book doesn't seem to work (I was intending to use this to store most frequent numbers in the car so the phonebook sync was not so much of an issue, but seems from manual that this is for non-pro nav but bluetooth cars only!?). It does sync with my old Nokia 6310i but only seems to retreive some of the phonebook, not all (and its not all SIM, or all phone memory either, a bit random). I'm hoping to get a cradle for my iphone anyway (which I know doesn't help/affect the BT syncing), as I do really want to charge it in the car - but looks like the BMW cradle is for the 2G iphone and the 3G phone is a bit bigger so not a perfect fit - coupled with lots of rumour/confusion as to whether the charging pin-outs have changed between 2G and 3G its all a bit of a mess to be honest. Plus its not clear if the snap-in only works in post 09/2007 cars! BMW/apple need to sort this out, at least provide information on known problems and when they will fix them.

Anyhow, car makes a good noise, much better than the old E46, and its plenty fast enough for me (also much much quicker than an E46). Economy wise - bit too early we'll see!

I like the cruise control - very neat, especially the push forward in 2 steps for harder acceleration, and the speedo needle mark. Its much better than the steering wheel system, once I get used to not confusing the cruise and indicator stalks!

[willhollin]